Toxic wood

[jimhenry280]

VERY NICE knives. Walnut dust can be very bad as some have mentioned.

Walnut dust can cause irritation, sensitization, and even poisoning. These can cause allergic reactions on your skin, eyes, and lungs. These reactions can be developed after several exposure to wood dust.Feb 25, 2022

I have a friend who was making walnut plaques for European mounts. He spent several days planning them and sanding them. He ended up in the hospital and doctors were convinced he had asbestos even though he never worked in an active asbestos environment in his life. And they are treating him as such. He was fine and completely healthy till he worked with the walnut. Who knows the actual cause but extremely concerning either way.

I’ve done atleast 10-15 knives with just walnut it worked easy and looked good. I wonder if it was the main sensitizer

 

[jimhenry280]

The only information I have worth sharing here involved Desert Ironwood. I'm not allergic to it (yet), but my son is already. I was power and hand sanding a Desert Ironwood handle and I went to look up something on our desktop computer. My son sat down at the computer after I went back to the garage. In less than an hour the bottom part of his forearms and his wrists were covered with a poison oak/ivy type rash that took a few weeks to heal. Be careful to not bring dust into your house after grinding or sanding these woods. Take off your clothes and keep them in your own laundry pile or bin, wash your clothes separately and take a shower. It also might be a good idea to keep antihistamines around.

Thank you that’s great info