Jarrah / Azobe Reclaim Railway Sleepers "Untreated" - Safe ?

[A.Galea]

Hi All,

Just registered, and hoping for some COSHH advice - as the title suggests there's a lot of these two hardwoods being sold as reclaimed sleepers with the seller's promoting them as safe/Creosote free because they're apparently so durable that preservative wasn't needed. I suppose if these timbers are similar to Teak or Iroko I might believe it, and suppose they would have saved money by not treating for length of time the timber lasted, but really wondering if anyone knows what the Railroad working practices were / if these timbers were treated anyway.

I'd be tempted to convert them into flooring, but am currently of the opinion that internal (even external) use is unsafe, and could probably to without breathing in whatever is released while working on it as well.

Any advice greatly appreciated, thanks.

Alex

 

[marcros]

They are probably un-creosoted. I had some jarrah ones that weren't treated. But they were hard as iron and full of embedded metal and stones. Horrible things to handle, process etc.

 

[RobinBHM]

If you're resawing some jarrah railway sleepers, I hope you have eaten plenty of weetabix and spinach too

 

[blackrodd]

+ 1 for both of the above replies.
Rodders

 

[A.Galea]

Thanks for replies, I chopped up some pitch pine beams from an old manor house once - 13' x 1' x 6" - for a fire surround, I think two beams in half and another into three (because when your doing that much cutting why not have some leftover) it took me 4 days, and 6 plastic handled rip saws. I lost about a stone and I still cant write properly with my right hand.

So if Jarrah is that much harder I might have to think twice about being creative with it. :?