Any woods not to use for pepper mill

[DavePowers]

Are there any woods that should not be used for a pepper mill? That would be toxic?

Dave

 

[GeorgeH]

Obviously I would avoid any type of treated wood. I'd also avoid any wood that contains oil. Not just because it might be toxic, but because the oils would certainly flavor the pepper and that would not be a good thing.
Toxic wood (and there are a lot of them) is something else I'd avoid in making pepper grinders (or any other type of turning that might come into contact with food). There are many many listings for toxic wood materials. I'd suggest that you look up the toxicity for the wood you're planning to use and, once you've read up on it, you can make your own decisions.

For example:

http://www.mimf.com/archives/toxic.htm

http://old.mendelu.cz/~horacek/toxic.htm

www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/wis30.pdf

http://www.ci.tucson.az.us/arthazards/wood2.html

 

[Hstudio]

Don't overthink this. I've seen pep-mills made of dozens of different woods. Generally, most commercially available species will work as long as you consider the wood's stability. The more stable the wood, the closer the tolerances between the barrel and tenon can be cut. Domestically, Cherry, Walnut and Maple will all work well for a mill. If an exotic wood is to your liking, Cocobolo is tough to beat. I have made several hundred mills out of Coco and it is by far my favorite for durability and stability. I have also used Kingwood, Camphor Burl, Afzelia Burl, Granadillo, Bloodwood, African Blackwood, Amboyna Burl, Ebony, Padauk, Purpleheart and dozens more with great results.

The only wood I avoid is Olive. It is very unstable and this will cause problems with the tenon being able to rotate within the barrel.

If you are worried about some sort of toxic absorbtion, use some type of food-safe finish on the inside of the pep-mill.