Toxic wood

Look up the woods you have reacted to, and determine their family and relatives. Stay away from those woods. Use woods native to where you've grown up.

When you use wood for handles, quit using the grinder to shape them. Use rasps, files, and sandpaper. Isolate the dust to one small area.

You are sensitized now and that won't change readily. The next lungful of the wrong sh*t can cause your lungs to swell and kill you. Anyone besides me remember Ted Dowell and when cocobolo damned near killed him from rapid lung edema? There are plenty of options; quit using woods from those families. Ventilate everything else great and quit the bad actors. Adult-acquired sensitizations are the worst.

My 2cents. YMMV.
 
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As far as cleaning goes, just take precautions ahead of time. Take some Benadryl, get some coveralls and a respirator. Wear gloves tucked into the sleeves of the coveralls, seal them with tape, wear them respirator and a hat, go in with the shop vac and clean as much as you can for an hour or so.

Come back out, ditch your clothes outside, leave your respirator on, wet down your clothes then put them straight in the wash. Go take a hot shower with lots of very aggressive soap.

If you do all that you probably won't have any allergic reactions, and your shop will get clean.
 
A.McPherson said:
As far as cleaning goes, just take precautions ahead of time. Take some Benadryl, get some coveralls and a respirator. Wear gloves tucked into the sleeves of the coveralls, seal them with tape, wear them respirator and a hat, go in with the shop vac and clean as much as you can for an hour or so.

Come back out, ditch your clothes outside, leave your respirator on, wet down your clothes then put them straight in the wash. Go take a hot shower with lots of very aggressive soap.

If you do all that you probably won't have any allergic reactions, and your shop will get clean.
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Thanks
 
I started getting itchy and rashes with Cocobolo, then it went to Bocote, Ziricote, Rosewoods, all of those families, but I could still work stabilized woods and other non stabilized stuff like cherry, maple, sycamore, blackwoods, etc. I used a lot of blackwood, which I later found was a sensitizer. I used some Curly Mango that was stabilized and had a rash for a few weeks. I had to stop using woods altogether and stopped making knives for 4 or 5 years. Went back to it slowly, got a better dust collection system in place and I have been fine with stabilized woods and some non stabilized, but I make it a point to shower immediately after working with any woods and wear the respirator at all times. Sometimes I even wear long sleeves so I don't have the dust sitting on my arms. I wash/wet towel my hands and arms off frequently when working with it too. I had the respirator on when I got the bad reactions, but the reaction was on my arms, hands, neck and anywhere I was sweating and the dust settled on the skin for any length of time. My skin would puff up in hot water and shrink back down with cold water for a couple weeks after the reaction started, but lesser each day. No breathing issues, but my eyes would often be puffy as well, but it was the skin reaction and itching that drove me nuts. I get a similar reaction to some laundry fabric softeners; too much or if it doesn't get fully rinsed, my skin starts itching, getting a rash and looking almost like a mild sunburn, and swells up.

Don't mess with wood allergies! Look up the woods to check their family (lots of my trigger woods were rosewoods) and which ones are sensitizers, which can make your allergies even worse! You may need to use full PPE, get dust collection set up, use hand tools instead of a belt sander, etc, or stop working with them all together.
 
Ok …. So all of the advice here an my research into the matter has been enough to make me leave behind all wood altogether. This is a hobby not a buisness and not worth the potential risk , or wear a hazmat suit every time I make a knife. It’s a shame I was starting to produce some beautiful knives. I guess it’s blacksmith knives and paracord wrapped handles for me. I may look into g10 and mircatia I know I still need to wear my respirator and sleeves and gloves and install a dust collector with that but it should not have the dangers of allergic reaction.
I just don’t want to stop but the risk of wood reactions is not worth my life or even going through this again
 
I was always fine with micarta and g10 throughout my wood allergies. Paracord, Leather, synthetics/acrylics and horn/antler are other options for you as well. It's the oils in the woods that get people. Synthetic materials and other materials without oils are usually good for those with wood allergies! Sometimes stabilized wood is OK because it's been dried and then epoxy impregnated to make it stabilized, so I found the dust didn't cause reactions until I used the Curly Mango, which is an extremely toxic wood!
 
J jimhenry280 Do you mind mentioning, in a general way, where you live? I.e., "Northeast US," "Outer Hebrides," etc. I would venture there are plenty of local woods you've been exposed to most your life that offer no allergy hazard and look fine on knives.
Your choice, of course, if you choose to simply eliminate the entire spectrum of available woods. It's a safe, sure way, and I understand that option.
 
fitzo said:
J jimhenry280 Do you mind mentioning, in a general way, where you live? I.e., "Northeast US," "Outer Hebrides," etc. I would venture there are plenty of local woods you've been exposed to most your life that offer no allergy hazard and look fine on knives.
Your choice, of course, if you choose to simply eliminate the entire spectrum of available woods. It's a safe, sure way, and I understand that option.
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Delaware
 
Try cherry, walnut or maple since those are good hardwoods native to Delaware. Look for stabilized woods, too!
 
Taz said:
Try cherry, walnut or maple since those are good hardwoods native to Delaware. Look for stabilized woods, too!
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I’ve used those woods a lot non-stabilized but have now read that some can be “sensitizers” I like walnut have used it on some nice Damascus pieces…..couldn’t figure out how to post photos on here
 
You can use imgur for posting pics.
 
Ok I downloaded Imgur and put pictures on there but have no idea how to get them here ….not a computer guy 🤦🏻‍♂️
 
Click on the picture you want, copy the BBCode for your picture and paste it into the thread.
 
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