I use a full face respirator. I have had trouble with bocote. I might as well build bows with poision ivy. Since I got a full face respirator and wear long sleeves with gloves no problems.

For gloves the rubber coated cotton gardening ones work for me. I tried rubber gloves and always managed to rip them.

I am not to your level yet but can pay the price if I don't use a paper dust mask and keep my vacuum system running when I am working osage.

Osage and walnut are my two demons with walnut being the worst. After I made my last walnut stocked flintlock I swore I wouldn't make another because of my reaction to the dust.

Leopard wood was my catalyst. Had to go on steroids to get rid of reaction. Now in winter when my shop is closed up I react to yew and I think black locust, OK so far with osage. Its too cold here in winter to keep door open but I don't have issue in the summer when I do keep door open. I am also going to have to be smarter about keeping the dust out of my system. Now it is a sensitivity soon it could be full blown reaction like with leopard wood. Good subject and I will be looking into some of the products.

I do a fair amount of work for a guy who's company makes custom furniture, amongst other things. He gives different guys days off based on the wood he's machining and their personal sensitivities. He takes the day off himself when it's walnut, event though he has some serious dust management on the go.

Seems to be a bit of a crap shoot until you get bitten on the backside.

Hope you can work things out to suit.

Grew up in a cabinet shop and have never had a problem. But you guys are scaring the crap out of me!

Good luck Roy. And with all the things suggested one more thing - pace yourself. 10 staves and cleaning the shop in one day is a lot on your system. Even the best system isn't 100% and you can still overdo it.

Good suggestions above but you should also look at fitting a proper extractor in your shop and have it running all the time you are making dust. If you have an infeed and an outfeed then you can have a flow of air in the shop which is very important to stop the fine dust hanging about. I also have two fine particle filters that I have running most of the time and I also leave them on on a timer when I've finished in the shop to stop the fine dust collecting.
You have to look at a way of getting the dust moving and not having it 'hanging about'.

No one is immune Dave. I grew up eating sawdust as well and nothing ever bothered me, but recently, some exotics have been making my eyes itch. Once you are sensitized to one type of wood, others will start bothering you too.
Dave.

QuoteOriginally posted by wood carver 2:
No one is immune Dave. ... Once you are sensitized to one type of wood, others will start bothering you too.
Dave.

Yup, that's why I'm running scared now.

Paper painters coveralls.  Full face 3M respirator.  Latex gloves.  Its not so bad once you get used to it.

Awhile back I realized I was eating too much dust making bows which led me to do a ton of research on cyclones.  Based on that I purchased a dust deputy.  I can't detect any fine dust making it to my filter since I started using it.  I hope that piece of information is useful to some.

Thanks, I'll check them out.

Lots of ventilation. Lots of dust collection CFM.

Don't underestimate the power of antihistamines like Zyrtec, Allegra etc.

I had a bad reaction to rosewood once, and now nearly any rosewood dust anywhere on my skin causes a rash on the hands, neck, wrists, elbows. I had to use some super powerful topical steroids. So strong that they actually cause your skin to get thinner over time. I had to stop because the skin on the back of my hands was literally tearing. The only thing that worked really well was antihistamines.

I would consider taking antihistamine BEFORE you even think of making dust. In conjunction with really good air management, rubber gloves, long sleeves, and a respirator, you should be good.

I've been really lucky as far as allergies go, but this is a lot of food for thought.  I'm going to look at respirators to replace my cheap dust masks, and ventilation and dust filters for my basement shop.
Glad you brought this up, Roy, and hope you find some stuff that works for you.

Pago, thanks for the heads up. I ordered the Dust Deputy Cyclone system Today. I did a search on you tube and was pretty impressed with how those cyclone systems operate.!!

When I moved about 5 years ago I looked into dust collection and went with the a cyclone. Bill Pentz, a hobbiest woodworker ended up with serious problems from dust and did a ton of research into the things and has plans available for free to make your own. I made one for my table saw with plans to hook it up to my router table. I hardly ever use my router so I have not done that yet. Then a made a smaller one closer to the dust deputy size that is built into the stand for my band saw. I use a small shop vac for it. Need more cfm but it still gets at least 75% of the dust. I would post pics but photobucket doesn't seem to want to work for me today. the plans can be found at

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/build_cyclone.cfm

It is amazing how well they work at filtering out the fine particles. I tested the one on my bandsaw by cutting bunch of MDF and next to nothing made it to the shop vac filter.

Photbucket started working again for me. Here are some pics of my dust collection on my bandsaw. If I come across a bigger shopvac I'm sure it would do better.

QuoteOriginally posted by Roy from Pa:
Pago, thanks for the heads up. I ordered the Dust Deputy Cyclone system Today. I did a search on you tube and was pretty impressed with how those cyclone systems operate.!!

Hey Roy, glad I could be of service. Hope it helps you as much as mine has helped me.

Got my dust deputy and found me a full face mask. Was taking a selfie in my truck after buying it and a cop spotted me. I'll be out of jail in a couple days..  LOL

Yikes!...I'm thinking about calling the FBI    
Probably not a good idea to wear that in public.  Even on Halloween.