Walnut and impact to skin

[Bob Cooper]

I had a tree fall out back and I’m pretty sure it’s walnut. Pulled out the chainsaw and was cutting it up mostly for firewood. Saved a few pieces possible to turn. Days later I see a large area of my right leg covered with a rash. Thought it might be poison ivy but that wasn’t the case. It was then that I realized it was due to the discharge from the chainsaw. Yes yes I could have avoided this by not wearing shorts. But it is what it is. Had no idea walnut would impact me like this. Never had any other wood maladies.

[Jim Becker]

Some folks are more sensitive to Walnut than others. (the same goes for some other species...I cannot work with bubinga) What you might have is a combination of reaction with minor abrasion since the latter would allow the "juice" direct access to your body. Do be aware that for a few people, walnut sensitivity can get worse and in a very few cases, cause major sensitivity to other wood, too. I met a locksmith a few years ago that fit that very last category...he originally was a carver and because there's so much black walnut in this area, he worked with it a lot. He got sensitive. Big time. And then it became the same no matter what wood species he worked with. So he had to stop woodworking completely and was wearing PPE while changing the locks since he was in contact with wood for that work.

[David Utterback]

I had a mild skin reaction while making my first black walnut furniture piece and I avoided using it for years. Later I had no problem with it. This site lists black walnut as a skin irritant. How intense is your rash?

https://www.wood-database.com/wood-a...-and-toxicity/

[Zachary Hoyt]

I'm luckily not that sensitive to walnut, though I do wear a respirator when sanding it. I have a strong reaction to cocobolo dust, it makes me sneeze as soon as I begin to cut or sand it, and I had a couple of pieces of torem wood that I picked up to try as fretboard material that gave me the same reaction so I put them in the give-away wood box. I did make one banjo neck with a cocobolo fretboard, because I had told the customer I would, but I will not work with it again.

[John K Jordan]

I had a tree fall out back and I’m pretty sure it’s walnut. ...

For future chainsawing, you might check to be sure of the type of tree since there are other trees that some people are quite sensitive to, for example, sumac. Walnut has very distinctive leaves, https://www.treehugger.com/how-to-id...walnut-1341873
Has a distinctive smell. If not familiar, maybe take a piece to someone else. Also, this time of year there should be walnuts on the tree and probably some on the ground.

But were there any vines growing up the tree? If you cut through a poison ivy vine it could very well throw sap onto your leg. Poison ivy vines are somewhat "hairy" and stick to the bark with numerous filaments almost like thousands of little roots. I've cut them as large as 4" in diameter but that's rare - more typical is maybe 1/2" to 1" diameter depending on how old it is.

Another perhaps interesting thing about poison ivy: horizontal "branches" several feel long can grow from large vines all the way up the tree, often on dead trees. I've removed several "poison ivy trees" that looked alive with lots of green leaves but the host tree was completely dead!

You can check to see if you are sensitive to the dust of walnut or any other wood with the bandaid test: put a small amount of sawdust on the smooth skin of your forearm and cover with a bandaid. If sensitive to that wood it will start to itch in a few hours. The sawdust of eastern red cedar gave me a rash when I got some under a watch. I work with ERC a lot and otherwise it's no problem. If you find you are sensitive to some types of wood just be sure to wash off any sawdust before too long. (BTW, this works for poison ivy exposure too: if the area is washed with plain water, or better, soap and water, it will remove all the urushiol, the active compound that causes the rash. We have a LOT of poison ivy here and this has always worked for me!)

If you do find you are exceptionally sensitive to walnut you might be cautious about using it as firewood indoors as the smoke might cause allergic respiratory problems.

JKJ

[Bob Cooper]

Not sure how to describe the rash but it was pretty widespread— essentially knee to ankle. But the other leg had spots where you’d think wood chips hit that leg. No real itch or other symptoms.

I don’t think there was any poison ivy and actually I’m not really sensitive to it. It’s everywhere down here in SC.

Unfortunately I can’t post pictures from an iPhone otherwise I’d show you at least what the logs look like. But it’s dark brown heartwood and very light sap.

[Bob Cooper]

I will be careful about exposure as it would really suck to develop an allergy to wood — walnut or other.