Turned my hands purple?

[Steve Mathews]

After sanding some small pieces of wood for a project today I noticed my hands turned purple and was hard to wash off. The wood is unknown and was given to me by a friend who's dad had planned to use it for a rifle stock. Supposedly it's the same wood that was used on Weatherby rifle stocks over 50 years ago. The wood is dark brown in color and has a pronounced open grain, hard as a rock too. Sanding gives off a light brown dust. Any idea what type of wood this might be?

[Steve Jenkins]

Walnut will do that if your hands are sweaty

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Walnut, maybe?

[Doug Dawson]

After sanding some small pieces of wood for a project today I noticed my hands turned purple and was hard to wash off. The wood is unknown and was given to me by a friend who's dad had planned to use it for a rifle stock. Supposedly it's the same wood that was used on Weatherby rifle stocks over 50 years ago. The wood is dark brown in color and has a pronounced open grain, hard as a rock too. Sanding gives off a light brown dust. Any idea what type of wood this might be?

Purpleheart turns brown with age (the wood surface oxidizes, no matter what the finish IME.) Expose a new surface with machining and the color can come back. Hard to work, as you say, and can be very abrasive on edge tools. Why would anyone use it for a rifle stock, I don't know, that would be a bit "idiosyncratic".

[Matt Day]

Purple Heart I’d guess too.

[Steve Mathews]

The wood is about the same color even into a fresh cut. I forgot to mention that the odor was also distinctive while cutting and sanding it, pleasant and almost sweet smelling.

[Rich Aldrich]

When we peal oak in our Veneer mill, the workers hands turn purple. They really don't like handling oak veneer for this reason.

[Richard Coers]

Color of the wood has nothing to do with it. I think it's the tannic acid in oak that does it. My hands always turn purple. A little lemon juice clears my hands right up.

[Jacob Reverb]

Maybe mesquite? I think some high-end Wby rifles used that...

[Steve Mathews]

Maybe mesquite? I think some high-end Wby rifles used that...

I'm thinking that too based on more research and the odor the wood gives off.

[Brian Tymchak]

Color of the wood has nothing to do with it. I think it's the tannic acid in oak that does it. My hands always turn purple. A little lemon juice clears my hands right up.

+1. I've read that Walnut has high levels of tannic acid, like Oaks.

[Richard Coers]

https://sawmillcreek.org/archive/index.php/t-147337.html

[Dueane Hicks]

Maybe you squished a telly tubby

[johnny means]

The rifle connection would make me think walnut.

[Steve Mathews]

But what about the odor mentioned before? I don't recall anything like it with walnut and oak.

[Doug Dawson]

But what about the odor mentioned before? I don't recall anything like it with walnut and oak.

I've never experienced any "purple staining" when working with walnut or oak, but then I've never worked with them outside of an air conditioned environment, re sanding etc. (I don't like to work in an uncomfortable shop.) It's hard to diagnose an issue like this by remote sensing, it can (and should?) require a laying on of hands.

A few options: if your local college or university has a forestry department, take a sample there and ask. Alternatively, go to your local library and check out a book by Bruce Hoadley called "Identifying Wood". Or buy it, it's a fun read.

[Richard Coers]

But what about the odor mentioned before? I don't recall anything like it with walnut and oak.

There are several species of walnut. I know of English, Claro, and Black. Surely a couple would smell differently.

[Shawn Siegrist]

Whenever I work with red oak the tannic acid in the wood reacts with my sweat and turns my finger tips purple.

Shawn

[Jon Nuckles]

Any woodturner who has worked with wet walnut can tell you about the way it stains your hands. Lemon juice removes the staining much better than repeated washing. Of course, oak and other woods can stain as well.

[Simon Dupay]

Lemon juice will remove most of the purple. Although if you have any cuts on your hand....

[johnny means]

Yesterday I was working with a slab of delicious smelling white oak. Sometimes white oak smells rather caustic to me. Every tree is subject to different conditions and as such will have its own unique set of characteristics.

[johnny means]

Fyi, be careful when gluing and clamping woods that cause black staining. Iron, water, and tannins will react and cause deep staining in the wood.

[Ross Manning]

In the "old days" I used to use Hypo (the fixative used by photographers - Sodium Thiosulpate) to remove wood staining from skin. Hypo is harder to come by now days; pharmacies used to sell it as well as camera shops.

[Larry Edgerton]

My father was a Weatherby dealer and a custom rifle maker. I spent many many hours as a kid final sanding walnut stocks, and my fingers got purple. Weatherby my have done some odd woods but walnut was all I ever saw. A lot of the woods mentioned are not stable enough for gun stocks. If the stock warps and pushes the barrel even a slight bit it will throw off the accuracy. there is a special tool for cleaning out the barrel bed when the stock warps by putting dye on the barrel and assembling and thus marking the stock. It was one of the things I was allowed to do. so I saw what worked and what kept coming back. walnut was very dependable.

[Tom Bender]

Walnut is not hard as any rock. Purpleheart is never a mystery wood. Oak heartwood might be.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I always thought Weatherby used Claro walnut for their higher end stocks. I remember reading it somewhere anyhow, and the ones I've been around gave no reason to doubt it.

[Doug Dawson]

Walnut is not hard as any rock. Purpleheart is never a mystery wood. Oak heartwood might be.

Purpleheart is a mystery wood if you're unfamiliar with its oxidized state (turns a lovely shade of brown with age.) How deep into the wood this goes and over what time frame is for someone else to answer, as I've never tried to reclaim it, and antiques made from it in the US are probably rare.

[Karl Loeblein]

Color of the wood has nothing to do with it. I think it's the tannic acid in oak that does it. My hands always turn purple. A little lemon juice clears my hands right up.


+1 on the lemon juice suggestion. I no longer worry about working with tannic woods anymore because lemon juice works so well. Stains disappear almost like magic...