What species of wood has irritated you most?

[Bill Wyko]

I did a vessel out of Tigrillo and it down right locked up my lungs immediately. I almost always use a respirator but even a hint of the dust from this wood and I have to run outside. While it's absolutely georgous, it's almost deadly to me. Another wood that makes me itch and irritates my skin is White Oak. Feels like I've been working with fiberglass when I get near the sawdust. How about you all?

[Robert McGowen]

I would have to say red oak. I have never turned it, but there is a tree a couple of hundred yards from my house that has a huge burl on it, probably 3' across. It irritates me every time I drive past it. :)

[Robert Henrickson]

Walnut and cedar. I haven't tried any of the exotics/imports.

[Wally Dickerman]

I would have to say red oak. I have never turned it, but there is a tree a couple of hundred yards from my house that has a huge burl on it, probably 3' across. It irritates me every time I drive past it. :)

LOL...Your doctor would tell you...Don't drive by it...then he'd send you a bill.

[Ken Glass]

Bill,
There are two ways to answer this question. Colobolo seem to irritate my skin and throat as much as any other wood I turn. Big leaf maple irritates me because I like to turn it and it is not indigenous to Illinois and is sold at a premium price most places. I would trade some fine White Oak burl for some BLM...........

[Dennis Ford]

Mimosa irritates my sinuses a lot. It is very pretty wood but sanding it is a problem for me.

[robert raess]

Walnut,redwood,cedar and australian cypress.

[Bill Wyko]

Wally's words of wisdom LMAO. You're crackin me up.:D

[Marty Eargle]

Mimosa has done its damage on me...and the occasional Walnut is a pain in my sinuses.

[Mike Davis NC]

Ebony irritates me the most, I really like the way it looks and the way it turns. What irritates me is the price, I can't afford to turn big bowls of the stuff.

[Gary Herrmann]

Snakewood just because I've yet to get it off the lathe all in one piece.

Walnut today because my experiment with spheres failed. I got a sphere with a hat on it since the cone chuck slipped.

[Peter Blair]

Desert Iron wood. I start to cough about the time I get any between centres. I have quite a few pieces and now don't know what to do with it . . .

[Matt Owen]

Desert Iron wood. I start to cough about the time I get any between centres. I have quite a few pieces and now don't know what to do with it . . .

That's easy: send it to me.:D

[Thomas Canfield]

I had a Poison Ivy type rash develop very rapidly after turning a Kingwood pen blank several years ago. I then thought I got rid of all the wood in the Rosewood family to avoid a similar experience, only to find that I still had a couple of pen blanks that gave me an immediate itch/rash after only drilling one for the tube. I had an itching experience being 10' from a Silky Oak piece while visiting in the Big Island a couple of years ago and was told later that the Sliky Oak is in the Poison Ivy family. It seems when you have a bad reaction once, then you are more susceptible and have worse reactions with future contact. I tend to stay away from the African and "oily" woods for that reason.

[Brian Brown]

The wood that irritates me most is the russian olive tree across town that refuses to blow down in a storm. It is more burl than straight grain. It will probably out live me.

[dan carter]

African Walnut and Desert Ironwood without a doubt rank right up at the top. My sinus' immediately kick into overdrive, for sure. Now i always use protection when working with them.

[Deane Allinson]

Anything in the rosewood family (even distant cousins) I haven't turned any but they sent me to the Dr. while doing some flat work with a skin reaction, hair line to between toes.
Deane

[Curt Fuller]

The late, great Russ Fairfield once said that there are two kinds of woodturners.....those that are allergic to Cocobolo and those that will soon be allergic to Cocobolo. Luckily I'm still among the group that has yet to have a reaction to Cocobolo or any of the other rosewoods. For me it's Black Walnut. If I don't were gloves while turning Black Walnut I get a rash on my hands every time and they feel like I've been fondling a porcupine.

