A Very Odd Experience including my Hello

[Tom Billardello]

First of all, let me introduce myself to the forum(s). My name is Tom, I am a college student and a hobby woodworker. I've had a niche for building things out of wood all my life and over the past year I've really gotten into the finer craft of woodworking. Believe it or not what sparked my interest of such, was simply procuring a piece of very beautiful curly maple. I remember when I first got it (a good friend of mine gave it to me for no reason apparently) all I wanted to do was make something with it. However my preservative nature prevented me from doing such until I've honed my craft enough to not completely butcher the board :rolleyes:.

Well well well enough of the introductions and onto the actual point of my first ever sawmill thread.

I've recently been using bastard files and the like to clean up joinery on my small box projects and have run into quite the odd phenomenon:

MY FINGERS TURN COMPLETELY BLACK! After using the files, and I have tried every little thing to my knowledge to clean them, without prevail. I have tried everything from Gojo citrus/pumice hand cleaner, mineral spirits, denatured alcohol, 3-in-1 oil, WD-40, powdered laundry detergent, bar keepers friend (on a shammy towel with scrubbing), dawn dish soap. Seriously everything I can think of!

So this is my question to the knowledge-base of the SawmillCreek community:
What do you suggest that I use to remove the black residue from my hands? And also if you could, provide some insight into what this substance could be?

And the funny thing is, it seems to only leave residue on my project boards :D . Literally nothing else does it come off of my fingers onto, even white printer paper.
I've tried searching around a bit and have not come up with any viable solutions (clearly), so hopefully someone can shed some light on this issue for me.

PS I absolutely love this network and the information I've been able to gain from it. I will try my best to share any little bits I can.

Thanks,
Tom

[Jim Koepke]

Tom,

Welcome to the Creek. Your profile doesn't indicate your location. I am wondering if your local climate could be leaving something on your files.

Some folks do have perspiration which can affect the steel in files and other items.

Also are the files only used on wood?

Some metals can react with some woods to turn things black.

Are all your files of the same brand?

Do you ever use chalk on your files or file oily materials?

Have you considered wearing gloves?

jtk

[Lee Schierer]

You don't say what wood you are working with. Red Oak in contact with wet steel will turn black from the tannic acid reacting with the steel. I don't know if the saw dust will react and stain your hands.

I've seen metals react to sweat from certain people. Usually the item rusts at an accelerated rate when handled by certain individuals.

[Myk Rian]

Lee beat me to it.
I'll bet it's the tannins in the wood doing it.
When iron contacts tanic acid, it turns black. I did a demo of ebonizing with tanic acid and a vinegar/iron solution for our WWing group last month.
A tanic acid solution is brushed on the wood, and let dry. When the vinegar/iron solution is brushed on, it instantly turns black.
Wear nitril gloves.

[Tom Billardello]

Tom,

Welcome to the Creek. Your profile doesn't indicate your location. I am wondering if your local climate could be leaving something on your files.

Some folks do have perspiration which can affect the steel in files and other items.

Also are the files only used on wood?

Some metals can react with some woods to turn things black.

Are all your files of the same brand?

Do you ever use chalk on your files or file oily materials?

Have you considered wearing gloves?

jtk

Thanks for the reply Jim! I updated my location in case it will help in the future. I live in the Greater Metro Detroit area nearest to Lake St. Clair. To answer some of your questions:
No, I use the files for a little of everything. However most of the time if they come into contact with metals, they do so with non-ferrous metals such as brass and aluminum.
The files are quite a few years old (or so I assume, I don't really know the true age of them), and oxidation has deteriorated the brand names beyond recognition for me.
I've never used chalk on the files no. I've actually never heard of that sort of thing to be completely honest. And the only oily materials that they've ever came into contact with would be the natural oils in wood.
Finally, yes I've considered gloves however because I jump around the shop using different tools so much (going from hand tools to power tools) it has deterred me from wearing them because I don't like the risk of wearing gloves around any type of saw or power tool.

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it! I apologize for being that "naive" youngster asking a detailed question, without the necessary details. But this is how we learn, got to make a mistake, read a book, or be taught.

[Tom Billardello]

You don't say what wood you are working with. Red Oak in contact with wet steel will turn black from the tannic acid reacting with the steel. I don't know if the saw dust will react and stain your hands.

I've seen metals react to sweat from certain people. Usually the item rusts at an accelerated rate when handled by certain individuals.

Thank you for the reply Lee!
I did not know this fact about tannic acid in red oak reacting with steel. <- The beauty and reason that I've come to love this community. As far as woods to be working with, the files have been used on red oak, though the recent few projects haven't included red oak so it has been a while since they've contacted each other.
I think that I may be one of these "lucky" people that have the ability to catalyze oxidation reactions with objects in the world around them. :rolleyes:

[Judson Green]

White oak too. I think cherry as well but not nearly as much as the oaks. Infact ink used to be made from galls that formed on oaks.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_gall_ink

Check out fumed oak furniture just for curiosity's sake.

[Tom Billardello]

UPDATE!

Again thank you to each of you that replied.

The solution was simple, now my desire to know why kicks in. I did a quick wash using 100% lime juice and BAM clean hands. I believe the citric acid in the lime juice was the primary reason that it worked.

PS I've recently been working with (english) walnut (found in the exotic cut off bin at woodcraft, when asked what type of wood it was I was told "european walnut") And I believe that the wood added to the blackness on my hands.

[Don Orr]

You discovered the solution to your problem on your own apparently. Lemon juice is what I have used for years to get black stains off my hands after working with certain woods. Works like magic. I use the cheapest lemon juice I can find. Old fix to an old problem. And it will tell you where you have any small cuts or scrapes very quickly!

[Kev Williams]

8 years ago my hands- fingers mostly- started suffering from exema- to this day I have boxes of Harbor Freight blue nitrile gloves around the house. While I don't necessarily like wearing them, I've grown to love 'em. Not only for my fingers, but any time I do anything that'll dirty up my hands- changing out brake pads, greasing the motorhome, cleaning up aluminum shavings from my engraver, etc, I put on the gloves. Yank em off and rinse off my hands and I'm ready for fried chicken! ;)

[Jim Koepke]

Tom,

You may want to buy a small brush to clean your files after use. I use a small scrub brush with the bristles cut down to make then stiffer. Some folks like a suede brush with brass bristles.

I also do the same as Kev with the nitrile gloves only mine come from Costco. Safety supply and some paint supply stores carry them. They have kept a lot of things from my skin.

jtk

[Joe Tilson]

Not only does some wood react with steel, aluminum does as well, it will turn hands black. Just my 2 cents.

Welcome to the creek Tom.

We even talk about back hair here, ask David Weaver about it.:eek:

[Jim Matthews]

It's the outward sign of a craftsman. It can't be transfered, and only hard work can earn it.