Use for wood shavings?

[Bill Bell]

Question that occurred to me this evening when (for the hundredth time) hauling a large bag of shavings from my latest turning out to the curb for our local trash service: has anyone figured out a good use for the wood shavings that we turners produce in such profusion? When I started turning I thought they might be good for garden mulch but a scientifically minded friend told me that as the fresh wood decomposes in the elements it will take up the oxygen in the soil and kill plant life. Not sure if this is really true but I'm curious if anyone else has experimented or come up with other ideas. It somehow seems like there must be something useful we could do with this material.

[Dwayne Watt]

I have been spreading sawdust/shavings along our yard fence lines to control weed and bermuda grass growth. It beats running the string trimmer and is most certainly earth friendly. A spring application lasts us until early autumn.

[Andrew Seemann]

I use most of my shavings to start the wood stove and bonfire.

Putting them on the ground will deplete the nitrogen from the soil (the microorganisms that break down the wood use the nitrogen), which is why they get used for weed suppression.

Insufficient oxygen (air) for the roots is usually caused by too much compaction in the soil, which is part of the reason you turn the soil prior to planting, both to break up the soil and introduce air.

[Steve Schlumpf]

When I was doing a lot of turning, I would dump the sugar maple and black cherry shavings into large piles at the far edge of our backyard and let them sit. When one pile got really large, I would start on another one. After a couple of years of decomposing, you get some really nice black mulch that we blend into our flower gardens. Works great but you have to have room for the piles of shavings.

[George Yetka]

I take the quad put my 40 gallon can on it and ride to the back of the property, ride into the woods and dump it. Then I get the quad up to 30 or so on the way back so the dust is all off me by the time i get back. Pile definitely shrinks over time. Currently I have about an 8' circumference pile about 2' high.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

I'm going go out on a limb and say your scientifically minded friend is not entirely correct.
Short term, as mentioned, piling on wood shavings on grass etc does kill it. Perhaps depriving it from oxygen, but plants consume CO2 and produce O2, at night yes it does respire and consume O2. IMO the shavings are depriving the grass of sunlight and that's why they die.
As others have mentioned it decomposes just fine, eventually it will become a nice compost bed. Yes, there will be nothing green under the pile so yes it does kill plant life. BUT the benefits of the compost far outweigh that loss of plant life. It does leech N2 and other nutrients, but since you already know that, correct that by fertilizing the area before you start dumping shavings.
Any alternative is better than sending that to the landfill. I guess it decomposes there too, but along with tons of trash.

[Pat Scott]

Give away or sell the shavings and let someone else do whatever they want with them. When I rough out a batch of bowls it's easy to fill a handful of 42-50 gallon contractor bags full of shavings. I didn't want to have them go to the landfill either so I advertised them for free on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace. They'd be gone in a couple of hours with people sorry they missed out and please let them know when I had more. I told people if they brought the empty bags back I'll fill them up again. Nobody ever did and after a while I got tired of paying for bags out of my own pocket so now I sell them for $4-$5/bag and they still go in a matter of hours. My local farm store sells shavings for $8-$9/bag so people are getting a deal, especially when they can untie my bags and reuse them. Any Walnut shavings go in the trash because they can be harmful to animals.

People use the shavings as bedding for their horses, chickens, pigs, and other livestock. Some are doing landscape and want to mix the shavings in with the soil. One guy had a long dirt driveway and used the shavings to control mud. I had a lady with a small farm that wanted me to let her know when I had more. After becoming friends I told her if she supplied the box of bags I'll fill them and she could stop by at her convenience and get them. This arrangement went on for years until they moved.

I'm not trying to make money off the shavings, I just don't want to keep paying $25+ out of pocket for a box of bags and get nothing in return. If you turn as a hobby and give away one or two bags here or there that's no big deal, but I have a business and any income from the sale of shavings offsets the cost of the bags.

[Robert Hayward]

I have put fresh wood shavings on my small garden for years. Along with grass clippings and tree leaves. People, complete strangers, frequently stop and ask for pointers on how to grow a garden that looks like mine.

[Gary Pennington]

Our town has a transfer station where residents drop their trash and recyclables. I take bags of shavings, they dump them into 55 gallon drums and return the bags. They use the chips to soak up spills and drainage from the compactors. The town saves a few bucks on kitty litter and I get rid of trash--free. Win-Win.

Gary

[Robert Henrickson]

Walnut shavings should NOT be donated for reuse. It is toxic to animals -- horses in particular -- and contains a natural herbicide so that any plants mulched with it will suffer or die. Isolate walnut shavings from others and dispose of them separately.

[Zachary Hoyt]

I burn shavings in the boiler. They don't make a lot of heat but I'm sure they make a little, and it gets rid of them quickly. I've got 6 banjo rims to turn tonight which will make about 3 5 gallon bucketfuls. I'll dump them in when I'm done and they'll be gone in an hour. I would say about 1/4 of what I turn is walnut, so I don't use the shavings in the garden or for animal bedding. I don't plane walnut, so that I can use those shavings for animals.

[Richard Coers]

Here's 2 pages from 2017. Not sure more uses were invented since then. https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....gs-and-sawdust

[tom lucas]

I have a vegetable garden in 3'-high raised beds built on top of Geotex. I originally covered the Geotex with rabbit bedding shavings purchased from a local farm supply store. This creates clean and weed free paths around my raised beds. The area is bound by a fence on the outside. I put all my shavings on these paths to replenish the areas. I spray the paths in spring with Talstar-P to keep the bugs out. Working great so far going into year 4.

[Jeffrey J Smith]

I've been composting mine for a few years now. Fresh shavings alone take a very long time to compost. They lack enough nitrogen to decompose very fast. Adding nitrogen from either leaves, grass clippings or coffee grounds from your local coffee stand (most will give them away to whoever wants them) allows the compost pile to turn to very nice, black compost relatively quickly (a few months vs a couple of years).
I keep three piles going, wet them down once in a while, turn them when I think of it, and cover loosely with black visqueen.
I turn maple, alder and madrone mostly and all respond nicely. As has been mentioned, keep the walnut out of your compost piles unless you're planning to make herbicide....
The compost is really great for veg gardens, flower beds or overseeding the lawns. When I want to keep weeds down or make a path through the brush and woods I use fresh shavings and don't add the nitrogen source. I use up any walnut shavings by adding to what I use on pathways.

[Rich Aldrich]

It works well for animal bedding as long as there is no metal ( like screws) in the shavings that can injure the animal. Another thing that could be an issue is some species like walnut can change soil conditions and kill plants. Some species can be an irritant to animals . Like some of the others have said, I have room on my property, so I just dump it in my woods. If you put some dirt on the piles of shavings, the bacterial leaches into the shavings and it decomposes faster.
I have also burned some in my outdoor wood boiler.