What do you do with your walnut saw dust?

[Matthew Chamberlin]

I was just wondering what everyone else did with their walnut saw dust. I normally just compost my saw dust, but I've been just throwing it away since it's supposedly toxic to certain plants.

[Steve Bracken]

I was just wondering what everyone else did with their walnut saw dust. I normally just compost my saw dust, but I've been just throwing it away since it's supposedly toxic to certain plants.

I spend a lot of time showering, to remove the nasty brown stuff from just about every crevice :D:D:D

The end product is worth it, but walnut sawdust is horrible!

[Cody Colston]

I burn it.

[Rusty Eads]

The power plant close to me uses sawdust and other chippings for biomass

[james bell]

not good for compost and not good for horses, so i do like cody and throw it on my burn pile.

[Steve Southwood]

Dump it in the woods, behind the house. That's where is started, that's where it finishes up.

[Bill ThompsonNM]

From the Cornell extension service-- you can compost it but it needs additional time to break down. Since my compost usually sits for years, no problem. If you're one of those 60 day composters - better let it sit in a separate compost for 6 mo. They suggest you can always test it with tomato seedlings which are sensitive to the toxin.

[Phil Thien]

I make very fancy (and exotic) walnut MDF with mine.

[Matt Meiser]

How much are you generating? My next door neighbor says there's no way I can generate enough sawdust from any toxic wood to harm his horses and that I'm welcome to add it to the pile he has trucked in for them.

[Neil Brooks]

How much are you generating? My next door neighbor says there's no way I can generate enough sawdust from any toxic wood to harm his horses and that I'm welcome to add it to the pile he has trucked in for them.

Those are those beautiful six-legged ponies, though, right ?

:D

[Joe Leigh]

I don't believe in sawdust segregation. All of my dust/chips go into large plastic bags and then to the curb.

[Howard Acheson]

How much are you generating? My next door neighbor says there's no way I can generate enough sawdust from any toxic wood to harm his horses and that I'm welcome to add it to the pile he has trucked in for them.

The problem is that the walnut (sawdust or chips) contain a substance that is harmful to horses. I believe the substance is absorbed through the hooves of horses. The folks or stables I have spoken with are very careful only to use non-walnut residue.

Here is some info: http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-254.pdf

Keep walnut residue away from horses.

[David Woodruff]

I spend a lot of time showering, to remove the nasty brown stuff from just about every crevice :D:D:D

The end product is worth it, but walnut sawdust is horrible!

Try Cocobolo then you will appreciate walnut.

[Matt Meiser]

Yes I'm aware and that's why he and I talked about it. That article says it can cause problems down to 10% concentration of walnut shavings. He uses many wheelbarrows of shavings each time he cleans the stalls, each is probably about 1 drum of my shavings. I probably generated 8 drums of shavings doing a kitchen? An average project wouldn't probably fill a drum and there would be other stuff mixed in. He has sawdust brought in by the semi-sized dump truck load.

[Matthew Chamberlin]

Dump it in the woods, behind the house. That's where is started, that's where it finishes up.

Once i save enough money up for that house outside of town, i will. But right now I'm still living on a city lot :(

[Matthew Chamberlin]

How much are you generating? My next door neighbor says there's no way I can generate enough sawdust from any toxic wood to harm his horses and that I'm welcome to add it to the pile he has trucked in for them.

I was given a bunch of ROUGH cut walnut. The last dresser i made produced about 2 garbage cans of planner chips and saw dust. Now I'm working a hallway bench, and i've almost made the same amount.

[Dave Gaul]

What I don't burn in my fire pit when the kids want to roast marshmellows, I take by bags of sawdust to the local lawn waste dump...

[Charlie Plesums]

I keep my walnut shavings segregated, and have a waiting list for it.

I understand that horse urine reacts with it to produce a toxin that is absorbed through the hooves of horses. Okay, no horse stables for me. even one that doesn't mind low levels of toxin.

However, walnut contains a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating. If you have a rose garden, you don't plant seeds, and all the weeds come from seeds, plus walnut shavings make a pretty brown mulch. Same for lots of other gardens grown from plants rather than seeds. I put an inch or so under my foundation plantings, and get very few weeds for the next few years.

[Ron Blaise]

I give it to my nasty neighbors for their flowers :D

[glenn bradley]

I toss it out in the "green" barrel. I also shake the bags out real good if I plan to use the next non-toxic batch of sawdust in the garden.

[Fred Voorhees]

Dump it in the woods, behind the house. That's where is started, that's where it finishes up.

Ditto for me.....back in the woods from whence it came.:D

[David Gregory]

Depending on the sizes of your "end use" Walnut, and whether you get it green or not, I save mine and then pack my "green" pieces in it to slow dry. I do the same with Maple and other woods though Walnut is the only one I will segregate from the rest of the shavings/chips. I use cardboard barrels which let air in and out extremely slowly and the pieces get a chance to dry evenly. Works for me, YMMV.