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What to Do With Shavings?

Kent Reisdorph

Kent Reisdorph

Joined
Sep 19, 2023
Messages
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Location
Columbia, TN
My neighbor used to have chickens and I would give him all my shavings. Now I don't have an outlet. I hate to throw them away, but I also have 5 large bags sitting in the garage I need to get rid of.

What do you do with your shavings?
 
Right now, I just scatter them out of sight in the forest on my property as long as they aren't contaminated with something else like plastic or resin. I'd donate them if I had a good source; when I took David Ellsworth's class, we bagged up all the fresh shavings each day and one of his neighbors picked them up for animal (goat?) bedding. The shavings also make for decent kindling, but one bowl's worth would probably last me a lifetime.
 
A revisited topic but here goes. Good for flower beds but not against the house due to termite concerns. I mulch around my trees also. Some goes into the compost pile with leaves also, don't forget to turn it. And the usual warning about walnut and horses and plants, however I think the plant thing is overdone as it usually only affects seedlings.
 
Asher Langton said:
Right now, I just scatter them out of sight in the forest on my property as long as they aren't contaminated with something else like plastic or resin. I'd donate them if I had a good source; when I took David Ellsworth's class, we bagged up all the fresh shavings each day and one of his neighbors picked them up for animal (goat?) bedding. The shavings also make for decent kindling, but one bowl's worth would probably last me a lifetime.
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Yep, I used them for kindling in the winter, too. I had considered spreading them around my place and will probably do that.
 
We have a neighborhood community garden that is thrilled to take as much as I can give them. As word has gotten out about this, more members than I can satisfy have asked me for some for themselves. They use it for compost as well as “paving” garden paths. When I turn walnut I just bag that and put it out for city trash pickup.
 
I have a neighbor who takes some for mulch around trees, the rest go into a compost pile I have going. I put a layer of wood chips then a layer of grass and keep alternating, the stuff at the bottom of the pile looks like peat moss.
 
I shovelled them into my outdoor boiler sometimes. It would smoke a bit, but easier than blazing a path into the woods to dump them.
 
The suburban city I live in has weekly curbside yard waste pickup spring through autumn, so I bag them up along with any yard waste. In the winter, they go into the garbage because I have no other choice for disposing of them.
 
Mine go into compost heaps - got 6 going now. Add leaves, grass clippings and augment with free coffee grounds from the coffee houses in town, wet it down and cover with black visquine plastic - takes about 3 - 6 months with turning every couple of weeks to turn into nice, nitrogen rich compost.
 
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I take a load to the dump every few weeks. I have a couple trash cans in my shop, and in addition to shavings they get everything else. And the stuff on the floor is usually mixed with bits of sandpaper and sometimes PVC strands or copper filings etc. I'm not real motivated to look for an outlet as it'd require me to do a better job of sorting...
 
Two ways - helping with some of the walking trails we have on the property - like mulch or save them up and my wife uses them in the bottom of outside flower planters reducing the amount of potting soil and making the pot weigh less as we always seem to be moving them around through the summer
 

All those shavings...

Okay, here's a question for you all. What do you do with all the shavings and sawdust that you generate? I've heard of some who use it as mulch around the yard. I've never tried that, but it seems to me that most of the shavings would be too fine to be much good. Seems like the wind would...
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disposal of shavings

I have an ever growing mound of shavings in my back property. A lot of what I turn is green wood, so the mound is pretty big (not professional turner big, but big for an amateur). I live in northern California, and you may have heard of our fires, epic drought, etc. I was wondering about what...
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Disposing of Shavings

If you are not using your shavings for mulch, how do you dispose of them? The yard waste recycle bin? Enquiring minds want to know :) Thanks, Doug
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Shavings and sawdust uses?

Are there any household or yard uses for wood shavings and sawdust? When my woodworking hobby involved only flat work, the waste was managable. But since I started turning...well you all know how it is. The barrell fills up fast. Searching the internet, I've read that sawdust is a good...
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Use For Lathe Shavings?

