Sawdust

Sawdust. Besides being very useful for such purposes as cleaning dusty floors and stuffing such articles as dolls and pincushions, sawdust is turned to account in other ways. Oxalic Acid (q.v.) is manufactured on a large scale from it, by oxidising with a mixture of the hydrates of potash and soda. Mixed with tan in the proportion of one to three, it is employed in our cavalry barracks as a better floor for riding-schools than the pure bark. Chilled sawdust is found to be superior to and cheaper than ice for the packing of fish. Carbonised sawdust makes a better filter for many purposes than ordinary charcoal. Boxwood sawdust is used for cleaning jewellery, that of mahogany for smoking fish. Sawdust is also used in the 'carbonating' stage of the process for the manufacture of soda ash. The substance called Bois-durei, of which beautiful ebony-like medallions and other ornaments are made, consists of the fine sawdust of rosewood, ebony, and other woods formed into a paste with blood and pressed into moulds or dies. The furrier finds a use for the sawdust of mahogany and rosewood in dressing his furs, and the small fragments of some woods, such as the pencil cedar, made by saw cuts or the turning tool, yield perfumes. Sawdust sinks in water although the wood from which it is cut floats.