Hi Chris, Thanks kindly for your perspective. But I think I've not expressed the concern clearly.
Most of the oil is in the sawdust, and on the ground, the nearbyd soil and foliage. As the USFS says "Each year, thousands of gallons of oil go into the forest and never come back out". Dino bones are clearly a *bad thing* in this context. However, getting the facts in this case is less clear than one may expect at first blush. For one thing, all kinds of stuff is considered 'food safe', that upon closer inspection, clearly isn't. Case in point, most if not all of the 'canola' (canadian oil, or rapeseed) is GMO. Everything that goes into your compost ends up in your food, which ends up in you. The fact that folks consider GMO foods 'safe' in no way makes it true. It *may* be true, but this is another case where it's assumed to be so because it's difficult to prove otherwise. Not a great protocol. Oh, maybe I didn't mention, the idea is to recover the sawdust to use in composting. I've tried to talk to the folks at Fungi Perfecti (llc) who are developing a mushroom spore infused chain saw bar oil. I think that's a very cool idea. However, they won't come off the science on the oil itself. Or at least, not to me. Imagine if you will, a conversation that goes like this: Assertion, Chain Saw Bar Oil is a problem: Answer, We'll use vegetable oil, it's organic, so it's perfect! The world: Great! Let us go forth and spew vegetable oil in place of petro-based oil, make the world better. Me: 'Umm, are there any problems with vegetable oil in this context?' Answer: "nyah nyah nyah, we can't hear your question" Me: 'It's cool that folks are trying to do better, but is better good enough?' Answer: 'nyah nyah nyah, we can't hear your question" And so on. And yes, to your point, if you do things correctly, then you shouldn't cook the oil on the bar/chain. I use a water drip to help keep things cool. It helps with my bar and chain sharpness life too. But that doesn't make it a non-issue. Chris Burck wrote: > chip, i can't offer an expert opinion, but i'm happy to offer my > perspective. even with the heat and pressure that will occur when > making a cut, i really have serious doubts that such conditions are > extreme or prolonged enough to alter the oil either (a) much (if at > all) beyond what has already been done to it by the manufacturer (it > may be canola-based, but it's been altered to withstand higher heat > and pressure), or (b) to the point that it would be comparably nasty > to dino-based oils. you also have to bear in mind that the quantities > of oil in question are very small, smaller still when you consider > that some of it is clinging to the board and not the sawdust (not to > diminish the issue, by any means). so to me the issue is more a > question of determining why the oil merits being labelled > 'environmental' to begin with. is it because it (or what gets left > behind after a cut) is substantially less toxic than dino oil (my > inclination would be to suspect so), or simply because of the raw > materials from which it is made? the only way to satisfactorily > answer these questions is by getting data. :) > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ -- --- Chip Mefford -------------------- Before Enlightenment; chop wood carry water After Enlightenment; chop wood carry water --------------------- Public Key http://www.well.com/user/cpm _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (70,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
