• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Sawdust.

chocks2

chocks2

master brummie
I work for a well established timber specialist that has been in business in Brum since 1923. Being nosey I started to look into the history of the company and found out that they started off by selling bags of sawdust.
My first thought was that there must have been a lot of butchers about way back then but how wrong I was. It turns out that most of the sawdust was sold to the jewellery trade for polishing the metals. Different types of wood was used for different types of metal. For example, a hardwood would be used on steel or for the first polishing of softer metals going down to a very soft wood for gold. Even the types of wood were graded by the type of saw used.
Sawdust was even used to soak the acid off copper when it was removed from the vats and soaking up flux at IMI.
Can anyone remember these processes being used prior to the modern products. I would like to know more about them or other uses for sawdust.
It must have been a lucrative business because it is recorded that we were sending out about 200 tons of dust locally per day by 1925 but there are very few records of where it was going or its uses.
Chocks
 
Used in 'Tumbling' plated objects as well if my memory serves me. I used to occasionally pass through one of the plating shops at Lucas Gt Hampton St. Great for clearing the sinuses.
 
GER22VAN said:
I remember it used in Silk's Coffee House as a floor covering.
Click to expand...

Also in the Bull and Bladder aka The Vine Inn in Brierley Hill in the 1980s. It also features in the pub at the Black Country Museum, its purpose I was informed to mop the sputum....yes, too much information.
Was frequently used at the sites of the guillotine to mop the spillages.
 
If you want to go into where it was used where it shouldn’t be , then you will open a possible waterfall of uses, as an adulterant of pepper (https://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=FB081EFA385A17738DDDAA0994D1405B888CF1D3 ), dyes (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MQDOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA29&lpg=PA29&dq=adulteration+by+sawdust&source=bl&ots=Xf5FjGeU_Q&sig=AvgYMkDhLkH5Q5-xezH3KwQVldY&hl=en&ei=8KnETLj9E9y4jAe-9825BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=adulteration%20by%20sawdust&f=false ) and still (if you are in India apparently ) coriander (https://www.boloji.com/health/articles/01001.htm , but only read this one if you have a strong stomach because of the other possible adulterants mentioned)
Mike
 
We used to use it in our guinea pigs' hutches - usually begged from the butchers on Coventry Rd.
I still use woodshavings as horse bedding - the smell is wonderful! Before I left the Midlands we used to take the trailer down to the big timber merchant on a Saturday morning, slip the gateman a few quid, and we were allowed to help ourselves from the mountain of shavings before it was collected by the commercial woodshavings companies. Always emerged looking like flour graders!
 
I used to use different grades of saw-dust in my lapidary tumbler for polishing gem stones. I also used it to freshen-up my cartridge brass for re-loading....ditto fine granulated nut-shells too.

I used wood-shaving for my hens, until I began to detect a slight 'pine' taste to the eggs!
 
JohnO said:
I used to use different grades of saw-dust in my lapidary tumbler for polishing gem stones. I also used it to freshen-up my cartridge brass for re-loading....ditto fine granulated nut-shells too.

I used wood-shaving for my hens, until I began to detect a slight 'pine' taste to the eggs!
Click to expand...

Cheers JohnO. This is the sort of thing I'm looking for. This is obviously a process that has been used for many years in different forms.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top