Chip wrote: > > Hi Chris, Hi. :)
> > 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. > Interesting. In my experience doing tree removals, even very heavy days where we might be taking down the equivalent of half a dozen very large oaks, I can't say I've ever seen even 1 complete gallon of b&c oil get used. Of course, this isn't the same as ripping a bunch of board, but i wonder how much it's a question of different equipment. Again, not that I'm trying to minimize or dismiss the environmental impact. I have at times wondered whether oil could be replaced completely; perhaps by a gel or something (of course, whatever it is, if it's petro-based or takes a lot of energy to make, you're just palying a shell game). Water would work, but the volume required makes it impractical. Frankly, the forestry industry is just one more example of how the drive to reduce labor costs has run us off a cliff. > 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. > This is an excellent point. But, hey, if it *is* made from a gmo plant, it'd be the perfect oil to use when cutting those fancy new eucalyuptus! (God! I love the smell of synergy in the morning. . . .) Like i said, the real question is why the stuff in question merits the label "environmental." > > 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. Ugh! Yeah, wouldn't relish having to do the research on this one (thus the smiley face when I mentioned data). > > 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. Nice. I'm sure the info is out there, but you'd have to really dig if the manufacturers aren't forthcoming (whether about the gmo aspect or the chenistry). They're the logical starting point. If that's not fruitful, I'd try doing a patent search using their company names as the search string. Or even a general web search along the lines of b&c oil AND petroleum substitute. That's likely to turn up some leads, like industry-specific user groups or scientific papers. Have fun! :) _______________________________________________ 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/
