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The smell of fresh cut wood

Started by Pete J, July 10, 2004, 10:18:39 AM

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Pete J

Kevin and I have been cutting lots of pine lately and I've always loved the smell. Oak is OK, not offensive or anything, it's just oak. We even cut a few nice cherry logs today. The slab cuts through the sapwood smelled sweet, almost wine-like but the cuts throught the heartwood had no detectable smell at all.

The only wood smell I can't stand is Basswood. It smelled bad even in winter when the logs were frozen. I'm sure there are worse smells out there. We just haven't cut them yet.

Bro. Noble

I really enjoy cutting sassafrass and red cedar because of the smell.  We don't cut a lot of either or the smell might get old after a while.  When we cut SYP,  it smells good for a couple of days,  but becomes kinda obnoxious after that.  White oak has a very pleasant aroma,  but some of our red oak smells like dog urine.  The worst smelling wood we ever cut is black gum.  The boards smell like someone cleaned fish on them------last week :o
milking and logging and sawing and milking

leweee

Love the smell of Red Oak first thing in the morning. As a logger it ment you were "in the money".that carmal smell seemed to always smell sweeter the larger the tree.Pine smells great till your covered in pitch...then the romance is over. Black Gum ,Willow, Elm even Soft Maple seem to smell like the swamps they grow beside. ::)Now  as a sawyer it smells even better when your Quarter Sawing that Red Oak. 8) 8) 8)
just another beaver with a chainsaw &  it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

Norm

Best smelling wood we cut is walnut and then cherry, white oak is close behind but as Noble mentioned if we cut a bunch of any I'm sure they would get old also. Worst smelling hands down is boxelder.

mike_van

Ditto on the Basswood, something about it I don't care for either. Oh yeah, I really HATE CCA -  Or any other treated wood.  
I was the smartest 16 year old I ever knew.

Ed_K

 Rita works for Yankee Candle, I keep telling her to take a baggie of w/pine sawdust to work and make a candle that smells like it  ;D.
 I agree with red oak smelling like dog urine, to get a sticker on my 1 ton  :o, I needed chalkblocks, so I cut some off a log  :). Got in the truck to go get a load of cordwood logs and couldn't figure out why it smelled of dog, I don't have one  :D. Now I know  8).
Ed K

Ianab

I'll vote for Monterey Cypress as the BEST smelling wood  :)
Smells so good you can bring a bowl of planer shavings inside at the end of the day and freshen up the whole house  8)

OK.. I'm addicted to sawdust.....

Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

dewwood

Probably the worst smelling log I ever cut was the one that had a recently deceased(several days) squirrel in the middle of it.  Now that was some kind of odor.
Selling hardwood lumber, doing some sawing and drying, growing the next generation of trees and enjoying the kids and grandkids.

Pete J


handsaw07

I have to agree with Norm,  fresh cut walnut sure smells good .

Corley5

I like black cherry about the best.  Red pine is kinda spicy compared to white pines sweeter smell.  White cedar is cool but the dust is miserable.  I've never noticed that basswood even had a smell.  Must be regional ;D
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Bibbyman

We've sawn so much ERC I can't smell it any more unless I make an effort.  I'm getting sick of smelling walnut. :-X  

Sawed a good little bit of cherry today and it was plesant enough but one log and a nasty smell to it for some reason.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Lenny_M

  
   My faverite has got to be green Black Birch, Smells sorta like spearment.Cherry is good also but not as strong of aroma. Butternut is cool too.

   Red oak smells like it was watterd by all the animals that walk by the tree or piled under the fertelizer pile.

   I love the smell of the ceader also but is very dusty,We don`t see much good ceader in this part of the state >:(
                                                Lenny_M



Jeff

Never noticed a smell on our basswood either, of course we tell new guys thats how it got its name because thats what it smells like. Cotton wood can be R>A>N>K!!!! Bam and some of the other lowland hardwoods can smell a foul also. some of the smelliest are logs that have rotten spots that can accumulate water. I have sawn logs that spewes like geysers. My guess is that the hollow spot collects water, then heals over, then that water ferments and builds pressure. I have had logs blow out moisture under pressure for what seemed like minutes although it was probably only 10 to 20 seconds. :) One I am thinking of I turned and let the water spray straight up, almost to the ceiling.

I guess I have sawn so long that I really dont have a smell that I like. Cookies. I like Cookies. ;D
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Engineer

My favorites are black or yellow birch, especially black. Cherry and white pine are nice too.

Hate red oak.  P.U.  :(

bull

 I thinks people are mistaken Black oak for Red oak. My kids call black oak / Redsox oak because they say it smells like the Jon's At Fenway Park. When I was growing up we called it Pi$$ Oak........ Red Oak smells like a Wiskey Barrel... Not to Bad

Percy

Green freshcut Sitka Spruce smells kinda nice up here, like carpenters wood glue almost. Western Red Cedar, well it does smell nice at first but Im sick of it and developing reactions to it these days(Gotta wear masks). Alaskan Yellow Cedar when its green smells like cat pee almost ..yuk... but with no bark and the moisture level down, it has a smell thats like nothing else Ive ever smelled before. I dont mind it but it has to be very toxic as the smell hangs around for days after cutting it.
GOLDEN RULE : The guy with the gold, makes the rules.

leweee

 Thanks for pointing that out bull. Our Northern Red Oak
has a sweet carmal smell. From the way this thread was going sounded like I liked the smell of K9P ::) just Northern Red Oak Please. ;D. Sawed some basswood this sping that had white fungus growing out of the bark. got an allergic reaction from breathing the dust...wear a mask now :o.
just another beaver with a chainsaw &  it's never so bad that it couldn't get worse.

beenthere

A lot of the oaks, especially in the red oak group (as well as other species) can become bacterially infected, which will give the wood a very bad smell. This wood is also hard to dry without degrade (I believe high in moisture content).
A search on "bacterially infected oak" will bring up a laundry list of things to read about, which will explain a lot of the 'bad' smells sawyers find. Probably good to dry that smelly wood differently too.  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Buzz-sawyer

I love thr  sweet and fruity smell of RED oak on the mill or in the shop pin oak is far less pleasant and white is a a nutty subtle scent
    HEAR THAT BLADE SING!

Bibbyman

When I was a kid I helped dad cut stave bolts.  We cut a lot of old-growth white oak. All of it smells like wiskey barrels but the old growth stuff really did.  Never noted red or black oak smelling that way.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Brian_Bailey

Red Elm sets my nose buds a tingling, phewy  :D.

Love the smell of fresh cut pumpkin pine  :).
WMLT40HDG35, Nyle L-150 DH Kiln, now all I need is some logs and someone to do the work :)

Bro. Noble

Sycamore has a pleasing aroma too :)
milking and logging and sawing and milking

Gipper

In this neck of the woods, our Northern Red Oak has a pleasant smell, and like Bull said, I think a lot of people confuse it with the Black Oak, which certainly smells as he described it.  Worse than a urinal that has not been flushed in several days.  The poplar here has a good smell unless it is bad in the heart, then it can be really bad.  Our walnut and cherry both have pleasant odors.  Bass wood is not a good odor either.

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