Favourite wood smell?

[image132]

Yeah, you read the subject right. I rediscovered the other day that I love the smell of cut oak. Since I don't get much chance to work with oak here, because it's so expensive and I'm not in a profession with woodwork, it reminded why I love working with wood.

Anyway my point is which wood smell do you like the most and which do you dislike/hate the most?

Edit: Wanted to find out the negative as well.

 

[Wood_Junkie]

I *love* the smell of Olivewood and Tulipwood.

I made myself an Amboyna Burl cigar style pen about a year ago, and it still smells.  It's interesting, and robust, but I don't like it that much.

Ironically, I've cut about 1000lf of red oak doing molding work in the past 18 months, and I can't stand it anymore!

 

[PaulMarcel]

Cutting Alder smells like popcorn

 

[jonny round boy]

I like the smell of oak, but you can't beat the scent of crappy pine!

 

[Brice Burrell]

I can't say I like any particular wood smell over another but there is at least one I really don't like.....Spanish cedar. I used to work with a lot of it for exterior trim. That was when it was more reasonably priced. I've since switched to PVC trim boards (Azek). If you've ever cut Azek you know it's not a whole lot better of a smell.

 

[zapdafish]

Pine smells pretty good, I almost burned some black walnut the other day drilling dowels and realized it had a nice sweet smell  [big grin]

 

[Jonhilgen]

Western red cedar. not spanish cedar.  Brice is right on that one, it smells and tastes bad.

I also like wormy chestnut.

FYI, I worked in a shop with a guy we used to call the "wood sniffer."  That guy spent too much time sniffing the wood he worked...Strange.

 

[AlexThePalex]

I like the smell of pine too. I can't say I have much experience with any other type of wood though. I mostly use pine, MDF or particle board. Can't say I'm so fond of the smell of MDF or particle board.

 

[woodguy7]

Western red cedar is nice & old pitch pine is lovely when you cut into it.  I too am a bit sick of Oak now.  To many Oak staircases  [crying]

Woodguy

 

[FEStastic]

I love the smell of pitch pine and also Oak
Its great working with real wood not just MDF which smell yuck  [crying]
The worst is some WBP ply which smell of cat pee  [eek]

 

[johnnyinnb]

while in Bermuda i was making pens from Bermuda cedar, very unique smell

 

[Jesse Cloud]

Bear with me please for a slightly off topic story...

We were visiting one of the local Indian reservations here in New Mexico and stopped at the gift shop.  They had a video running of the process they use to give their pottery a black glaze.  It involved covering the clay with cow dung and putting the mess in an oven.

A tourist asked the native who ran the shop "Doesn't that smell awful?"

His reply: "It smells like money to me."

 

[mastercabman]

I think Oak smells like crap!! [laughing]  Really don't like it!
But i do like Cherry.

 

[bobbobbob]

Lets see as far as nastiest smells, I'd have to go with Hawaiian signature(?) wood.  Beautiful stuff, but even a small piece will make you want to leave the shop - fast!  When I still had a Jet canister DC, imbuia and Alaskan yellow cedar would make you want to puke (too overwhelming).  Each on their own is fine in the board, but using the dc just about had me heaving.

 

[Chris Hughes]

Poplar smells worse than oak, oak smells real bad to me.  I love the smell of American cherry.  Lacewood made my head swell and I had to take a couple of days off because of the allergic reaction to it.

 

[Wonderwino]

Eastern White Pine is a smell that brings back memories of my Dad teaching me how to use hand tools as a child.  I played with some sugar maple once that smells good, as does mulberry.

 

[Wood_Junkie]

Lets see as far as nastiest smells, I'd have to go with Hawaiian signature(?) wood. 

Koa?

 

[erikfsn]

I cut some Ash for the first time in 25 years the other day and it brought back memories. It smelled nice to me, but the thing that stood out was how the smell reminded me of other things.

 

[image132]

I cut some Ash for the first time in 25 years the other day and it brought back memories. It smelled nice to me, but the thing that stood out was how the smell reminded me of other things.

Yep, nostalgia. I get that when ever I smell pine saw dust. Reminds me of when I was much younger and my dad would be working on sanding something and I would be cutting small pieces of pine with a hand saw to make an aeroplane.

 

[bobbobbob]

Lets see as far as nastiest smells, I'd have to go with Hawaiian signature(?) wood. 

Koa?

It's definitely not koa, as I do not object to the smell of koa.  The signature wood was harder than a rock and definitely was spalted.  Much harder than purpleheart, bubinga, etc.  It looks great but smells so awful...