Worst smelling wood and best smelling wood?

[tmbrcruiser]

The foul smell in some trees is a result of a bacterial infection. Maybe one of the foresters could add to this. I grew up logging and when I was in the woods cutting timber older loggers would call some oaks cat pi_ _ oaks because of the smell. When the sap is up cutting into a wind shake will at time release a spray of foul smelling water.

[Ox]

Welcome to the forum, SawmillSylvia...

[DannyLand]

I concur with Black Birch being great wonderful to cut based on smell, but I also love the smell of white oak, possibly because it smells like good whiskey and bourbon.   Black locust I dislike but Im not sure why. It just makes me grumpy to cut it.   

[Percy]

I've been milling now for a year and a bit, so I have limited experience as in the number of species I've cut, but some trees are far more enjoyable to the nose.

Just resawed some oak and man it smells awful! Milled a bunch of big leaf maple and it's not as bad as those oak boards, but smell like burnt b-hole.

Never Milled when I lived in KY, but do most hardwoods stink when you mill them?

I sure do appreciate Doug Fir and Western Red Cedar now!

What's your worst and best smelling?

:D :D :D Burnt b-hole :D :D :D Thats gotta hurt  :D :D :D :D

[dgdrls]

I think locust wood stinks...

Especially when its been down a while and the bark is slipping/coming off

D

[crowhill]

The worst! To this day I'm not sure what it was but, my Dad said it was Horse Chestnut. It was bad enough when I cut it frozen, then I filled the wood box near the stove, it thawed and smelled soo bad! Smelled just like the old wood floor in the horse barn..

[longtime lurker]

Worst:  Silver quandong smells like vomit...
           

Silver quandong sounds like vomit... ;) :D

Silver Quandong is an interesting timber. Off white with a real light yellow tint to it and a silvery kind of sheen when finished, it's a nice wood to work with, but it's got a little claim to fame: strongest timber for its weight in the world. Dunno if it really is or not, but that's what they say! Imagine if you would a board that'll carry the same structural loading as white oak, with a weight similar to SPF. Something to do with how the wood fibers are.
Tha takes it useful for things like yacht spars, oars, electric guitar cores and chairs, though white as a colour is out of fashion with the furniture guys here ATM.

Sometimes I get a kick out of talking about species you guys have never heard of. Sad part is since the finish of large scale rainforest logging here in the 80's most Australians ain't heard of them either. Makes market demand sporadic.

[Percy]

This thread delivers....  ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

I think locust wood stinks...

Especially when its been down a while and the bark is slipping/coming off

D

Old locust may be foul but green locust always reminds me of green peanuts - yep we made it back to food again.

[AnthonyW]

I don't mind eastern white pine, so I would file that under better smelling. I have always hated the smell of white oak, even before I was sawing it. It took me a while to pin point what it smells like. But it smells exactly like the inside of the dairy barn at the county fairs.  :

[Cedarman]

I would be in trouble if I didn't like the aroma of ERC.
Raspberry Jam sounds like a wood I might like.
Old black locust is nasty.
If you get a whiff of Brazillian rosewood it is like breathing battery acid.

[Satamax]

Cedarman, that's weird. I have a few pieces of brazilian rosewood, and they smell nice when cut. Tho, these are dry.

[caveman]

Cedar, camphor (which smells like Vick's Vapor Rub), pine-these all smell good to me.
Most wood that we pull out of the pond to saw will smell incredibly sour due to the anaerobic bacteria but the bark sluffs off easily.  The wet cedar bark looks like pulled park when it sluffs off but the sour smell permeates the area until the wood begins to dry.

[sawguy21]

I had forgotten about cottonwood, hated bucking the stuff. :'(

[tule peak timber]

Olive wood and White fir, best and worst !!!!

[Brian C.]

I love the smell of most wood. Ash, white oak(reminds me of bourbon), sassafras, walnut, cherry..., but cutting black locust or cottonwood smell just nasty. Our mill is next to a horse manure pile and i think the manure smells better.

[jmouton]

ahhhh   the smell of fresh horse manure in the morning ,,  nothing like it ,,especially milling next to it when the wind is blowing our way and its hot ,,,,yum,yum



                                                                                                                      jim

[Percy]

ahhhh   the smell of fresh horse manure in the morning ,,  nothing like it ,,especially milling next to it when the wind is blowing our way and its hot ,,,,yum,yum



                                                                                                                      jim

:D :D Or when its stuck to the bottom of your workboot and you dont know it... ;D

[4x4American]

Happy Birthday Cedarman...


I was sawing some of that bacterial infected white oak today, and that was potent stuff.  It was just one log mixed in that I noticed.  I didn't mind, was like taking a shot of straight corn whiskey after throwing back some beers.

[RayRayYJ]

Makes me wonder if we're all talking the same species of cottonwood....I just bucked up a big one as part of a deal to get a bunch of free Doug fir and there was no smell! Our cottonwood here on the west coast is BIG, like 36" and bigger, usually bigger. Big, straight and apparently junk timber any ideas for cottonwood on a lucas????)....but no smell.

[jclvsall]

Worst is "Stinkwood" obviously!  AKA Ivory Mahogany. It smells like rotten onions.  I got used to it this summer when I conducted a bandsaw training in Vanuatu. Here is a pic of one of the students cutting with one of the donated LT15Ds.  By the time we finished the training I could find them growing in the jungle blindfolded!



Best is hackberry. Sometimes smells like snap peas. 

[Engineer]

My favorite is either black or yellow birch.  Worst is red oak or black locust. 

[drobertson]

I can only imagine what many of you folks smelt, and yes a quick Sunday school answer would be they all smell like money, but the simple fact around here some, mostly a particular species of red oak, cat crap plainly describes it.  Hickory, pecan the sweetist  for me. Walnut is funky but tolerable, sassafras right up top for good, erc,  good but burns after a while the nostrils.

[Luke_Eames]

I like the smell of red oak.  I've been cutting so much of it lately that other woods smell funny... But now I know why my wife complains when I come in at night....

[qbilder]

Cedarman, that's weird. I have a few pieces of brazilian rosewood, and they smell nice when cut. Tho, these are dry.

Brazilian rosewood smells like chocolate.