Smoking Sawdust: Chainsaw Bar oil / Veg Oil Query

[JonT]

Hi,

Hopefully someone will be able to clear this up for me.

I've been gathering and sawing up my own firewood for a couple of years now - always producing a tonne of sawdust that I had hoped to put to use in hot/cold smoking but shied away from when someone mentioned contamination by bar/chain mineral oil.

I vaguely recalled someone mentioning using veg oil - I have high hopes.

There's proprietary commercial Veg bar/chain oil - Husqy and Stihl make it but not heard whether this means any saw dust is "food grade".

Similarly I've yet to find anything conclusive that means I can nip down Morrisons and get a litre with a high rape/canola oil content and use that without knackering the chainsaw AND still produce food-grade saw dust from my activities.

Does anyone know for definite if regular veg oil can be used or similarly if the commercial "veg oils" produce safe non-toxic sawdust?

Thanks in advance.

Jon

 

[bushwacker bob]

Unless your chainsaw is faulty the contamination from oil is minimal. I would only use dried, seasoned sawdust for smoking as the tannin content of fresh oak chips/dust is too high. I would also make sure there is no yew, laurel, laburnum or any other toxic wood chippings. The smokery next door to my workshop spread out their saw chippings in the sun to ensure they are very dry.

 

[Hairy Steve]

I've used straight veg oil to run chainsaws commercially with no problems. We had to watch how much oil went through the saws initially, adjusting the oil pumps as necessary - it is thinner so it goes through faster and you don't want to run out of oil before you run out of fuel! And we had to keep a close eye on the running temperature of the bars for the first few tanks of fuel, make sure they didn't blue excessively, but it was fine.

 

[Robson Valley]

Corn oil has a greater viscosity than canola. Favorite here for big game hunting guides, outfitters and locals to quarter an elk, moose, deer, etc.
Mind you, they're cutting mostly fresh bone, stuff you wouldn't eat, anyway.

Me? I would not bother with the sawdust. Given the surface area/volume, it will heat faster & burn far faster than round wood.
Added veg oil and it should burn hot like a candle. I use apple wood. Have considered saving the sawdust but I don't think the heat spike as it flames is what I want to do.

 

[beezer]

chainsaw veg oil has lots of nasty additive in it to make it break down quicker. some full time chainsaw operators have had breathing problems which can be linked to veg chain oil. so i would stay well clear of it. regular kitchen oil will be fine in you saw and sounds like hairy steve has some good advise there.

 

[ozzy1977]

Proper chain oil has anti fling additives added too