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shavings wastage

Neb Skram

Neb Skram

Joined
Nov 23, 2024
Messages
14
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5
Location
Albany Oregon
hi all
so what do you all do with the mountain of shavings you get?
i have been spreading them on my yard & garden but i get too much to keep doing that
thanks ben
 
A few places I've taken workshops with have arrangements with yard services who accept shavings for mulch. In some cases the service wanted only shavings, not larger wood chunks or scraps, so there were separate bins we used during shop cleanup to keep those separate. In my area, we have municipal yard waste and food scrap composting service which can take a certain amount. That will accept shavings and paint/stain free wood scraps as well. But there's still an upper limit to that (the largest pickup dumpster size) which I know one woodworking co-op in the area has had to contend with.
 
If I had a rural property, I'd lay them out on the land. I'm not, so I can't. I put them in paper yard waste bags for curbside pickup. Our waste hauler offers the service, separate from trash. They take it to a compost facility. I'd do that if I didn't have curbside pickup.
 
My wife is a member of a large collective community garden in our neighborhood. They are happy to take all I can give them, which at times is quite a lot. They use some for laying on paths between garden rows of plantings, and some goes to the “chairman of compost” who adds it to the compost piles. As Otis says (above) when I have walnut shavings, I put them out in bags for trash collection.
 
Mesquite shavings make my bbq tasty. The mahogany, oak and elm go in the yard, the walnut goes in the gravel. Our city has a green yard waste collection. The remaining species get tossed.
 
I still manage to produce more than I can haul off. I do have yard waste pick up, but that is every other week, which is not enough. One friend takes them to her house to make a path from the wood shed to the house to keep her husband from tracking in too much mud. I do end up hauling some of it away to the compost yard.

robo hippy
 
Spreading too much fresh uncomposted wood chips and shavings on your lawn or garden can tie up some of the nitrogen in the soil so that it won't be available to fertilize the grass. But, perhaps more concerning is that the shavings can be an incubator for plant diseases and insects. In this part of the country, termites are everywhere and fresh wood shavings are a feast for those pests.
 
In the winter, it all goes for fire starter. Some fresh shavings (green or dry), a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid, and voila! Best fire starter I've used yet. I used to give shavings away to my neighbor who had chickens, but he got rid of his chickens. This summer I may just leave bags on the side of the road with a "Free Shavings" sign.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
n the winter, it all goes for fire starter. Some fresh shavings (green or dry), a squirt of charcoal lighter fluid, and voila! Best fire starter I've used yet. I used to give shavings away to my neighbor who had chickens, but he got rid of his chickens. This summer I may just leave bags on the side of the road with a "Free Shavings" sign.
Click to expand...

I spread sawdust from my cyclone bin and shavings caught from the big plastic bin under the lathe at one spot in the woods near the shop and spread them out. They appear to rot nicely and mixtures (zero evidence after a year or so), even with some walnut. When spread thin there is no evidence of them inhibiting other plants growth. If I turned big green bowls and had huge quantities of shavings I’d prob do the same thing or add them to the brush and logs in a burn pit.

It’s never recommended to use walnut shavings for horse bedding. The juglone in living and dead walnut trees, roots, and wood will certainly inhibit the growth of other plants - I had to remove one walnut tree too close to a row of blueberry plants. However, the substance is likely still in the decaying roots so I plan to move the plants.

When I use the bandsaw to process green logs into turning blanks for drying, all the offcuts not otherwise useful go to my stainless steel 55-gal burn barrel.

Edit: I forgot the biggest recommendation to minimize the shavings problem: turn small instead of large. There are numerous advantages.

JKJ
 
Last edited:
John K Jordan said:
Edit: I forgot the biggest recommendation to minimize the shavings problem: turn small instead of large. There are numerous advantages.
Click to expand...
For a variety of reasons, this is the strategy I went to years ago.
 
Garden mulch, mostly. But I'm going to start growing oyster mushrooms in beds of shavings, too. There are a few vendors that sell outdoor mushroom growing kits ...
 
