Composting: make no bones about it?

dcarch · November 6, 2006

Tomstrees posted a thread about using a lawn mower to shred leaves for compost.

Here is what I do:

I bought a common garden shredder ($175.00) which can shred leaves and small branches. It does a good job of shredding leaf and branches, but not much more.

I was able to find some tungsten carbide blades which were from an electric wood planer, which I machined to replace the carbon steel blades that came with the shredder.

As you may know, tungsten carbide is extremely tough and the blades can hold a keen edge for a long time.

Now I not only can shred leaves and branches, I can actually pulverize large bones, clamshells and any hard stuff. We eat a lot of sparerib, ox tail and corn-on-the-cob, the leftovers all go in the soil towards making better tomatoes and veggies.

dcarch

November 6, 2006	#1
dcarch Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: NY Posts: 2,618	Composting: make no bones about it? Tomstrees posted a thread about using a lawn mower to shred leaves for compost. Here is what I do: I bought a common garden shredder ($175.00) which can shred leaves and small branches. It does a good job of shredding leaf and branches, but not much more. I was able to find some tungsten carbide blades which were from an electric wood planer, which I machined to replace the carbon steel blades that came with the shredder. As you may know, tungsten carbide is extremely tough and the blades can hold a keen edge for a long time. Now I not only can shred leaves and branches, I can actually pulverize large bones, clamshells and any hard stuff. We eat a lot of sparerib, ox tail and corn-on-the-cob, the leftovers all go in the soil towards making better tomatoes and veggies. dcarch __________________ tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato tomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomatomato matomato