[David E Keller]

Jim Burr sent me a piece of cypress stump that he dug up out of his yard. It was all cracked and dingy, so he sent it to me knowing my affinity for damaged goods. That piece of wood was the most miserable thing I've ever turned in my life... My tool lost it's edge before I could even get one pass completed. I literally just left my grinder running the whole time I turned and hollowed it. When I was finished turning and nearly out of tool steel, I applied some oil while the piece was still on the lathe... When I turned around to get another paper towel, half the piece just fell off! I don't mean it blew apart. I mean it just fell off while the lathe was off! That is easily the most irritating thing I've ever turned. Walnut used to give me a headache before I got the Trend, but I could take something for a headache. I don't know what to take for self-destructing pieces of wood and bowl gouge nubbins!

[Paul Gallian]

Cocobolo -- all of the other rosewoods--
I should have gone to the Doctor but did not..... I was congested for two weeks or more...

Love the wood

Green walnut -- gives me a slight rash

[Jon McElwain]

Before I knew anything about wood dust being a problem (more than just a nuisance) I was turning an ebony hollow form. Within 5 minutes my nose was bleeding. I NEVER get bloody noses. I started researching wood allergies and such and was amazed at all the info out there about wood dust and such. I got really serious about wood dust after that.

[Guy Belleman]

Most irritating wood is rotten, or perhaps spalted. I have had more spalted wood pen blanks, bowls, and pepper mills, catch wrong and fly apart. When one does turn out though, it is pretty.

[Alan Zenreich]

I can honestly say that I don't know what would irritate my lungs.

I always use a respirator (a 3M BreathEasy or AirStream)... so if there is a wood variety, or something growing in/on the wood (think spalting), that I am allergic to, I am happily ignorant of what it might be.

Oh, and I'm not anxious to find out, so I'll leave it to others who choose to turn without lung protection.

[Bill Bulloch]

I'm with Robert, there is a Red Oak Tree on the Farm down the road from me that has a root burl that must be 6" high and covers most of it's 15 - 20 foot circumference -- I want that bugger. But, seriously: Rosewood, Wet Walnut and Sassafras with Rosewood being the worst offender.

[John Keeton]

Back in the days of flatwork, and prior to having a dust collection system, black walnut would give me flu like symptoms - achy joints and general malaise. It is also one of my favorite woods!! Doesn't seem to bother me anymore.

I don't have a reaction to poison ivy, so the rosewoods don't bother me - yet, I guess, since it apparently is only a matter of time. I really do not turn very many exotic woods.

[Richard Jones]

Green walnut for me, but it has to stay in contact for at least an hour or so. I first noticed it when chainsawing some blanks. My forearms were exposed, shavings stayed on there quite a while, it was hot, I was sweating, etc. Lesson learned. It does not bother me at the lathe, as long as I wear a mask or my Trend, and that reaction is respiratory, not skin contact. This is the only wood reaction I've ever experienced, except for poison ivy...........:(

Stay safe.

Rich

[Bill White]

Irritates me most? MOST? The crappy 2 x 4s used in home construction today.
All foolin' aside, I'm pretty lucky. No reactions (yet).
Bill

[Bill Wyko]

Now that you guys mention it, I had a lingering cough after making the last humidor out of Honduras Rosewood. Lasted for a couple weeks. I wonder if it wasn't due to the wood and not an illness?

[Reed Gray]

There was a piece of coconut palm that some one gave me, and I turned a side grain bowl out of it. It still irritates me just to think about it. My hips irritate me.

Walnut gives me a mild reaction. Same with mimosa. Possible cocobolo reaction.

robo hippy

[Rick Markham]

LOL...Your doctor would tell you...Don't drive by it...then he'd send you a bill.

Wally you must have been subjected to my father's sense of humor!

Robert, that would irritate me too!

