Can you tell the wood type just from the smell?

[flatrock58]

I cut for myself and have mostly cut pine and red oak.  In the last week I cut some aromatic cedar, red oak, wild cherry, ambrosia maple, pine and black walnut.  When the wood is freshly cut it is amazing to walk in the barn and notice the different smells of the wood. 
I can image most people that have done this for a while could tell the species based on smell alone.

[Joe Hillmann]

Red oak and pines and cedar all have very specific smells.  Basswood when it is being cut has no smell but a few hours later it starts to smell and the smell just gets stronger the dryer it gets.

[Gearbox]

Elm has a smell that you won't forget .

[Andries]

I'd second that Gearbox, American Elm.
Buddy calls it stink wood.
Pretty close to smelling like a lotta cat pee on a hot day.
:-\

[YellowHammer]

Sassafras - smells great the first log, just like root beer, but after sawing it for a day or two, I can't get the stink out of my nose for a week. 

Red maple is about the same - subtle, but after a big whack of logs....whew..

Walnut with black pith, smells like cow manure...

Ah what the heck, I like the smell of all wood, it smells like money... ;D

[OffGrid973]

Elm = Hot cat pee, would that mean we want to avoid throwing it in the stove?  Is the heat worth the stink

[Ianab]

 :D

Lil says she's been on the forum too long because she can tell what sort of wood I've been working with by how I smell when I come inside. Port Orford Cedar is her least favorite, it has a very strong and distinctive ginger sort of smell. It's not unpleasant, but if gives her a headache. So off to the shower and change of clothes before I get any cuddles.  :D

Cypress or most other woods I can get away with calling it "Man Glitter"  ;D

[ozarkgem]

Cotton wood and pin oak smell like crap

[Bill Ragosta]

I recently had some American chestnut sawed and it smells really nice.  I can smell it in the barn or on the back porch if wood is there even weeks after being cut.  Black birch (and probably white and yellow as well) also has a very distinctive and very nice smell.

[caveman]

I store a lot of my logs in a pond to keep them fresh.  They saw great and the bark sluffs off easily but boy do they smell bad until the sawn logs dry out.  Also, if you want one to saw that will open up your sinuses, saw up a big camphor log (like sticking Vick's Vapor Rub up your nostrils).

[Ron Wenrich]

Black birch gives the wintergreen smell.  Can't say the same for black gum.  Stinks worse than elm.  To me, all wood has an odor, and it can be identifiable, especially in the hardwoods.

Tulip poplar, ailanthus, hickory, oak, black locust, sassafrass, ash, walnut are all fragrant enough to set themselves apart from other wood. 

[goose63]

American Elm STINKS for sure.

Happy Birthday Ron

[sandsawmill14]

happy birthday ron
hickory maple w/oak hackberry poplar and ash all have a very distinct and somewhat pleasant smell  while cottonwood elm walnut and some r/oak dont smell so good sasafrass
erc and pine are some of the best smelling that i saw imo   and you can tell each blindfolded after you been sawing for a while  :D

[OldMasterTech]

Slightly off topic but my fondest childhood aromatic wood memories are spending hot summer days exploring North Carolina Southern Yellow Pine forests. The smell of those trees and their sap is great!

[paul case]

I have sawn enough that i can smell very little of the wood anymore and taste none of it! ;D

PC

[Kbeitz]

Working on a Christmas tree farm this is the time of year for smellin trees.
Concolor, fir and spruce gives off the strongest smells.



 

[Percy]

Sitka spruce smells like wood glue to me
W-Red cedar smells like....uhhh.. W-Red cedar
Yellow cedar green logs smell like cat pee too....but after its cut and drying, it smells nicer but still very strong...
Balsam-poop
Hemlock-nicer poop

[Ox]

Short answer - yes!

Story answer - We milled a bunch of popple/poplar/quaking aspen for paneling in a small barn.  Put it up green and while it was drying in there I could hardly breathe.  Seemed like formaldehyde type stenches filling the place.  Made me a little nauseous. 

Red maple has an...interesting...smell while green.  Not horrible but not nice either.

Perhaps my most aromatic is fresh red pine.  Pinus resinosa.  Even in a rotten tree the knots are excellent fat lighter.  This is probably true in most pines, though.  I wouldn't know.  I've been in north Appalachia my whole life so I'm not exactly a well traveled and learned fella.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Happy birthday Ron and many happy returns. Hope to be reading your posts on the FF when I am 100.