I just have a large compost pile of shavings and keep the walnut separate. I tried giving away, a lot of people want them but won’t come get them and I don’t deliver!!
 
Careful with using walnut in composting. It can be poisonous for some plants. My Master Gardener training noted,

When planting vegetables, avoid being too close to walnut trees - tomatoes are particularly sensitive to this​
 
We give our shavings to friends that have chickens, our dust collected by our cyclone dust collector we give to potters, and our cutoffs go to camp grounds and friends with fireplaces. Any of our cherry cutoffs I give to friends that smoke meat.
 
Mark Jundanian said:
What do the potters do with dust?
Click to expand...
Raku , look at this Mark
In raku pottery, sawdust is used as a combustible material in a reduction firing process, where hot pottery is placed in a container of sawdust to create a unique, smoky, and often black or metallic-looking finish.

Here's a more detailed explanation:
  • Raku Firing:
    Raku firing is a traditional Japanese pottery technique that involves taking pottery from a hot kiln and placing it into a container filled with combustible material like sawdust.

  • Reduction Process:
    This process, also known as reduction firing, creates a unique effect by starving the pottery of oxygen, which causes the glaze to react in unpredictable ways, leading to a range of colors and textures.

  • Sawdust's Role:
    Sawdust, along with other organic materials like paper, is used because it burns quickly and creates a smoky atmosphere that pulls carbon into the clay and glaze, resulting in a black or metallic finish on the parts of the pottery submerged in the sawdust.

  • Unique Results:
    The unpredictable nature of the reduction process means that each piece of raku pottery is unique, with variations in color, texture, and surface finish.

  • Other materials:
    Some artists also use other materials like paper, wood shavings and even cow patties to achieve different effects.

  • Preparation:
    Before firing, raku pottery is typically glazed with a special raku glaze that is designed to withstand the extreme heat and reduction process.

  • Safety:
    Raku pottery is not food safe due to the porous nature of the clay and the potential for crazing in the glaze.

  • Thermal Shock:
    The rapid temperature changes during raku firing can cause the pottery to crack or shatter, so it's important to handle raku pottery with care.

  • Sawdust firing:
    Sawdust firing is a similar technique to raku firing, but it can be done in a simple pit or a barrel kiln
    My daughter is a potter :)
 
I posted a picture in another thread when I mentioned a friend who makes Raku pottery, a few shown in this photo:

John K Jordan said:
(He makes the largest Raku pottery in the world.)

View attachment 73601
Click to expand...

hughie said:
Raku , look at this Mark
In raku pottery, sawdust is used as a combustible material in a reduction firing process, where hot pottery is placed in a container of sawdust to create a unique, smoky, and often black or metallic-looking finish.
Click to expand...

A possibly interesting point a about Raku pottery: As mentioned, the Raku process depends on an reduced oxygen atmosphere, typically made by burning something such as sawdust. Small pots are traditionally taken from the kiln with something like tongs and placed in a hole with sawdust. The hole is covered and sometimes covered with dirt. The burning sawdust takes the oxygen out of the air and causes the glazes to produce the iridescent colors typical on Raku.

Large pots are not reasonably handled like that so my friend devised a huge open-bottom stainless steel can suspended by cable over a spot just outside the kiln door. He hangs strips of paper inside and when the pots are pulled from the kiln on a cart, the can is lowered and sealed at the floor, and the paper is ignited to create the oxygen reduction atmosphere. The next day he raises the can to see what he has! He will sometimes respray the pot with glazing material and fire the pot again and again until happy with the result. I took a video of the kiln/can process.

I have one of his raku pieces in my house. Mine has dark areas, iridescent blues, and gold color.

JKJ
 
I spread shavings all over my garden beds away from plants for months during the fall and winter. A few weeks before the growing season gets going good here in Upstate SC, I spread Holly-Tone organic fertilizers generously around my shrubs and perennials so that the nitrogen deficit is taken care of. Rake the now-rotted shavings around the plants once they're up and budding/greening up as mulch. My plants and shrubs thrive and bloom like crazy with this system. My dogs contribute their share, too! 😏
 
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