Ttrees
Iroko loco!
Hi folks
I've been very suspicious of being allergic to the iroko that I've been hoarding ..suspicious, say for the past year.
and I've only brought it out of storage and been hand planing the wood for this last year ..
I only work in small bursts due to other reasons.... blah blah blah ,
Maybe an hour or two some days,
I noticed especially last week that I had felt tender like a mild nettle sting or insulation irritation around the mouth/chin area , the creases on my forehead , and around my lips .
Just went out there for like, a half an hour today,surfaced two planks ,sat down in the house and noticed around my lips burning proper...
And more importantly my throat is getting irritated :shock:
I have not being really sawing this stuff or anything ! .
I'm going to be building a 3HP cyclone when I can find a motor ...as soon as I can BTW ...
and probably a large air cleaner too ...possibly sooner as I probably could find a motor for this easier ..
I hope I'm right on that one ...anyway .
It seems evident that I will have to stop working this stuff completely .unfortunately as its my only timber
that I get for free from skips, and I have no income to buy other species .
Ive got so much of it ,and I like the quality's that it has , that I would not rule out the full HAZMAT setup ...
Suit and respirator job ,change clothes before entering the house , shave off the beard ..
I even considered doing so today, using a no 3 iron for this for the craic
I don't buy much stuff, that I don't need like razors
The species that I suspect is the iroko and the red meranti for starters ,although I could be wrong on the I.D .
I also noticed before, that while burning or whatever I was at, some sort of softwood shelf ,
I don't think it was lodgepole pine judging by the lack of knots ,It could have even been some pine from the far east .
Don't think it was doug fir as its heavy with distinctive grain lines .
I'm not an knowledgeable at I.D in softwoods as I've no interest in it because its not hard enough for my tastes .
Not yet anyway....
Anyway whilst this warm shelf plank was beside the fire stove, I got some resin on my finger ...
As you can imagine I wiped the sticky resin off my finger probably not long afterwards,
But my skin came off with it . It literally melted my skin off !
Took a good few layers off .
I never noticed this resin melting skin occurrence with skita , or maybe it was lodgepole whilst cutting up firewood .
So it looks like I will have to be very careful with any timber that I get now and do some tests.
I posted a question yesterday on "boastable" unknown wood from a fancy building in town ...
These suspected allergies are the reason I posted the question, as it might be a waste now to start making stuff
out of this instead of the Iroko or red meranti that I wished to use .
I was trying to get across that this boast-able part would be from some well heeled persons perspective.
and that maybe the iroko/red meranti would not be of interest to anyone because it had no story.
You have to try to find a niche, if you dont have the reputation, and that maybe you might get a worthwhile price that would make it feasible to make ,especially if you don't have all the gear and have arthritis .
Looks like I have to weigh up some options ... risky business though even so
My shop is not riddled in dust or anything BTW .
I need a proper bench though and the iroko is the stuff that is the most suitable since I'm
looking to make a Rob Cosman style bench with abutments .
I must add that I'm OCD about the bench thing and will settle for no less than perfection, when it comes to flatness tolerance as I use a composite dead flat plate at the moment and not going to take a step backwards .
I was planning to use only quartersawn iroko that's proved itself for the top build.
Don't have the space to have another bench either .
I have a 24" bandsaw though to process trees which I think I might be doing in the future but that's down the road .
I might clean the hand plane and try working some ash , beech , then find some sycamore to try out elsewhere.
I'd never get what I'm looking for, with no money ,time to see if it moves , furniture beetles in the workshop,
and sheer amount of quartersawn stock to make a suitable bench with
What you reckon the chances of me being allergic to these woods even if I do get some
It would be a pain to get whatever and find out I'm allergic to those aswell
...and how fast would you recon I would get these reactions ...
Could they be they sped up now because of it ?
Don't know what to do about the shed now
Looked up Bill Pentz's wood toxicity table ,but that's about it ,so far ...
Could I be allergic to some other element of wood in general
Or does sensitivity come from the particular toxins in the species ...
I had a hunch that I was reacting to the redder stuff first ,although I haven't worked with this stuff for say ...two or three days in a air clean shop so, that's a bull theory at the moment .
...I must admit I never liked the smell when entering the workshop of the 80plus % iroko
or the shavings burning either ...This stuff catches me on the back of the throat ,now when I think of it....
well before face irritation started.
And I like the smell of ash ,not sure if I like the smell of beach ,but like the look .
You know what they say about people in the first 7 seconds or whatever, when you meet them .
Your gut tells you something and all that .
Could this principal correlate with allergies ? anyone have a hunch ?
Long post ,sorry
Any input appreciated ...
Thanks for reading
T Trees
I've been very suspicious of being allergic to the iroko that I've been hoarding ..suspicious, say for the past year.
and I've only brought it out of storage and been hand planing the wood for this last year ..
I only work in small bursts due to other reasons.... blah blah blah ,
Maybe an hour or two some days,
I noticed especially last week that I had felt tender like a mild nettle sting or insulation irritation around the mouth/chin area , the creases on my forehead , and around my lips .
Just went out there for like, a half an hour today,surfaced two planks ,sat down in the house and noticed around my lips burning proper...
And more importantly my throat is getting irritated :shock:
I have not being really sawing this stuff or anything ! .
I'm going to be building a 3HP cyclone when I can find a motor ...as soon as I can BTW ...
and probably a large air cleaner too ...possibly sooner as I probably could find a motor for this easier ..
I hope I'm right on that one ...anyway .
It seems evident that I will have to stop working this stuff completely .unfortunately as its my only timber
that I get for free from skips, and I have no income to buy other species .
Ive got so much of it ,and I like the quality's that it has , that I would not rule out the full HAZMAT setup ...
Suit and respirator job ,change clothes before entering the house , shave off the beard ..
I even considered doing so today, using a no 3 iron for this for the craic
I don't buy much stuff, that I don't need like razors
The species that I suspect is the iroko and the red meranti for starters ,although I could be wrong on the I.D .
I also noticed before, that while burning or whatever I was at, some sort of softwood shelf ,
I don't think it was lodgepole pine judging by the lack of knots ,It could have even been some pine from the far east .
Don't think it was doug fir as its heavy with distinctive grain lines .
I'm not an knowledgeable at I.D in softwoods as I've no interest in it because its not hard enough for my tastes .
Not yet anyway....
Anyway whilst this warm shelf plank was beside the fire stove, I got some resin on my finger ...
As you can imagine I wiped the sticky resin off my finger probably not long afterwards,
But my skin came off with it . It literally melted my skin off !
Took a good few layers off .
I never noticed this resin melting skin occurrence with skita , or maybe it was lodgepole whilst cutting up firewood .
So it looks like I will have to be very careful with any timber that I get now and do some tests.
I posted a question yesterday on "boastable" unknown wood from a fancy building in town ...
These suspected allergies are the reason I posted the question, as it might be a waste now to start making stuff
out of this instead of the Iroko or red meranti that I wished to use .
I was trying to get across that this boast-able part would be from some well heeled persons perspective.
and that maybe the iroko/red meranti would not be of interest to anyone because it had no story.
You have to try to find a niche, if you dont have the reputation, and that maybe you might get a worthwhile price that would make it feasible to make ,especially if you don't have all the gear and have arthritis .
Looks like I have to weigh up some options ... risky business though even so
My shop is not riddled in dust or anything BTW .
I need a proper bench though and the iroko is the stuff that is the most suitable since I'm
looking to make a Rob Cosman style bench with abutments .
I must add that I'm OCD about the bench thing and will settle for no less than perfection, when it comes to flatness tolerance as I use a composite dead flat plate at the moment and not going to take a step backwards .
I was planning to use only quartersawn iroko that's proved itself for the top build.
Don't have the space to have another bench either .
I have a 24" bandsaw though to process trees which I think I might be doing in the future but that's down the road .
I might clean the hand plane and try working some ash , beech , then find some sycamore to try out elsewhere.
I'd never get what I'm looking for, with no money ,time to see if it moves , furniture beetles in the workshop,
and sheer amount of quartersawn stock to make a suitable bench with
What you reckon the chances of me being allergic to these woods even if I do get some
It would be a pain to get whatever and find out I'm allergic to those aswell
...and how fast would you recon I would get these reactions ...
Could they be they sped up now because of it ?
Don't know what to do about the shed now
Looked up Bill Pentz's wood toxicity table ,but that's about it ,so far ...
Could I be allergic to some other element of wood in general
Or does sensitivity come from the particular toxins in the species ...
I had a hunch that I was reacting to the redder stuff first ,although I haven't worked with this stuff for say ...two or three days in a air clean shop so, that's a bull theory at the moment .
...I must admit I never liked the smell when entering the workshop of the 80plus % iroko
or the shavings burning either ...This stuff catches me on the back of the throat ,now when I think of it....
well before face irritation started.
And I like the smell of ash ,not sure if I like the smell of beach ,but like the look .
You know what they say about people in the first 7 seconds or whatever, when you meet them .
Your gut tells you something and all that .
Could this principal correlate with allergies ? anyone have a hunch ?
Long post ,sorry
Any input appreciated ...
Thanks for reading
T Trees
