Walnut or Mohog Turns hands black?

[Andy Howard]

So, I have been out doing some work with a few projects I recently started....One is mostly walnut, and the other is from some scraps of Mohogany. Now I have a dark Purplish/Black residue or dye on my fingertips that I can't seem to get off! Is this from the walnut, or the mohogany? Will it hurt me in any way, or just make me look like a looney at the office for the next few days?

Thanks
Andy

[Cecil Arnold]

I think it's from the Walnut, I haven't noticed it with mahogany, but beware mesquite it will really stain your hands.

[Alan Turner]

It must be the walnut. Note that if you take walnut husks, grind them and then boil them in water for awile, and strain, then dry it and later reconstitute with water, you will have VanDyke Crystals, which is a pretty intense brown dye.

[Bob Lang]

This also happens to me, the worst is with oak. My theory is that the tannic acid in the wood is reacting to iron in the sweat of my hands. It doesn't happen to everyone. A friend with the same issue used to get it off with lemon juice. I've had good luck with citrus based hand cleaners.

Bob Lang

[Calvin Hobbs]

Mahogany dust will for some reason give a definite purple stain to your skin when you work with it, especially when the dust gets combined with a little sweat. It wears off after a while.

Cal

[Tom Jones III]

I work almost exclusively with mahogany and walnut and have never noticed anything like what you report. There must be an additional factor.

[Mark Singer]

Mahogany will turn your hands dark purple...

[Michael Burton]

I work a lot of Mesquite and it really will turn your hands dark black/purple and I use lemons to get it off. I keep a bag of Lemons in the fridge and just slice one in half after I wash my hands and rub them down liberally with the lemon, getting the juice worked in. It will work pretty darn good. Give it a try.

[Hal Flynt]

Lyptus turns mine black. I haven't noticed with Walnut and haven't used any Mahogony lately.

I can sand without a problem, but let me pick up a scraper then it's black. I think it's a combination of my body chemistry plus the Lyptus dust and the iron is the catylist.

I use Oxy Clean and a green scrub pad to remove.

[Mike Vermeil]

Redwood really turns my hands black.


I can sand without a problem, but let me pick up a scraper then it's black.

My card scraper turns my hands black no matter what wood I'm scraping.