[charlie knighton]

i have to wear the blue gloves when turning oak, i use a trend, so i have not had much lung reaction, i do not turn exotic woods, cheap i guess more than not wanting to, there is too much cherry, maple, oak around here, not allergic to walnut but not one of my favorite woods

[Chip Sutherland]

Silver maple, spalted, curly....PITA...cracked, warped, broke 3 screws from chuck. Cut myself digging them out. Black-tinted Epoxy bleed into soft wood, got brass splinter from using key shavings in the inlace lay covering up the mess from digging the screws out. Cracked the opening with my hollowing jig when I got a catch breaking the tenon on the piece. Massive tinting failure (okay that was my bad judgment)...had to resort to a mahogany brown...hate the shape.....was going to donate the piece to a silent auction to raise cash (cuz I could never sell the dang thing) for band booter club but all of the above made me miss the date.....I named her 'B*tch'.

And the final insult....my camera doesn't even want to take of picture of her.....maybe if I charge the battery. I will try to come back and post of picture of B*tch.

[Michael Menzli]

Add me to the black walnut club.... get a minor skin irritation with exposure (slight itch) but have a devil of a time getting it to dry properly. The stuff loves to move and crack on me even when thoroughly sealed. I do have a few younger pieces with no heartwood I want to try spalting..perhaps this will be a rough combination..spalting spores and walnut...:eek:

[Chris Barnett]

Black walnut and cocobolo were worst; did not have a particular problem with others after normally using a mouth/nosemask, until I was recently cutting Chechen, which caused rather severe respiratory irritation. This wood-database.com/wood-identification/ (http://www.wood-database.com/wood-identification/) provided other names including Black Poisonwood, which got my attention and I donned my nosemask, and Caribbean Rosewood, Scientific Name: Metopium brownei. Wonder if there is a common substance that causes problems...stronger in those that offend and weaker in those that don't [too much]?

[Brian Kent]

Walnut burl - the kind that smells like dog doo doo. I have worn a 3M half mask since then and have had no more problems.

[Mike Cruz]

The MDF tree gets me... Don't know what swamp it grows in, but whatever it sucks up through its roots, tears my lungs up. I feel bad for the guys at the mill that have to cut up those huge trees into 3/4" slabs. You know, I've never seen the bark on that stuff though...:rolleyes:

[Sid Matheny]

Cedar, cedar and cedar. The worst part is I love cedar!:mad:


Sid

[Montgomery Scott]

Of the more than sixty species of wood in my shop, the two that I've reacted to are African Padauk, that makes me sneeze, and a wood that I bought from Craft Supply years ago they called mwangale, though I'm not even sure if the spelling is correct. I've never seen it sold anywhere since then. When I turned it would a respirator it would give me a terrible fit of sneezing.

[Rick Markham]

The MDF tree gets me... Don't know what swamp it grows in, but whatever it sucks up through its roots, tears my lungs up. I feel bad for the guys at the mill that have to cut up those huge trees into 3/4" slabs. You know, I've never seen the bark on that stuff though...:rolleyes:


Psh... Don't you know anything? MDF tree's don't have bark, and they don't have to be milled either, That's how they grow, someone just picks the leaves off of them ;) Besides, you don't want to cut any of them down... they will dull your chainsaw blade!

[Harry Robinette]

Mine is wet Oak of any kind. Doc said it's from the spores in it when they get wet they close my lungs down right now. I use a positive pressure face mask now but still no Oak in the shop.

[Barry Elder]

I only turn dry wood and some of the tropicals down here will cause me to cough and sneeze obscenely! But the only wood that irritates me :D is all that great wood that you have, that I don't. Oh, well!:p

[Chris Studley]

Bloodwood, and Padauk for me. It isn't really that bad, little sniffly while working it. Blowing my nose periodically gets me through. Usually fine after a quick shower and change of clothes to get all the dust of me.

No skin reactions, other than dry skin on my hands, to anything I've ever turned. I use Udder cream liberally after an afternoon in the shop and then agin later that evening and I'm good to go.

[Dale Winburn]

Mulberry, both green and dry. I wear my dust mask most of the time when turning. I turned a mulberry box today and now have a throat irritation and cough. Green mulberry really does a number on me.