what do you do with your shavings?

[Kenneth Whiting 79]

I'm looking at this pile of shavings as I'm about to start the bbq pit and wondering if I should use them. I've recently turned some cherry and some maple, both of which I've seen used in smoking.

I also thought about someone I know that has chickens and might appreciate some bedding.

I guess a better question is, which woods aren't safe to use for other things like bedding or BBQ'ing?

[Scott Hackler]

Pet and livestock bedding is an application for almost anything but walnut. Walnut shavings/dust can and will often kill vegetation so don't mulch with it either. Any shavings except for cedar and such should never be used for flower beds close to a wood structure, because of the possibility of termites.

Any fruit wood, hickory, mesquite, pecan and such are great for smoking meat. When I get my hands on mesquite I will clean the shop up around the lathe, turn the bowl of whatever and save all the mesquite shavings for smoking ribs later!!

If all the trees in the yard (I live in the country) are fairly mulched, I just shatter the shavings throughout my 5 acre yard and call it good.

[Robert Henrickson]

Most usually goes in the garden trash recycling cart for collection, unless someone in the family wants some for mulch or whatever. I don't turn walnut or cedar.

[John Thorson]

I have a trail through the wooded area of my acreage covered with rough-turning shavings.

[Jim Silva]

The shavings are put around all my trees and plants in the yard. (Not against the house for the afore mentioned reasons). They break down a bit quicker than pine bark mulch so I can keep all the beds mulched in rotation.

The dust from the DC goes into the compost pile.

[Michael Mahan]

it all goes into my green recycle container

[Harry Robinette]

As mulch don't get it near any building, rain splashing on the untreated shavings will get on the siding and leaves a nasty and imposable to remove stain.

[Rick Gibson]

We have an area in town where yard waste can be dumped and it is mulched. when I get 3 or 4 garbage bags full I take it over there and dump it.

[Brian Ashton]

If they're really dry just load them in the back of the truck and drive around for the day - won't be there by the time you get home.

[Dan Hintz]

If they're really dry just load them in the back of the truck and drive around for the day - won't be there by the time you get home.

<chuckle> Somewhat like putting junk outside with a $1,000 pricetag on it but no one around to watch it. It will magically disappear by the end of the day.

[Peter Blair]

Makes great mulch for horse paddock as long as you don't turn walnut!. Red cedar is really good for around the base of trees, stops just about anything else from growing there.

[Thom Sturgill]

I have some raised vegetable beds well away from the house. I dump shavings around them and along the chain link fence. Except Oak which I keep for starting fires in the 'pig pit'. Never turned Mesquite, so that would be saved like Scott said. I mostly turn walnut, maple, and cherry.

[Greg Just]

mulch pile in the woods

[Joe Bradshaw]

I just dump mine behind my shop. About once a year, I spread them with my front end loader.
Joe

[Peter Blair]

Just wish I HAD a front end loader!!!

[Jim Underwood]

I just walk mine out the door and into the woods. I had been dumping them in a pile, but recently started a trail. Only problem with that, is that the cats tend to think it's a litter box.

[John Altberg]

Some go into the compost, periodically. The rest are laid down on paths around the house and in the area that I use for processing logs. It is soft underfoot and does a marvelous job of inhibiting weed growth.

[Don Orr]

I bag up my clean shavings and give them to friends who do Raku style pottery firing. I only give clean domestic hardwoods-no walnut or foreign exotics or softwoods-those go in a yard debris pile down behind the pond to break down naturally.

[Lee Koepke]

mine tend to build up in piles in my shop :D

then I drop them in my back yard area where the dogs run. I'll take the walnut and scatter it around the fenceline to try and hold back some vegetation

[George Overpeck]

Mine end up getting used for food growth - first they go into a duck pen, then after a while the combined shaving and droppings go into a compost mix and then a raised bed planter.

[Rob Price]

Mulch. If I'm worried about toxicity (walnut) I put it in a mulch bed that doesn't have any plants, like the one outside my shop. Dust collector dust goes at the back of our property behind some trees. Great at keeping the weeds down.

[robert baccus]

I found out that if you push them out of the back doors they make a nice walk up ramp for old knees. Drives neat freaks crazy too.