Exotic Woods: Do Your Homework
One thing to know about me — I love working with exotic woods. I’m always on the lookout for something new to try out. I recently saw some beautiful flutes made from Chechen, and when I had the opportunity to buy a few pieces of that wood, I jumped on it. A little over a week ago, I was starting a batch of flutes and decided to throw one of those new pieces of Chechen into the mix. The next day, I had an itchy spot on my side that reminded me a bit of poison ivy, but I hadn’t been anywhere near the woods or even the flower beds in our yard lately. A couple of days later, it had spread to my arm, so I tried calamine lotion. I tried cortizone cream. I tried a couple of other things, but nothing really helped.
I was still really curious where I had gotten poison ivy. Then it hit me — right before the itching started, I was working with a new exotic wood that I knew absolutely nothing about. Since I sit in front of a computer about 14 hours a day (I work full time at a software company), I decided to dive into the wonders of the internet to see what I could find. After a little digging, I had it. Chechen — botanical name metopium brownei — commonly called Black Poison Wood. Apparently, in the plant world, Chechen is the first cousin of three plants native to North America. Yes, you guessed it. Poison Ivy, Poison Oak, and Poison Sumac. When working with woods, I’m very cautious about breathing wood dust, but I never thought that I should keep the dust off my arms.
After scouring the internet a little more and realizing just how nasty the live tree version of Black Poison Wood is — apparently, the bark oozes a really caustic oil — I found a home remedy suggested by someone in Central America where these trees grow all over the place. I raided the kitchen, grabbed the dishwashing detergent, and headed to the shower. A few minutes and lots of bubbles later, the itching was almost gone.
Next time, I’ll be sure to do my homework before buying a new exotic wood. If anybody happens to want a couple pieces of Chechen, let me know…