Just went out to start the tractor for mowing and caught her moving across the garden. Every year we've had at least one batch of young'uns hatch in the shavings. She's medium size, about four-four and a half. Used to have a seven-footer out there, but she didn't appear last year. So put...
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As an avid ornamental, native plant and vegetable gardener, the shavings from all wood types (unless contaminated with PVA sealers) are put through my shredder with yard prunings, then composted for 2-4 months and distributed generously as incredible, worm filled, moisture retaining and weed blocking mulch. If it is too cold to shred, I put the bin out in the rain and kick start start the decomposition process. Find a gardener or post it for free on Craigs List. You will develop an immediate fan base for your shavings.
 
Dave Landers said:
I take a load to the dump every few weeks. I have a couple trash cans in my shop, and in addition to shavings they get everything else. And the stuff on the floor is usually mixed with bits of sandpaper and sometimes PVC strands or copper filings etc. I'm not real motivated to look for an outlet as it'd require me to do a better job of sorting...
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Yep, it all goes to the local landfill.....:)

-o-
 
I never have any problem with disposing of my shavings. I just have to bag them up. Whatever my wife doesn't use on the walking paths in our bushland block goes to friends and neighbours for animal bedding (chooks, goats, etc.) and garden mulch.
 
I have a large garden. I cover the spaces between the rows with shavings, grass clipping and fall leaves. What's left goes together in a pile mixed up and let sit for next years mulch. My wife also uses it between her flowers for weed control and walking paths.
 
Probably not a quick help, but the Japanese use a very interesting set-up; they have a special firebox, in which all the shavings are placed and burned in winter; above the room with the fire is a drying room where all the fresh wood is placed. This both heats the workshop, dries the wood and smokes it, stopping termites and such to show an interest. The bamboo, which is used to create a floor grid above the fire, is highly priced for making matcha spoons because of the beautiful colouration it gets after centuries of smoking. If I turn old wood blanks they always smell of BBQ!
 
Started donating my shavings to a local horse charity. Dump them into the pickup bed once I have a decent pile and take them over when the bed cover is getting close to not closing.
 
I keep any walnut shavings separated from everything else. We only use it where we want weed control - pathways mostly and keep it out of the compost piles. I understand that it can cause horses hooves to delaminate, but I’m not a horse owner or vet so can’t say definitively, but in traveling through the walnut growing areas of Northern California it’s remarkable that there’s so little vegetation under the trees in the walnut orchards (observed at freeway speeds along I-5 mostly).
 
JeffSmith said:
in traveling through the walnut growing areas of Northern California it’s remarkable that there’s so little vegetation under the trees in the walnut orchards (observed at freeway speeds along I-5 mostly).
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I wonder if those are Black Walnut or English Walnut. Probably English. I have dozens of black walnut trees and the vegetation under them is like anywhere else in the forest.
 
Kent Reisdorph said:
I wonder if those are Black Walnut or English Walnut. Probably English. I have dozens of black walnut trees and the vegetation under them is like anywhere else in the forest.
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I had a large black walnut in the back half of my lot in Washington, Indiana. There were years I had so many walnuts the lawn mower woul spin out on them. In the late fall there would be so many empty shells on the ground from the squirrels you would step on 10 every time you put a foot down in a 10 foot radius around the tree.

The grass grew fine and was actually pretty thick under it.
 
Last year was a bumper walnut crop here. I intended to make some walnut oil, but time got away from me.

Did you know you can tap walnuts like sugar maples? I tried to gather sap this winter, but I was about 2 weeks late. In order for the sap to run hard, you need below freezing at night and above freezing during the day. I tapped 3 maples and 2 walnuts. One of the walnuts produced more sap than the 3 maples combined. The other walnut produced almost nothing. In the end, I didn't gather enough to try to make syrup.
 
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