Sawdust can tamp down into a suffocating layer, turning the pile anaerobic and resulting in less heat plus foul odors.
If you can include
enough material with "loft" (feathers? wool waste?) or otherwise provide for air channels, it
should compost just fine.
If your sawdust is more like fine shavings, and less like dust, this is much less of a problem.
You probably know this, but I should also mention that the right mix of "green" and "brown" material is necessary if you want high temperatures; while sawdust with some sap in it is greener than dry
wood, it still might benefit if you include materials that are richer in nitrogen.
"the qualities of these bacteria, like the heat of the sun, electricity, or the qualities of metals, are part of the storehouse of knowledge of all men. They are manifestations of the laws of nature, free to all men and reserved exclusively to none." SCOTUS, Funk Bros. Seed Co. v. Kale Inoculant Co.
