Locally Grown Sandpaper: The Horsetail
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 08.24.06
Suppose you're camping and need to scour the cookwear. There's no sand nearby, and you have no recourse to steel wool or 3M scrunges. What to do? A more common rough spot: you need a fine grade of sandpaper, picked fresh from nature's bounty. The solution to both dilemmas likely grows nearby. "The Water Horsetail has historically been used by both Europeans and Native Americans for scouring, sanding, and filing because of the high silica content in the stems". All you need to do is scrunch up a single, hollow horsetail shaft and sand away. We tried a fast, low-pressure rub on the surface of a weathered deck board and the results were quite favorable (photo). You can see the greenish-grey "sanding dust" piled up in the middle right center of the photo, to the right of the "sanded" area. A locally-grown, attractively-segmented Horsetail stem portion, about 1/4 inch in diameter, lies across the bottom of the frame. Because natural silica content is high in many Equisetum species, finding some to try should be easy. Kids notice it right away, sensing that the lack of leaves signifies something unusual. See if it works for you and let us know.
DON'T TRY THIS ON YOUR POTS AND PANS! Horsetails contain neurotoxins and are not food safe. I'd also think twice before using them with my as sandpaper without heavy gloves.
=== authors' response follows ====
Thank you for the cautionary reminder.
As with all things chemical, risk = hazard times exposure. The mere presence of a toxicity hazard does not put one at unacceptable risk unless there is a significant exposure vector in place. In this case, we would have to know that neurotoxin(s), to the extent that they are present in the horsetail species used, are capable of penetrating the skin at a relatively high rate, before the user had a chance to wash his/her hands., or that vascular tissues would be incorporated into sanding dust and breathed in sufficient quantity to pose a respiratory hazard. Beacause many woods dusts by themselves pose moderate to severe respiratory hazards, regardless of abrasive use, respiratory protection is strongly advised for extensive fine sanding work: e.g. a dust mask. In consideration of the above, skin permeation would be the key exposure to control. Gloves, followed by hand washing.
The toxic agents involved are typically aconitic acid, palustrine and thiaminase. I'm not sure it's safe to use these as sandpaper period. You can find more information on Horsetails (Equisetum arvense) at
http://meadowherbs.com/toxic.htm
==== author's response follows ====
The particular species you cited is known to be toxic to some (but not all) domestic animals. There are several distinct species and the one I used "swamp horsetail" is not flagged in the literature as poisonous. Moreover, if you were to eat commercial sandpaper or sandpaper-created dust I am certain that it to would have less than desireable outcome. toxicologically speaking. THe point is not to eat ones' sandpaper and to reduce, as much as possible, the respiration of dust produced from it's use, regardless of abrasives used.
great post. i love natural alternatives like this.
i bought some bamboo shiskebab skewers yesterday thinking, man i should be making these out of twigs or something, but i'm so ignorant about what kind of wood, wet/dry etc.
of all things, a shishkebab skewer has to be one of the most basic diy cooking implements you can make.
once again, showed me how domesticated we are.
well, i guess it's a peeled, green stick.
Okay I admit I didn't check the link to see what Equisetum sp. you were talking about before I posted but it would be very easy for Equisetum fluviatile to be confused with Equisetum palustre whose levels of alkaloids, especially palustrine, are much higher. Sanding one board with either one is not going to kill you but prolonged exposure to the latter could lead to the accumulation of potentially toxic levels though your skin. I definitely wouldn't make a habit of grabbing random horsetails from the local stream and using them to clean my dishes.
... and use of a horstail as a shkebab skewer is right out.
Readers might find this information useful:
http://www.arizonacert.org/medical-pros/herbs/hispanic-herbs.pdf
Horsetail is a beautiful, fast-growing and exotic-looking plant, but it is very invasive, so be sure to plant it in a container. I like the sandpaper idea (properly protected, of course)!
Growing up on SaltSpring Island you end up playing outside a lot. As kids, we would often play with horsetails. We made necklaces, used the tops as paintbrushes for our homemade paint (we crushed up red rocks and added water,) and when ever we got thirsty we'd use the hollow stems of the horsetail as straws to drink from the stream they grew in. And never once did any of us fall ill. So the example I am trying to bring forward is that the horsetail is not really toxic, or at least the ones we played with weren't. In fact horsetail (more specifically Equisetum arvense) has been used as a herbal remedy to many ailments for thousands of years. Here is a link to check out, http://www.alternativedr.com/horsetail1.htm
Hey does anyone know where I can buy the spores to grow this myself?
Wow what an alarmest first message for something that's been used for centuries if not milinia. :-) A little perspective?
Heating destroys thiaminase BTW so if tea is made it contains none of that enzyme.
Shall we discuss the alarming facts about spinach, rhubarb, and potatoes? ;-) OMG, I just found out that I contain arsenic -- EVERYONE BACK!!!