   

Elm = Hot cat pee, would that mean we want to avoid throwing it in the stove?  Is the heat worth the stink

   Okay, does Hot Cat Pee smell different than cold cat pee? Please tell me and I will take your word for it then I won't have to test myself to get the answer. :D

    I have repeatedly said Ash smells to me like old honey (like I used to smell around a bee tree back when they still nested in the woods and survived over several years).

[Magicman]

How do you go about heating a cat?  How do you know when it is hot enough to pee??   ???   

[Sixacresand]

Skip the ad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2K6P8DbluQ

[JRWoodchuck]

Black Locust stands out for me. Haven't milled very much wood yet but that one is very distinct!

[paul case]

How do you go about heating a cat?  How do you know when it is hot enough to pee??   ???   

????
You made me laugh. Thanks

PC

[SineWave]

Green white oak always smells like whiskey to me.

[btulloh]

Reminds me of an old joke.  Ya'll probably heard it.  Can't tell it here anyway.

[Peter Drouin]

I smell a lot of Pine and Hemlock,  :D :D W Oak from time to time.

[Carson-saws]

Allanthus altissima aka: tree of Heaven...very stinky

[Brian C.]

Black Locust and cotton wood really stink. Cherry kind of sweet and ash, I agree, like honey. White oak smells like whisky because it is stored in white oak barrels, especially bourbon and the longer in the barrels the better. Pines definitely smell, some sweet and some like what the sap makes-turpentine. But it is all good, well almost.

And MM, the cat is hot enough when it act like it is on a hot tin roof.

[WV Sawmiller]

Black Locust and cotton wood really stink.

Brian,

   Can't comment on cottonwood since haven't sawed it.

   As to Black locust, I wonder if we are talking wood of different ages. Fresh cut black locust smells nice - like green peanuts to me. (Maybe we just disagree about how green peanuts smell :D.) I don't remember a significant odor on my dry black locust especially those where the bark has already slipped.

[Joey Grimes]

One of the worst smelling woods we cut is sycamore my wife says it smells like a dentist office? I have heard cottonwood is the worst

[Chop Shop]

When I get home, even before I unlock the gate I can smell the Western Red Cedar!   I never tire of the smell of cedar and fir!

[sandsawmill14]

the cottonwood smells like cleaning out stalls in a horse barn :-\

[Chop Shop]

   Okay, does Hot Cat Pee smell different than cold cat pee?

Yes it does.    Just find an old junk car that cats have been living and spraying/peeing on the seats for years and wait till a nice hot day and open the door.  It will knock you out.

[redprospector]

How do you go about heating a cat?  How do you know when it is hot enough to pee??   ???   

Microwave oven is the preferred method around here. About 90 seconds should have it plenty hot.  ;)

[Kbeitz]

Concolor smells just like oranges...

[longtime lurker]

Working in rainforest is different- its dark to gloomy in there a lot of the time, the trees are tall and it can be near impossible to see the leaves with any clarity. So smell is important as a means of identifying different species, or sometimes at least knowing what its not. There are about 100 commercially usefull species of tree in the FNQ rainforest, and several hundred more non commercial species.

Some of them smell nice, some dont. On some the smell leaves quick, with some the smell lingers in the mill for months. A lot of them smell like foodstuffs... juicy fruit chewing gum/ anniseed/ cucumbers/ sugar cane/ green apples / molasses... and even one thats a distinctive chicken fried steak.

Food, it always comes back to food. :D

[paul case]

There ya go! I thought we would finally get around to it.

Pc

[21incher]

I can tell by the bugs that the fresh sawn wood attracts. When I saw ash I get bees all over the fresh cut wood. When I saw walnut I get hundreds of flys on the fresh cut lumber. Saw maple and ants show up, about the only wood that does not attract bugs is cotton wood.

[LAZERDAN]

Wait a minute, 21incher i think you missed the punch line.  Cottonwood attracts STINK bugs!! 

[killamplanes]

we have water oak-swamp oak that smells pretty bad. several easy to identify, walnut, w/o, cottonwood, sycamore.

