Thread: finding chemical contents of used wood???

If thery are redgum or jarrah its highly unlikely that they have been treated as neither timber is suited to impregnation.

Dunno Rowan but if in doubt, don't do it... Make something else with it and get some wood that you know the background of to make your chopping boards.

Are they newly cut or are they real proper ex-railway sleepers?

Some of the old ones were creosote treated - you’d know if this was thecase. As for other treatments, I’m aware that boron treatments were trailed, but haven’t heard of CCA being used on proper hardwood sleepers, except in Qld back in the late70's - they stopped due to workers health issues. There are tests that can be run on them to see if they are clean- but the cost would be significant.

Unless they are new and the supplier can guarantee you their history I wouldn’t risk using them for your inteded purpose.

Good pick-up Rowan.

As far as sleeper preservative goes, I would not really worry so much about this. Creosote was used, but mainly for affiliated installations (ie poles etc).

However, there was a little beastie call the 'poison train', which went along spraying the tracks and ballast to keep weeds down. Common sprays were lead arsenate and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) (for the bugs).

To get it tested, I would get a small sample (check with the lab for how much, it will not be much) from an exposed surface (ie planed surface), and say 10 mm below this to check for penetration. It is no good testing the very outer surface, as this will be removed anyway.

You can get it tested for lead and arsenic (about $10 per metal per test), and an OCP screen if you want (considerably more). You can also get it tested for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) if you are really concerned about creosote (personally I would not ...)

Labs in Victoria .. look up chemists, consulting and or industrial in the yellow pages (pg 561). I have used MGT, ALS, NAL, Gribbles, Probe and a bunch of others. MGT are the preferred lab for my current employer.

Else, use alternate timber for your chopping boards.

Hope this helps ...

G'day All.
Hardwood when treated will only get preservative into the sapwood not the truewood. It doesn't matter which preservative was used.
When the sleepers get cutup, you can tell the CCA treated by a grey/green wood (treated sapwood) the truewood will still be the normal wood colour.
The same goes for creasote treated.

If in doubt, Contact Koppers-Arch in Narangba in Brisbane.

Hooroo.
Regards, Trevor
Grafton

thanks for all the advice, have found a local industrial chemist and will get the stuff checked and then decide what to do with it.