Replies

1. 
   _mj_ | Mar 21, 2021 09:13pm | #1

   If you were working with walnut for a while without feeling poorly I would not be thinking allergic reaction. The splinter probably just worked its way to a sweet spot. I don't think an allergic reaction would vanish with the pull of a splinter.

   You had the equivalent of "lead poisoning" from a bullet wound. No, I am not a doctor, but my non-professional advice is to remove foreign objects embedded in your body as soon as you know they are there.

1. 
   homer73 | Mar 22, 2021 06:39am | #6

   You may be right. I've had too many splinters to count but this was the only memorable one for all the wrong reasons. I still have a lot of work to do to complete the Walnut project and odds are I will probably stick myself again before it's done. When I do it will provide an opportunity to "test" my hypothesis. I'll post the results for those interested.

1. 
   arizonagirl1980 | Jan 04, 2022 04:21pm | #9

   I was still working with black woman starting in March of this year and I got it embedded in my arms and legs feet hands you name it. I have been dealing with this for so long my legs are swollen and hurt so badly I can't walk or talk straight I've been pulled over because a store had called the police on me for stumbling around they thought I was drunk and I got put through the sobriety test and I had to show the cop in the wood in my leg and foot so he believed me, my doctors don't believe me they think I'm a meth heador crazy my back is all screwed up from walking funny it's misaligned now my pelvis is out of place everything hurts so badly all the time I can barely get up and go to the bathroom most days I can't work and it wasn't till right before Christmas that I finally found a doctor I've been 8 months of trying I believed me you get a splinter dude get it out immediately because this stuff works its way into the skin and grabs on and it won't come out I've spent months and months and months soaking in the tub and pulling wood soaking in the tub and pulling woods soaking in the tub and pulling wood and it's a nightmare

1. 
   tgm43 | Jan 04, 2022 06:54pm | #10

   Is this the digital equivalent of "drinking and dialing"?

1. 
   arizonagirl1980 | Jan 05, 2022 06:01am | #13

   No actually it's the digital equivalent of having would embedded in your face and unable to speak clearly so Google voice doesn't always recognize what you're trying to say, and so much wood in your hands that you can no longer type properly. I haven't had a drink in months yet I've been given sobriety test three times in the West month due to stores calling the police on me because I was sstumbling from swelling in the legs. I'm just looking for some help here, this has destroyed my entire life. There is very little in medical community regarding this issue, when it gets underneath the skin it is a severe damage when you're allergic to it. I was lucky enough to find a doctor who knew what was going on with me but only because their parents have horses that have dealt with it now and then. I just want my life back.

2. 
   Deleted | Mar 21, 2021 10:03pm | #2

   “[Deleted]”

3. 
   jql | Mar 21, 2021 10:54pm | #3

   Black Walnuts wood & dust can have an unpleasant toxic surprise.
   Black walnut trees produce a toxic chemical called juglone, which can have an unexpected and unpleasant consequence for humans who come into contact with it.

   Further information provided by the Cleveland Clinic:
   Why Black Walnuts Can Cause Your Hands to Be Stained and Blistered — and How to Find Relief

   https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-black-walnuts-can-cause-your-hands-to-be-stained-and-blistered-and-how-to-find-relief/

1. 
   john_c2 | Mar 22, 2021 07:28am | #7

   There are frequent warnings about using walnut shavings for pets for this very reason. It can be very toxic. But I've never seen it often mentioned as a hazard for people.

4. 
   hoovermd | Mar 21, 2021 11:21pm | #4

   I worked in a shop in high school. My job was cleanup each Friday.
   This consisted of blowing off all the machinery and then a wipe-down and sweeping the floors.

   I had nasty (like they thought I had meningitis) reactions to the dust. Turned out they shop had recently started doing lotsa work in walnut.
   I had to move on to a different job. Too bad too I loved being around all the industrial woodworking equipment and the guys who worked with it.

5. 
   lat_axe | Mar 22, 2021 05:48am | #5

   Many timbers, especially (but not only) some of the tropical variety have all sorts of protective chemicals that they generate to see-orf the fungi and beetle. When you break your skin with a spelk that exudes such chemicals into your tender flesh, the things can go all nasty.

   My own sensitivities are most active with a Keruing or a Padauk spelk. These rascals are also a PITA to get out as they're very brittle and fracture under the tweezer-yank, leaving a teeny bit to continue it's evil exudations.

   Black walnut gets me too but takes a while. Thos tropicals seem more volatile in their efforts to protect themselves from predators. A spelk of such is perhaps best viewed as their revenge for the predations of we tree-murderers, with our chainsaws and huge logging machines!

   Lataxe

   
6. 
   [email protected] | Mar 22, 2021 08:31am | #8

   My dog ate some Walnut bark and had temporary paralysis of her back legs. No more walnut logs in my yard.

7. 
   mikaol | Jan 04, 2022 07:23pm | #11

   Odd. I'm doing a project involving live-edge walnut and canarywood and haven't had a problem with the bark or cambium of the walnut. A splinter here, a splinter there & no ill effects.

8. 
   pantalones868 | Jan 04, 2022 08:49pm | #12

   Juglong is supposedly guite common for people that handle and hull walnuts. I guess it's possible to get it from handling lumber but I've never met a woodworker that got it. Plants produce toxins to discourage predators and from a plants point of view we qualify.
   Over the years I have had more splinters than I can count ,kind of the splinter of the day, and a few have turned into what I call " splinters from hell". A couple of times needing to be surgically removed when they abscessed. Looking at my hands right now there are a couple of splinters. Im not feeling them and I doubt that I do anything about them. No particular type of wood seems to be worse than others for me though some types of wood produce more splinters. If I handle douglas fir ,for example, I can expect to get some really deep and painful splinters.
   Some kinds of dust work me over pretty good and I'm not very good at grabbing the dust mask. I been at this long enough that I worked at a time when the dust collection system was a broom and a pan. Nobody had dust collection, the machinery you bought didn't come with a dust collection option.. I have it all now, dust collection, air filtration and still a lot of dust! I do alot of work with cypress and that dust works me over pretty badly. I mostly work with native and sustainable woods anymore and though I live in California I own some forestland in West Virginia. Once a decade or so I make a trip back and ship a few logs. Fortunately that pipeline missed me but not by much! Some of those rainforest exotics can probably kill you faster though I did have a good friend here that after many years dragging around an oxygen tank in the woodshop died from sequoiaosis! He is the only person that I've ever known to die from woodworking!
   Now cars! That's another thing! Oh, and logging! And.....
   Splinters and dust, toxic chemicals and tools that bite are part of the game.