Smell my Wood...

Good:
Sometimes White Oak smells like honey.

Bad:
Sometimes Poplar smells like dog doo.

-- What exactly is "The Move" and who are you calling a "Quirky Jerk"? -- http://www.north40custom.com

It is a fact that our lungs have over two acres of surface area. This is why any fumes that are dangerous to our health can get into our blood stream very quickly. There are a lot of woods that are toxic, or will aggravate those who have allergies.

With the availability of so many exotic woods today, it is important to have a list of woods and their toxic levels. If you are cutting a type of wood with harm potential, it is a good idea to take the necessary steps to protect yourself.

-- "Heaven is North of the Bridge"

Pine has got to be one of the best smells there is. I think that is cause it is the most widely used wood out there. But my all time favorite is Black Cherry I love to smell it I love to work it I love the look it has I just love Black Cherry. But you are right there is a memory to the smell I get from woods. Thanks for the post it did bring back some fond memories for me.

-- There is nothing in life better than sawdust and suds but don't get your sawdust in your suds

People walk into my shop and comment on the smell of leather and wood. Unfortunately those are two smells I can’t pick up much. I wish I could still smell them. My nose sure works over time on smells I’d rather forget.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Walnut’s my favorite.

-- Earle Wright, Lenoir City, Tennessee

I’m a big fan of walnut also. I like white oak, aromatic red cedar, teak, and sugar pine just to name a few.

-- bobdurnell, Santa Ana California.

A topic near and dear to my heart, having blogged a bit about it in my workshop postings: “home of the sense of smell is the Olfactory bulb at the center of the brain above the brainstem, in an area of the brain called the limbic system. There are areas there that are responsible for emotional response to memory, so that there seems to be a sound physiologic association between scent and memory.”

I love the rosewoods, conifers and Spanish cedar, not so fond of ebony (smelly socks).

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

Great comments so far. I wanted to relate another of my own.

Earlier this year (you may remember this post) I reclaimed part of a maple tree stump and borrowed a chainsaw to cut it to dry-able lengths. After working on it in the cold air one weekend for a couple hours, I came in the house and announced to my wife that I now smell like two of my favorite things: Sawdust and motor oil. <->s how a man should smell!

~Danny Boy

-- Happy Ripping!!!

Cherry, Sasafrass, red cedar are some of my favorites

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

I have to agree with Karson here, I love the smell of Red Cedar and Sassafras. As a kid, living north of Houston, I helped my father clear several acres of land that had a bunch of Sassafras which we cut up for firewood (I would cry now) and loved both the smell of it being cut by the chainsaw and it being burned in the wood stove.

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

Spanish Cedar and Camphor are my favorites. I agree with Tom as to the smell of wood and leather. I started doing leather work years ago just because I loved the smell of leather.

-- Growing older but not up!

I vote for walnut, cherry is good also.

Rich

-- Talent on Loan from God - Rush Limbaugh

Paduck, Cedar, Mahogany = good
Bass, Zebrawood = Bad

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Walnut, White Oak, Ponderosa Pine, and Lodgepole = good

Elm = awful (smells like the sheep barn at the County Fair when green)

-- Arnie

cedar defanantly cedar

-- Mark from Deer Park, Texas

Cedar and pine make my list but fresh cherry tops it!

-- Bob Vila would be so proud of you!

Funny thing is: Cedar is highly toxic.

-- Happy Ripping!!!

Cutting into cypress you can smell ALL the smells of the swamp all rolled into one! Pretty sour stuff but easy to work and looks great too. Here’s a little info about some of the “nasty” woods. Pay heed as some are downright harmful on some level.

http://wiki.bmezine.com/index.php/Wood_Hazards

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

Walnut, Cedar, and Paduck

-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota

Bubinga smells nice, too. I also like Padauk and I have a piece of Sassafras waiting to be used in a Jewelry box for my Sassy Wife and have been hoping that the reports of good smell from that one will be true. I couldn’t really get any smell off of it with just my sniffer and the rest of the competing smells in my shop.

I agree with the chainsaw and sawdust smell. It definitely brings up fond memories of working with my father and brothers clearing the property when I was seven or eight. Mostly oak and manzanita at the time. In retrospect, I see all the boardfeet of lumber that we sold for firewood and cringe at the thought of being able to use it now. A very large oak tree fell down last winter on my parents place up in Jamestown, CA and I wish I had known there was a mobile miller up there now, as the wood eventually got cut into rounds for firewood. The good news is that we all expected it take out the house when it went, including the professional tree faller they called in to check it out, and when it did eventually fall down in the storm, it missed the house by a foot.

VT Woody. Sasafrass smells like rootbeer So you will know when you start cutting it.

See my Scratch and Sniff blog

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

yellow birch/red birch, smells like wintergreen

-- barlow

birch, walnut, cherry, mahogany, pine, fir, red cedar and white oak have a nice smell

cotton wood stinks

-- ..... art for lifes sake

Cedar shakes, my father was a Roofing Contractor and so am I, its a smell I will never tire of. Also hot tar grew up with the smell and learned that it actually smelled like money, go figure.

-- Ron Central, CA

I just worked some Lignum Vitae. It had a very pleasant smell. Cedar is always nice.

-- Maplewood, MN

Lignum Vitae smells great. I did a trade and ended up with some and love the smell.

Pine is probably tops for me followed by Bloodwood (some kind of a potpourri’ish smell) and then Padauk. Also, when I rout knotty alder it smells like kettle-cooked popcorn. I don’t like the sawdust from Padauk though, makes everything look like its covered in carrot shavings (no dust collection yet).

-- Sawdust is life

Ever smelled Blood Wood? to me it smells like sweet figs. Search me…lol I dont know it just does.

-- A duck that brags on his own pond, soon swims alone.

Cherry, Walnut and sassafras = good

Zebrawood and my finger = BAD.

: )

-- Jeff, Indiana

Bloodwood definately. I am currently making a humidor and like the smell of the spanish cedar but a far second to bloodwood.

One day I bought a sampler bag of veneers during lunch and opened it in my car to check out the pieces inside. When I came out of work at the end of the day I loved the smell inside the car. I still have a piece or two in my car as an air freshner. I thought this would be a perfect “you must be a lumberjack” post but someone else beat me to it.

The smell that brings me back to a good time with dad is Bondo. My dad and I built a 1965 Mustang GT together when I was in high school.

Tim