Sawdust - A Scientist writes (before going to bed early).. (Sawdust)

Member Name: sidneygee

Product:	Sawdust
Date:	09/11/02 (1169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Absorbant, Bio-degradable, Can smoke your trout

Disadvantages: Dusty, Can be carcinogenic

I have a total of eighteen different manual saws in my garage and shed. They range from a small 'Junior' Hacksaw (with interchangeable blades), through tenon saws and cross-cut blade saws (with fixed blades), up to a large 'D' saw (for cutting down small trees) which also has a facility to change the blade.

At one time, saws were produced as craftsman tools, and required occasional sharpening and setting of the teeth, but now, almost all 'rough' carpenters and others who work with wood buy disposable saws. They cost about £8 each and are discarded after one job.

All the saws that I own are capable of cutting wood and in cutting a length of wood a certain amount of dust is produced. This is called 'Sawdust' It is NOT to be confused with wood shavings, which is produced by shaving wood using a wood plane. You can also buy electric or even petrol driven saws, but I prefer the greater control of a manual saw.

In my latest experiment, I noted that the smaller the teeth of the saw, the finer is the dust produced. And the larger the teeth of the saw, the greater the quantity of sawdust produced (obviously of a coarser grade). Now, not a lot of people may know that ..... But now some more do!

Producing your own sawdust is not really a worthwhile project. If you need it, then splash out! - Treat yourself to a bag or two!

Uses for Sawdust
Sawdust has a number of commercial and domestic uses. Very good and absorbent for soaking up blood and piddle and poop and other bodilt fluids, but it si also good for oil spillages. It is environmentally friendly. It is produced in substantial quantities at saw mills and when disposed of, being entirely made from wood, that can 'rot', it is completely bio-degradable. What more could you ask of such a usefull substance?

At one time you could buy hardwood sawdust from 'Habitat', when it was a trendy place. For what purpo
se ? - to be able to 'smoke' your own trout, of course !

Sawdust Problems
One particular commercial use of sawdust (and wood shavings) is for covering the flooring of the cages used for battery hens. This can cause a problem. You see, 'soft' wood often contains a wood preservative. Mostly it is the substance 'pentachorophenol'. So when the chicken pecks about, it will consume some of this sawdust. the preservative then passes through into the eggs and taints them, so that they have a slight disinfectant taste - you'll know it - like 'TCP' ! When I was a Public Analyst, we would get one or two complaints a year of eggs tainted in this manner.

Another more serious problem can come from working with sawdust from hardwoods. The fine dust from many hardwoods have been described a potentially carcinogenic, so that those who work in saw mills that handle such woods have to be protected against inhaling such sawdust.

There is a common misconception that old teddy bears and soft bodied dolls are stuffed with sawdust. This is a myth. In fact they were stuffed with wood shavings. But it time, of course, the wood disintegrates ... to form sawdust, that then tends to leak out of the toy.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Copyright Sidneygee 2002

Summary: