more osage dust skin reactions....

[billy]

I cut up some more osage on my bandsaw yesterday, and within 2 hours after I was done, the itching set in.  It's only on sensitive skin areas like the inside of my elbows and around my bellybutton, but it itches like poison ivy.  I wore a long sleeve shirt, but the dust is so fine that it settles right through it and gets in contact with my skin.  I've never had a reaction to osage dust like this before...but the last few times I've cut that stuff on my bandsaw, it made me itch.  I definitely know that it's the osage dust now, but it sux cause I almost have to wear a damn plastic bag just to keep myself from having a reaction.  Oh well, just a small price to pay when you're addicted to bowmaking and other primitive skills!   

[Ryano]

Are you sure its not poision ivy? I've yet to cut a osage tree here in pa that didnt have poision ivy growing on it.   

You sound like my brother, he's alergic to deer hair...lol. But that aint gona stop him from shooting them. 

[brownhillboy]

Cocobolo breaks me out, but luckily no problems with osage.  Allergic reactions can be very dangerous and even life threatening, so you should probably just send me all of your osage....just for saftey's sake!

[Okie]

Billy, you should stop messing with that Osage. Just send me all you've got and then you won't have to deal with that dreaded itching.

[Timo]

That is some serious bad luck right there Billy.......I'm that way with yew,I rekon we could trade wood?

[billy]

It itches like poison ivy, but it doesn't blister up like ivy does.  Trust me, it's the osage.

 Yeah, I just might have to get rid of all that beautiful yellow wood.  IT drives me nuts!  But then, I start thinking about all the pretty bows....all the love I give them....and the thrill I get when I craft a deadly weapon out of something as seemingly harmless as a tree....and then I just have to get more of it!!!!  Talk about an addiction....and needing to have my head examined. 

"Hey Doc, my hair is falling out, I itch incessantly, and I just keep lusting after yellow osage wood.  I dumped my girlfriend, burned my couch, and ran my car into a ditch and just left it there....because I want more wood!!"

Ya know what he'd say?  "Get outta here you psycho ba$%&@? !!!!" 

[DarkSoul]

You can minimalize such skin reaction to any wood, by preventing to make FINE dust. Dust created by sandpaper, a file, a (band)saw etc. is really fine, and travels through the air, before landing on you. If you use a hatchet, then drawknife, then spokeshave, then scraper...you'll be much healthier! These shavings just fall to the ground, and creates very little fine dust.

[Marc St Louis]

My band-saw has provisions for attaching a vacuum to it so I just modified a piece from an old shop vac and attached my shop vac to it.  Gets rid of most of the dust