Good thing i'm not a carpenter...
because i'm allergic to trees.
We've been building a Japanese braiding stool--takadai with ayatakadai attachment, and it's been going quite well, except for the unfortunate and annoying discovery i made today.
I'm allergic to oak. Just working with the wood causes my skin to break out in itchy bumps, my throat to swell, and i guess some tiny bit of dust got into my eye and caused the bottom lid to swell up and itch. The reactions continued a few hours after i took some liquid claratin.
I wish i known this before having my mother purchase several feet of 3/8" thick sheets of it to make the hane (feathers) for my ayatakadai attachment, but it didn't occur to me to check my allergy test results chart before wood shopping. I dug it out today and my reaction to oak was a 4+, which means "vigorous reaction", the same kind i have to walnut wood, walnuts, and cashews, and other various allergens. My reactions to most of the trees on the list were 2+s, which means "slight reaction". The only one i had no reaction to at all was ceder. Most of the takadai is made of pine, which wasn't even on my list, but i know the backs of my hands have been made a bit itchy and bumpy when working with most of our woods.
So now i have to find something else, no more than 3/8" thick, no less than 1/4", that doesn't bend or break easily, and can be smoothly cut into those funky feather shapes, and doesn't make my immune system go awry. I was trying to avoid plexi, but that might be my best option, unless we can find some thin treated pine lumber / cedar / someone with a planer.
We've been building a Japanese braiding stool--takadai with ayatakadai attachment, and it's been going quite well, except for the unfortunate and annoying discovery i made today.
I'm allergic to oak. Just working with the wood causes my skin to break out in itchy bumps, my throat to swell, and i guess some tiny bit of dust got into my eye and caused the bottom lid to swell up and itch. The reactions continued a few hours after i took some liquid claratin.
I wish i known this before having my mother purchase several feet of 3/8" thick sheets of it to make the hane (feathers) for my ayatakadai attachment, but it didn't occur to me to check my allergy test results chart before wood shopping. I dug it out today and my reaction to oak was a 4+, which means "vigorous reaction", the same kind i have to walnut wood, walnuts, and cashews, and other various allergens. My reactions to most of the trees on the list were 2+s, which means "slight reaction". The only one i had no reaction to at all was ceder. Most of the takadai is made of pine, which wasn't even on my list, but i know the backs of my hands have been made a bit itchy and bumpy when working with most of our woods.
So now i have to find something else, no more than 3/8" thick, no less than 1/4", that doesn't bend or break easily, and can be smoothly cut into those funky feather shapes, and doesn't make my immune system go awry. I was trying to avoid plexi, but that might be my best option, unless we can find some thin treated pine lumber / cedar / someone with a planer.