[Planman1954]

I sure can....with eyes closed could call....cedar, cypress, walnut, oak, and pine....and that's the only ones I've ever sawn. Working all your life with certain species, it becomes easy to smell em and know em!

[customsawyer]

I never have any problem identifying pignut hickory. Think of a hog pen and you get the idea.

[Ianab]

And then there is the woods that seem to have no smell....  ???

I hauled home a couple of smaller Alder logs last weekend and milled them up today. (Huge things about the size of a large fence post  :D )

But I noticed no distinctive smell. Now I thought that was unusual. Most woods I cut I can tell by the smell.

BTW, the "big" log scaled at 11 bd/ft Int, and I recovered  14  8)   Or Doyle scale it was 3..  Hows that for over run.  ;D Grade and production rate wasn't so great.   :D

[Carson-saws]

longtime lurker..... :D...maybe that's why we are always hungry?

[PoginyHill]

Resurrecting an old thread...

In the veneer mill, logs are heated to about 150 deg, so the smell they produce is particularly strong - especially if you sniff in the vapor coming off freshly cut veneer. There are two species that are processed cold - yellow poplar, which smells like sour milk, and basswood, which doesn't smell much - a faint odor similar to the odor when it burns, but not as strong. Among the "cooked" species (pardon any descriptions you might find at a wine tasting party):

red oak - acidic, but pleasantly nutty. Being in the mill when red oak is being cut is good if you are congested  :laugh:. But the smell sticks to your clothes. Don't go on a date right after work
white oak - bleach
white birch and yellow birch smell similar - hard to compare it to anything, but very distinctive once you learn it.
black birch - very strong wintergreen
white ash - sweet and nutty. My favorite. If it only tasted that good.
maples - nothing strong or easy to describe. Rather slight aroma but like w & y birch, distinctive.

So, the answer to the OP's question - in a veneer mill, yes. Very easy to tell what is being cut when you walk into the mill.

[moodnacreek]

People comment about the wood smells here. I only smell a different species coming in.

[hilltopper46]

Sometimes when I turn dry ash wood I think it smells like popcorn.

[btulloh]

Yes, in many cases.

Reminds me of an old joke I can't tell on the FF. 

[YellowHammer]

Walnut smells like new $$$$

[handhewn]

White fir is commonly referred to as "pith Fir" here in Northern Calif. and for good reason. That stuff just takes my breath away sometimes as I saw.

[moodnacreek]

Walnut smells like new $$$$

Yes it does and cedar is the other wood you never loose money on.

[caveman]

Yesterday, while John was in the canoe in the pond looking for some 8' or 16' heart pine logs so we could finish our order, he came across a log that he was trying to identify.

We have live oak, cypress, cedar, pine, and a few others.  He reached down into the water and pulled off some of the bark from the log in question.  He correctly identified it by smell.  It was camphor.  Camphor smells like Vick's Vapor Rub.

We pulled it and will saw live edged slabs out of it.

[Don P]

My wife's folks had a heavily carved camphor "kist", chest, they brought back from Indonesia. Quite a piece, I guess it had started with ~9/4 stock. I couldn't smell it until opened, much like a cedar chest. Then it would clear whatever ailed you.

[Quercusrubrum]

Walking into an industrial spruce mill is interesting I like the smell, but it almost has a chemical smell to it... Like an industrial cleaner. 

Ive never milled aspen, but I love the smell when it is harvested. Kind of musty, but I like it. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Yes, usually 

[moodnacreek]

Tulip tree has a pleasant odor but only a certain time of year when it also has violet stripes that disappear in the air. Red pine can smell like tomato. Atlantic white cedar has the most pleasant smell but it is faint.

[cutterboy]

The smell of sawn white pine is very nice, but after sawing it for a few days I don't like the smell any more.

[WDH]

White oak and walnut are both very aromatic and distinctive when sawn and they are my favorites.

[Wattwood]

Eastern cottonwood smell like a prewar Gibson banjo case...or the other way around depending on what you're standing next to.

[Don P]

We got burned out and up on WRC. People would come into a house, "doesn't that smell wonderful". In my mind I was thinking, every bug on the planet recognizes that as poison, we aren't that bright  :D.

[DanMc]

Don—. It's not a matter of smarts.  We don't eat the wood. Lol

Glad to see this thread getting some more attention.