Can you tell the wood type just from the smell?

[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.