Favourite wood smell?

[butzla]

I'm building a workbench out of Ash and I love the smell when I walk into the shop.  I also like cherry.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Nothing comes even close to being as good as the smell of fresh cut cedar.  Not only does it smell good, but the smell brings back so many happy memories.

My least favourite is the smell of walnut when I am cutting it -although I like working with walnut.

 

[bonesbr549]

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?

Easy one, aromatic cedar!  Love it. 

 

[jvsteenb]

The best: Western Red Cedar ( thuja plicata ), Pine ( pinus spec. ) , spruce ( picea spec. ). Cherry is nice, Oak is nice.

The worst: Bankirai ( shorea laevis etc. ) smells hideous ! Strange, for other shorea species ( like Meranti ) smell rather nice when freshly cut...

Regards,

Job

 

[waynelang2001]

The smell i enjoy the most must be pink beech, i guess mostly because it brings back memories of when i was about 9 or 10 and tried my hand at making wooden puppets from long beech dowels sticks. Id cut them to length with a hacksaw blade then pop them in the hand drill one at a time. I must have spent about  hours with a piece of old sander paper holding down the power on the drill and rounding the corners of each dowel my hand with the sandpaper[tongue]

Worst smell for me so far has to be brown kiaat......it burns my nostrils and eyes, and doesnt taste all that good either.

 

[jacko9]

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.

Chris if you want to marry the smell and taste of Oak try what I accidentally discovered while working on a project over the Holidays.  I covered a glass of champagne with a scrap piece of white oak to keep dust out of my drink and the champagne tasted incredibly better.

For my favorite wood smell, teak has a slight edge over Brazilian Rosewood. 

 

[MarkF]

I love poking my nose inside the soundhole of my guitar.  The Rosewood is like an old Vicks Menthol nasal inhaler.  Clears my head.

I remember a room mate putting a big beam of fresh cut green Hickory in our living room over a 3 week Christmas break when we were in school.  When we returned our whole house smelled like horse urine.

 

[jacko9]

I love poking my nose inside the soundhole of my guitar.  The Rosewood is like an old Vicks Menthol nasal inhaler.  Clears my head.

I remember a room mate putting a big beam of fresh cut green Hickory in our living room over a 3 week Christmas break when we were in school.  When we returned our whole house smelled like horse urine.

Mark, I don't know what kind of finish your guitar had on it but, freshly cut rosewood (dalberga nigra) smells like red roses.  I read somewhere (I think it was in one of James Knenov's books) that finishing the inside of cabinets and drawers leads to a rancid smell over time.  Could that be the smell in your guitar?

 

[MarkF]

The guitar is definitely not giving off a rank, rancid odor.  If you've ever toured the Martin guitar factory in Nazareth, PA or Taylor in El Cahon, CA you know the exact aroma I'm talking about as they have thousands of board feet of it dried, machined, stacked and ready to go.  The outside finish is a UV cured Polyester.  Inside is raw.

I have had guitars which spent too much time in musty basements, smelly vans and smoky bars.  They definitely fit in the rank category although we had much more fun together [big grin]

 

[dltflt]

My favorite would be Walnut with Oak as a close second.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

I love poking my nose inside the soundhole of my guitar.  The Rosewood is like an old Vicks Menthol nasal inhaler.  Clears my head.

I remember a room mate putting a big beam of fresh cut green Hickory in our living room over a 3 week Christmas break when we were in school.  When we returned our whole house smelled like horse urine.

Funny how reading this reminded me of that smell of my guitar when I was young.  I didn't poke my nose in that often.  [big grin]

 

[Guy Ashley]

I love poking my nose inside the soundhole of my guitar.  The Rosewood is like an old Vicks Menthol nasal inhaler.  Clears my head.

I remember a room mate putting a big beam of fresh cut green Hickory in our living room over a 3 week Christmas break when we were in school.  When we returned our whole house smelled like horse urine.

Funny how reading this reminded me of that smell of my guitar when I was young.  I didn't poke my nose in that often.  [big grin]

Ken, that has changed with age then! [poke] [bite tongue]

 

[Ken Nagrod]

;D ;D ;D

 

[Deansocial]

I love poking my nose inside the soundhole of my guitar.  The Rosewood is like an old Vicks Menthol nasal inhaler.  Clears my head.

I remember a room mate putting a big beam of fresh cut green Hickory in our living room over a 3 week Christmas break when we were in school.  When we returned our whole house smelled like horse urine.

Funny how reading this reminded me of that smell of my guitar when I was young.  I didn't poke my nose in that often.  [big grin]

What did you poke in it then? [scared]

 

[Davej]

Propely quartered English seasoned oak , as rare as hens teeth , seriously hard to work with , but beautiful .

 

[Mavrik]

Cutting Alder smells like popcorn

Yes!
I was sanding a guitar body made from Alder & my daughter came into my workshop and said "smells like popcorn"

My favourite smell is an african wood called Kiaat.
Also like Madagascan Rosewood.
I had a "doh" moment as I realized why it was called Rosewood.

 

[nehardwoodfloors]

Maine, red birch. I love it.

 

[davee]

I try to only use local and sustainable woods.  This is just a personal preference, not a strong belief.  Walnut is pungent but I like it.  I really like both maple (smells like syrup) and oak.  Poplar reminds me of shop class in high school.  I am allergic to pine and have to wear a mask when working with it.  This is partially what brought be me to Festool in the first place.  I can at least sand pine without a mask when using the Festool sanders and vacuum.

 

[Trosey]

Sassafras

 

[Kev]

Camphor smells nice