guys  i have a list of all the woods and what the reactions and all are  i aint no posting wiz  so when the wife get s home tonite i will try  to get this posted for ya all the only 2 woods ur safe around  are osage and hickory as far as i can see for  bow woods  most of the rosewoods, eboneys, ipe all that stuff, espically yew  will kill ya quicker than  you d ever imagin  brock

ok here s the link hope this helps ya
         http://www.riparia.org/toxic_woods.htm
                             Brock

A self bower told me last summer that he gave up using osage due to his reaction to it.

Osage is by no means a 'safe' wood!  It irritates my lungs almost as bad as cocobolo dust!

I haven't had a reaction to hickory, but I'm not sensitive to any of the native white hardwoods.  

The more oil the wood has, the more common allergic reactions are to it.  Even if the wood doesn't have toxins that will effect you directly, they ALL have substances that you can become sensitized too.

ur right jermey   we all have diffrent reactions to diffrent woods,,,,,   whole point being why take chances? wear ur gogles, gloves and respiator  all in all be safe any way you look at it  brock

I bought a small piece of cocobolo to use as an arrow rest on a dryad bow blank and was told that (like everyone else has said) I might have a bad reaction to it over time if I worked with it a lot. This is all sad news because I thought being a bowyer would be a great occupation for those with the skills to do it. So much for all the talk about how custom bows are overpriced!!

Do NOT mess with allergies.  Go talk to a specialist and don't work with woods that you kow do it to you.  Esp. since it is getting worse and more frequent.

 People die from this stuff.  You can have an anaphalactic reaction, but you can also be setting yourself up for other long term diseases; lung cancer, asthma, COPD, emphysema, etc..

Leopard wood is is highly toxic in fact I won't use the stuff here at Olequa Bows but unfortunately at my other job at Frogleg stilts we also make custom signs and have a large sign in leopard wood we will be working on in the next couple of weeks, complete protective gear, not looking forward to that

Other than bee stings and poinson ivy never had an allergic reaction. Last year about this time I bought a board of leopard wood and made some arrows out of it. After the first couple of days of exposure an allergic reaction.

Lucky for me they didnt make very good arrows to brittle. Sure were pretty though.

Hi!

Just a thought! I never use this exotic woods. It seems that in some cases the allergy appear to the same person and in some cases dont. Did you think that it could be something that increase sensibility to this woods? Something you eat, drink, moisturizing etc?

I find yew particularly toxic followed by osage, but many exotic hardwoods are dangerous. I have a dust collector too, but when I run sanders and the sun shines in my shop windows, there is an amazing amount of very fine dust visible in the air.

Wear all protective gear including good fitting respirator, add an air filtration unit as well as the big dust collector, minimize sanding operations. Using sharp planes and scrapers raises much less dust.

Some bowyers have to give up using some woods as they become super sensitized. I heard that John Schultz quit using yew for this reason.

Good luck.

It's the oils and resins.Same thing happens to me with Osage.I use to go in out of my shop and my girlfriend would say look at your eyes.But it only did it to my eyes never a skin rash.You have it to a worse degree than I do.
 Only thing I know is stop using those woods.Alot of woods out there.Stay away from the oily heavy resin woods.

It's the oils and resins.Same thing happens to me with Osage.I use to go in out of my shop and my girlfriend would say look at your eyes.But it only did it to my eyes never a skin rash.You have it to a worse degree than I do.
 Only thing I know is stop using those woods.Alot of woods out there.Stay away from the oily heavy resin woods.

Everyones system is different.  I have a friend that has a terrible reaction to leopard wood, another to yew.  I've heard of people with reactions to Ipe and cocobolo.  Your body is talking to you.  Listen to it.  It is giving you a gentle whisper now.  Don't make it scream at you.  Stop using the woods your body does not like.  there are plenty of others.  Just my .02 cents.  I am not a doctor nor do I play one on TV.  keith

Cocobolo bacote and bolivian rosewood are the three that bother me. Very oily woods.