Cut Offs

[roughsawn]

What do you guys do with your cutoffs? Throw them, or save them?

I fill up bins and 55 gal barrels and burn them in the fire ring, along with firewood, at cocktail hour.

[Coop]

If they ain’t purty and won’t go thru my planer, I do the same! 

[BonPacific]

At my last place they took clean wood at the recycling center, so I'd take acumulated small offcuts there whenever I did a dump run. Since getting a lathe "unusable" has been dangerously redefined though. Now I take a day every once in awhile to process any decent accumulated shorts and scraps into pen or other turning blanks.

Anything truly useless gets composted or dumped onto a berm out in my little patch of forest (only untreated clean wood that will biodegrade).

[wtnhighlander]

If I can sweep it up with a broom, it goes to compost. Most everything else gets used, eventually. My shop is a good candidate for a hoarders show. 

[difalkner]

I work with Walnut, Maple, Cherry and exotic woods - I don't have scraps, only smaller and smaller projects. 

[Mark J]

My rule thumb, to make it to the garbage can a piece of wood first has to fit in my pocket. 

Context, I'm a turner, so I don't produce a lot of cutoffs.  I find that often enough I need a small bit of ply or maple for something.  

[treeslayer]

I try to use as many “scraps “ as I can, I love a good fire but I try to find things to make for gifts from the scrap pile, spurtle’s, coasters, serving forks for those fancy meat and cheese boards, and small wood vase’s to hold fake plants, all make great gifts and I keep plenty around to give out as the need arises 

[Wimayo]

Depends on size and shape of the cut-off. I have been known to take long narrow ripped cut-offs and glue them together to make planks that can then be used for interior casework structure.

[pkinneb]

Store them until they bug me then into the fire pit they go  

[difalkner]

Just found the photo I wanted to share the other day for my 'smaller and smaller projects'; Cocobolo, Padauk, Zebrawood, Olive Ash Burl veneer, and Canary Wood.  Cut on my Delta 24" scrollsaw for two buddies who sometimes go by 'Hammer' and 'Bebo'. 

[G Ragatz]

Our son has taken offcuts of cherry, maple and oak to use in his smoker. He tried some walnut once, but didn't care for the flavor.

[wtnhighlander]

@treeslayer, do you recommend any particular species that holds the points well for those serving forks?

[treeslayer]

59 minutes ago, wtnhighlander said:

@treeslayer, do you recommend any particular species that holds the points well for those serving forks?

I’ve used all the main woods with no problem Ross, they start out as 9” by 1/2” square blanks

[Chestnut]

Almost all of the wood I use is either walnut, maple, cherry, or oak. I'll make cutting boards with the scraps if they are big enough. The small scraps get saved from the boards I know are clean and food gets made. Walnut adds great flavor but it has to be 50% or less of the wood used. It's a very strong taste. I've done pork chops, steak, burgers, brats, and a whole turkey on this grill many many times for each. I haven't bought charcoal in probably 10 years.

One warning the potential for really high temps can be hard on the webber kettles. This one is 6 years old and parts of it are starting to get worn out. My guess is that it'll last 10-12 and I'll need to replace it. It gets used 35-40 times a year, which is me grilling practically every week. The weeks I miss are because temps are below zero or it's raining.

[collinb]

Junk like pine, odd-shaped, unusable scrap, these are campfire wood.

The rest goes in a rack for later use. Like anything else good, I might need it in 10 years.