Skin stains from mahogany

[John Schreiber]

I just finished a project using a piece of Honduran mahogany I've had around for a couple of years. I've noticed, that when working with the mahogany, my hands (mostly the finger tips and the pads of the palm) pick up a bluish or purple stain. No amount of scrubbing will get rid of it, but it does fade in a couple of days.

There's no irritation, just odd coloration. It's kind-of hard to go to a meeting and shake hands with people knowing how funny my hands look.

[Jim O'Dell]

Might be a good time to go to HF and get some Nitrile gloves for the times you are working with this, or just staining other woods. Jim.

[Bob Lang]

This happens to me also, especialy with oak. My theory is that it's iron in your body reacting with the tannic acid in the wood. Try lemon juice or one of the cirtrus based hand cleaners to depurple your hands.

hope this helps,

Bob Lang

[Dan Lee]

This happens to me also but mostly with white oak. Goes away next day
Dan

[Steve Clardy]

This happened to me when I milled a lot of green oak when I had my bandsaw mill.
I found when I milled cottonwood right behind the oak, the cottonwood would clean the stains from my hands:)

[John Schreiber]

Thanks a lot. The stains come directly from the wood and its dust, not from any "finish" I'm using.

I have successfully "ebonized" mahogany in earlier projects using a mix of vinegar and steel wool, and that process turned the wood a similar purple/blue on the way to black, so the possibility of iron in my skin reacting with the wood dust sounds possible.

I'll try a variety of different chemicals to clean them, there may be an easy solution.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Hi John, Having your hands turn blue/black or purple is a result of the oils and perspiration in your hands reacting with the tannin in the wood. It is common and happens with woods which have high tannin levels such as walnut, mahogany, the oaks, cherry, and most of the imported exotics like bubinga and members of the rosewood (Dalbergia) family. Some folks are lucky and their personal body chemistry casues little or no reaction, but others like me have it happen with almost all woods. Heck, I even have the problem with maple.

My proceedure after working in the shop is to wash my hands thoroughly with one of the pumice loaded hand cleaners, using a plastic fingernail brush. I then take and put about 2 capfuls of lemon juice in one palm and "lather" it in. After less than a minute the color almost completely disappears. Note that this can be a stinging proceedure if you have small nicks, scrapes, and cuts on your hands. I keep a quart bottle of reconstituted lemon juice in the door of the fridge specifically for hand cleaning.