Woodturning shavings. Uses?

I've been wondering if I can turn them back into logs. I've got some old oil finishes to use as binder, some 4" stovepipe to use as a mold, and a roll of 4' wide paper to use as a wrapper. Wonder if anyone has tried this before.

Otherwise, mine get dumped off the edge of the lawn, where the rocks were piled after the house was built. They fill in the gaps and help cover the rocky edges and such. Grass clippings go there too.

If there is walnut mixed don't try to use it in the garden.

Shavings should be aged/composted first before use in a garden. If I have room I put shavings into the compost bin but I usually run out of room.

I also have a neighbor that has some small pets that live > I turned some bowls this weekend and ended up with a large trash can

Hi Steve

Yes you can use them for a mulch, I have used them for years, keeps the weeds down and conserves the soil moisture and especially keeps the soils top layer's temperature from baking the hair roots when the summer sun shines on it.

You could also mix some in with your other composting material and use it that way.

I have also a few friends that come to pick some up for mulch and one that uses it also in his poultry run.

I would not dig it in, in it's raw form, it will compete with the plant roots for nitrogen to break down, and adding extra might give you other problems, like to much leaf and no flowers, or spindly growth, just let it break down above ground naturally.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

massmans wrote:

Walnut is a bit iffy, but you can pile the shavings in a mound, allow it to sit for 6-10 months, then use it as mulch. It will help to turn the pile once or twice. If you use it immediately it will draw nitrogen from the ground and may "starve" the plants. Blueberry bushes are particularly fond of old sawdust.

that I can give them, using them for path cover in their terraced garden. They told me that the green wood shavings were too "raw" to use as mulch but are great stuff for keeping weeds out of walkways

Kip Powers Rogers, AR

If you can, designate two areas for your shavings etc and dump all in the first, for the first year, and all in the second the second year. Use the first years's stuff in the second year :) if you are still with me, and like that. By the time you are ready to use it , the nastys should be (gone?)

Tom

You can also use them in smokers and n your BBQ for adding that extra flavor to your food. I am not sure about the Walnut, but have seen Walnut shavings for sale at BBQ shops.

Yes

As I said before there is no problem with using the shavings as a mulch. The wood will be broken down by bugs and microbes, and they need nitrogen and they take that out of the air when above ground (air is something like 80% nitrogen, I think I do remember) not out of the ground. It is when it is dug in that it is unable to get at the nitrogen in the air and it is taken out of the soil by the "buggies" and given back after they die, but while living and breaking down the wood they are then competing with the plants. Also the juglone, a toxic substance that inhibits the growth of many broadleaf plants (including walnut seedlings) would leach out more readily in the ground, so composting before adding to the garden is advisable if there is a lot of walnut in the shavings.

Thanks for all the advice. Like always this newsgroup is filled with some very knowledgeable people.

snipped-for-privacy@rogers.com wrote:

Of course a bag or a few bags of dolomite lime would rectify the acidity and sweeten the soil, as for the nitrogen that should be back to where it was before you dug in the shavings, and high nitrogen fertilizer could increase that, but if there is pine etc. growing there, then your soil is possibly acidic from itself, in that case live with it or increase the PH with limestone.

Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo

Vampire Slayer wrote:

Make friends with a potter that does wood firing, all mine go that way

We take a pretty simple approach... I dump the shavings and the grass clippings from the mower bag in the back yard and the boss runs the roto-tiller over it every couple of months... The clippings seem to supplement what the shavings take out, from what we've seen in the last couple of years.. Mac

I use the shavings to make what I call handy, dandy fire starters for starting brickettes in the BBQ or fires in the fireplace. I melt old candles or parafin (like the wax on top of home made jellies) and then mix the shavings into it so all the liquid wax is absorbed. I then put the mixture into individual paper serving cups (holds 1 or 2 Tablespoons) or paper egg cartons that I cut apart. I then wrap the individual portiions in foil. The egg carton can be wrapped in foil and I make them look like bells, fasten ribbon on tops and use them for package tie ons at Christmas or Weddings with a card explaining what is inside the bell package. These are great to take camping too. It takes only one to start a BBQ or laid fire in the fireplace and usually only one match to get the fire started. Good sellers at craft shows. Barb

I'm jumping in kind of late but, as an organic gardener and turner, I may be able to add somewhat to the discussion.

First:

On a two year cycle even PCB's and explosives can be composted. So don't fret the juglone ... neither you nor your plants nor the neighborhood atomic chemist will be able to find any traces of it after one year of active composting and one year of resting.

Second: The oft-referenced nitrogen starvation WILL occur 1) at the soil line if used as a mulch or 2) throughout the soil if dug in. But so what? Just dig it in at the END of the growing season (if you live where there IS an end to the growing season as most of us in the northern hemisphere do). By spring, everything is balanced back out again AND your soil will have greatly improved tilth. win-win

I use mine, several inches deep, applied to my paths and ya know what? my paths are both springy as good carpet AND sporting a lush top layer of grass.

Third: My wife and I are getting ready to use them for a dry-toilet in our basement. There, the lack of nitrogen is irrelevant since the other ingredients have it in abundance.

I've seen quite a few mulch-ish postings but not many other ideas. For something different...

If you have/use either a fireplace, wood burning stove, or even campfire, you can use the shavings to make fire starters. You can find many recipes on the Internet for making those, but here are a few...

1. Put paper muffin wraps into muffin tins (or similar holder) and melted wax (perfect use for old leftover candles) and shavings. You can add a wick, stick, wooden match (or even nothing) to start them.
2. Use a paper tube (paper towels or toilette paper) and add wax and shavings and fill. Once cooled, cut into slices. You can leave them as is or wrap them in paper (newspaper works with a twist to create a wick), or just bag them like I do in a zip-lock bag.

The muffin tin version is nice to make holiday gifts with for those friends and family members who also can use fire starters.

eNjOy! `Casper