what to use to wash off poison ivy on the saw?

[jus2fat]

Poison oak/ivy doesn't bother me too much - but - I nip it quickly..!!
I always carry a few small jugs of 70% alcohol with me in the truck.
(can be bought at local grocery or drug store...Get 70% and not 30%)
I wet paper towel and wipe face first...then arms and hands.
Seems to work well for me and the alcohol doesn't irritate my skin
...and it's cheap..!!!

J2F

 

[Fasttimez]

Saws don't get poison ivy. People do.

Like I said before, the oil from the plant can stay active for months afterwards, so by not properly wiping down your equipment, you will continue to get poison ivy everytime you touch your contaminated saw, etc...here's a little Web MD info on how resilient the oil actually is from the Poison Ivy/Oak/Sumac family.

Poison ivy, poison oak and poison sumac all contain the same substance (toxicodendrol or urushiol) that causes the blistering, itchy rash that appears 12 to 72 hours after direct contact with these plants. The invisible sap can remain active on your clothes, shoes, tools or pet—anywhere it lands—for several months. If it’s on your body, and you don’t wash it off right away, but sit down somewhere, you can re-expose yourself by touching that spot weeks later. And it’s not the blisters on your skin that are contagious; they are products of your own body and do not contain the poison ivy sap. The villain is the oil of the plant. Get rid of it as soon as possible after contact by thoroughly washing everything that may have been exposed—including any part of your body and your clothing—with soap, detergents or rubbing alcohol. The good news: If you’ve been strolling around poison ivy, you may be able to avoid the rash if you wash with soap and water within 15 minutes of exposure.

 

[procarbine2k1]

do not repeat do not !!! spray brakleen directly on your skin , it will be absorbed into your system and can /will damage alot of vital organs [read the cautions on the can or the msds sheets . i am speaking from personal expierence ,that stuff made me really sick after degreasing my hands with it out on a road call , vomited 2x on the 15 min drive home then was sick as heck and shakey for 2 days couldnt figure it out untill i read the can [lucky to be alive ] its nitrile gloves from then on when using those kinds of chemicals . trust me you dont want to put yourself in that kind of misery , get some technu wash for pi cleanup cheers jk

Thanks for the heads up! Sounds like I am lucky that I didnt have the same experience. I have only poisoned myself once, never with solvents. I was welding on concrete forms (no galvanized) once, ended up taking some burn off of whatever chemical was used previously on the forms. Felt feverish on the way home, chills, hot flashes, upset stomach, the works...

I have used tecnu skin treatment before, but never the tecnu wash. I will have to check it out, as I do not want to share your experience. Again, thanks for the heads up. Friend of mine at the shop uses the same remedy as I have, I will have to share your story with him as well.

 

[D&B Mack]

I mix water and technu in a spray container and rinse everything down. Seems to have worked so far.

 

[IHDiesel73L]

I mix water and technu in a spray container and rinse everything down. Seems to have worked so far.

+1

I get poison ivy pretty bad so my wife picked some up at the drug store a few years ago. Now I keep 4-5 bottles on hand!

 

[CentaurG2]

Like disolves like. If you want to remove the urushiol, wash up with some pharmaceutical grade mineral oil. Follow that with a good skin clenser like boraxo or lava. Repeat once or twice depending on how paranoid you are. You could also just buy technu. Saw itself will be fine. If you dont already, just wear some gloves when working with it for a while. Most saws are kind of oily anyway from the bar/fumes and the urushiol will quickly become diluted.

 

[Bob Wright]

I used to get poison ivy off of the chains when i sharpened them in my dads Echo shop...Bob

 

[sefh3]

If you go down to your local drug store, they sell Fels-Naptha. Fels Naptha Soap It's a laundry soap but works great for killing ivy. Lather your whole body up with this while you shower. It works great. I use this stuff for a week or so after I get done cutting.

 

[Slamm]

I only get it on my forearms, and then only if/when the poison ivy has the little berry's showing. After I get it, I take food grade 35% peroxide and a q-tip and put it on full strength with the q-tip. It burns and stings, but the peroxide will immediately oxigenate the little itchy blisters (turn the insides of the blisters/bumps white) and it won't itch anymore. Once I had to use it twice on a bad spot, but it just kills the rash dead, burns like fire though, LOL.

Jewel weed is the next best thing, I have used, but it takes multiple applications to fix the problem .............. after it becomes a problem.

My deal, is I can go the better part of the year and never get it, then at some point, when they have those berry's on the vine, I get it. So I usually don't know about it until afterwards, as otherwise I take no precautions.

As to cleaning off the saw, just spill the usual amount of gas and bar oil out of the tanks and it will take care of itself, LOL.

Thats what I do,

Sam

 

[Red Elm]

As sefh3 said, Fels-Naptha laundry bar soap is great for the shower, used it for years. As for the saw, wash it down with liberal amounts of hot sudsy Dawn and water. Dawn is NOT soap, it is made up of ionic and non-ionic surfactants which will break down the surface tension of the PI oil droplets, allow them to be emulsified with the water and flushed away. Follow up with a good rinse and drying and you'll be good.

Guys, be careful with the brake and carb cleaner, had a friend that thought he'd really be smart and use it on his PI rash on his arm. Result; blood poisoning, mean stuff.

Good luck, PI no fun at all.

 

[Bob Wright]

The city planted a white oak tree on the curb lawn a few years ago. Then it had a PI vine coming up the trunk out of the root ball. Told my neighbor that i was going to go get some spray and kill it. He said i will pull it out as i don't get it. So with a budwiser in one hand and the PI vine in the other he pulled it out and threw it in my trash. Then he wiped his hand on his pants. Long story short a few days later his nurse wife was putting some cream on the bottom of her foot. She said she got PI off his pants and i said yup and i see how it happened. She was rubbing her foot on his leg at the dinner table and got it that way ...Bob