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I was able to build 6 guitars with it and started having mild reactions to it. Haven't touched it in years and will not build again with it.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

I think of Cocobolo as "poison ivy wood" and take the same precautions dealing with the dust as when dealing with poison ivy - long sleeves, avoid skin contact, dispose of it in a place I won't frequent.
I like the finished product and hope to continue working with it, (as well as some other exotics -pau ferro, goncalo alves,etc) so I try to avoid too much exposure to it.
For awhile coco was being touted as the closest thing to BRW available, and prices began to reflect that. Now that people have worked with it a bit more, the "upcharge" might be listed as "Hazard Pay"

Everyone is different. And boy am I different. I have some coco and when I put it through my drum sander, with not the best vacuum system but I upgrades since, I wore a tyvec suit with gloves and goggles. Now the reasoning.

At work we went to a uniform that is fire resistant. The first time I put it on I had a reaction of itching and burning. Thought it was the fire retardant the uniform was treated with and asked if they had been washed before they were given to us, no they weren't so I had them laundered and tried it again. Same reaction, tried a few more things but then my supervisor and I came to the conclusion I could not wear the stuff. After a couple of months management said I had to were it or find another job. They wanted me to try the same things I had again and I had a reaction each time. Eventually they bought a uniform with a different fabric. But in the week they had me be their guinea pig I became sensitized by the fire retardant.

Now it is not only the fire retardant I am sensitized to but that is getting ahead of myself. The stuff was absorbed through the sweat glands, other allergens just need to be in contact with the skin, and then the bodies defenses try to protect itself. Histamines dump into the area, adrenaline and a whole bunch of goodies that the immune system has in its bag of tricks. The itch response is an attempt to get us to scratch the allergen away, the pain to teach us to avoid the stuff in the future.

Now here is where I deviated from most people, some others who wore the uniform had a similar response but not as intense. I have done a ton of reading trying to find out what happened to me, doctors were not much help. Science on the nervous system is still in its infancy and they are still trying to figure out how stuff works. As a general simplification my nervous system was overloaded by the signals from my nerve endings and because it was repeatedly happening my nervous system tried to adjust to the new normal and modified was that it processes the information, basically it got more efficient at processing pain signals. But it is not natural and how the body was meant to function.

The net effect, sorry for the long story, just want to impress that if you have a sensitization issue don't mess around. After I became sensitized the itching and burning that I felt from the fire retardant became permanent. My skin itched and burned constantly over my whole body. Eventually I learned I was sensitized to heat and touch, it hurt to wear cloths and even a gentle breeze hitting my skin hurt. Won't get into how bad it was, I am now on medication to reduce most of the effects enough to function but my condition has painted me into a little box of what I can now do in life. No need for sympathy, just want to be an example to warn others to take care because you may be one of the unlucky few who are at the end of the bell curve.

I did a couple segmented rosettes in gloves with a block plane while watching a little football. I left the shavings on this board for a couple hours before I cleaned it up. This little shooting board had no oil previously on it. Those dark splotches on the walnut as well as the more even dark staining toward the butt are also resulting oil stains. I knew coco was oily, but I didn’t imagine it was that oily. I’m glad I’ve been as paranoid and cautious as I have been. I have mild psoriasis (I think from permethrin uniforms in the military) so I don’t need anything aggravating that situation. Here’s the rosettes ready to install.

Thanks for all the input. You certainly can’t be too careful. In fact I’m about to shellack that shooting board right now.




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Good-lookin rosies!

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Pat

Thanks, hopefully I'll have them in their Adi soundboards by tomorrow morning after the shop cools off.

Been fighting a war between temp and humidity. During the day outside it's ~80 degrees and 42% humidity and at night 56 degrees and 90%+ humidity. Open the garage during the day and it gets to hot, open it at night to cool off and it's too humid! For now the dehumidifier stays on (giving off heat) and the door stays shut and I work until it's about 75 degrees. I really need a split unit out there.