red oak odor

[Stwood_]

wood2woodknot said:

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One way to identify the wood is to wet it. Among old-time carpenters is was sometimes called "pi$$ oak." It is an inherent trait. The odor goes away as it airs. Can be brought back from freshly cut wood. More so if you wet the cut edge. Has no effect on finishing. Actually red oak finishes well.

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Yep

[MichaelMouse]

LongLook said:

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I frequently find oak that smells of cow manure. I'm sure it comes from pasture land and the odor is picked up from the soil.

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Lousy lumber from open grow trees in cow pastures. The best comes from the woods, where the tree had to climb to compete, making clear, straight lumber.

You eat the oats from fields fertilized with manure, how does that affect your tastebuds?

[YSU65]

MichaelMouse said:

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[blockquote]LongLook said:

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I frequently find oak that smells of cow manure. I'm sure it comes from pasture land and the odor is picked up from the soil.

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Lousy lumber from open grow trees in cow pastures. The best comes from the woods, where the tree had to climb to compete, making clear, straight lumber.

You eat the oats from fields fertilized with manure, how does that affect your tastebuds?

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[/blockquote]


??????

[R Clark]

To me, red oak varies a great deal in how it smells when it's worked. Not the best smelling under the best of circumstances. At times it smells of urine and other times it has smelled like vomit.

The smell has never carried over to the finished project, in my experience.

A quick search didn't turn up any authoritative info for me on the "why", but lots of reports about smelly oak.. My thought it that it has a lot to do with the natural acids in the wood, and maybe some fungus. When I've used homebrew vinegar/steel wool stain on red oak, I've managed to turn the work piece nearly black because of the interaction of those acids.

[MichaelMouse]

YSU65 said:

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[blockquote]MichaelMouse said:

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[blockquote]LongLook said:

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I frequently find oak that smells of cow manure. I'm sure it comes from pasture land and the odor is picked up from the soil.

---

Lousy lumber from open grow trees in cow pastures. The best comes from the woods, where the tree had to climb to compete, making clear, straight lumber.

You eat the oats from fields fertilized with manure, how does that affect your tastebuds?

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[/blockquote]


??????

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[/blockquote]
Slow down and think. You've already seen the difference, I'm sure. Open-grown trees tend to retain and enlarge lower limbs, creating stress on the trunk. Makes terrible lumber, as the growth stresses seek to relieve themselves when prospective lumber is processed. Which is why we want to have forests, not fields. Woodworkers know this forces competition for light and space, and makes straight trunks with minimum branching at lower levels.





As to the smell/taste - olfaction - of produce grown "organically," only you can tell. The rest of us know that the chemistry of growth wants chemicals based on composition, not origin, so makes poor to no use of complex molecules.

[Edwin Hackleman]

Red Oak makes good BBQ smokin' wood. I sell it and people buy it. Nobody complains. To each his own.

[mr_skittle]

I've always thought red oak "stinks" but most woods have a characteristic odor when being worked. I particularly like the smell of cherry, and once I had an unknown piece of exotic hardwood that smelled like fresh baked goodies. The smell of the workshop is one of the intangible pleasures of the craft. Smell is a powerful sense and our brain makes strong connections between odors and associated events. It's an evolutionary trait aimed at protecting ourselves. This, along with the process of building, can lead to the memories we have about building any particular piece.

[Edwin Hackleman]

I just sold two more 16-lb sacks of red oak BBQ Cookin' wood. I cut typical firewood logs in half, down to 6" to 8" lengths and then hand split them into 2" x 2" widths, just right for kettle and barrel grills.

I got this note back from a recent buyer who said, "I want to thank you for your great idea. I soaked the wood overnight in a bucket of water before smoking a 3-lb rolled pork roast in my barrel smoker using indirect heat. It was the best tasting pork I've cooked all year. There was enough in your 16-lb bag to smoke at least two or three more roasts. That's next on the agenda and I'll pass the word."

[K. L. McReynolds]

Bloodwood smells like an exotic perfume when cut.

Walnut evokes memories of wood shop in Jr. High.

Pine/fir/etc. smells 'natural' to me.

Every wood has an odor, most are palatable, some really irritate.

[Pink Floyd]

To me, Red Oak has an acrid but not unpleasant smell. I've never made the association with cat pee or a skunk. Bacteria can give any wood a bad smell. Usually it results in ring shake and the tree dying but I've sawn a lot of lumber from standing dead trees and have yet to encounter a bad smell. I have sawn dead Walnut that had a lot of ring shake but it just smelled like Walnut. Maybe I'm just more tolerant or my sniffer is not as keen as others.