# Best smelling wood



## Ehouse (Jan 4, 2013)

I've been burning through some well seasoned Ironwood for this cold snap (-8* yesterday morning).  It has a delightful, nutty aroma and has to rank as my new favorite.  What's yours?

Ehouse


----------



## Ralphie Boy (Jan 4, 2013)

May not have the 'best' aroma but cherry is my favorite.

Where in Upstate, N.Y.? We have family in Columbia County and a cabin on 13th Lake, not too far out of North Creek.


----------



## Ehouse (Jan 4, 2013)

Ralphie Boy said:


> May not have the 'best' aroma but cherry is my favorite.
> 
> Where in Upstate, N.Y.? We have family in Columbia County and a cabin on 13th Lake, not too far out of North Creek.


 

Cooperstown area, north of Otsego lake.  I used to work the railroad up North Creek way.


----------



## ScotO (Jan 4, 2013)

Applewood is the best smelling wood when burning, hands down.......I have almost a cord of it that I use for cooking/smoking.  Coming up close second is hickory, which is just ahead of white oak......then cherry.....maple and ash....

Anything but willow!!  Thats the WORST one, hands down!!


----------



## Ehouse (Jan 4, 2013)

Scotty Overkill said:


> Applewood is the best smelling wood when burning, hands down.......I have almost a cord of it that I use for cooking/smoking. Coming up close second is hickory, which is just ahead of white oak......then cherry.....maple and ash....
> 
> Anything but willow!! Thats the WORST one, hands down!!
> 
> Dang, Scotty!  My Ironwood didn't even make your short list!  Never burned willow but I'd have to add Popple and Box Elder to the stinkers.  Thinking about it, I burned what I think was Pin Cherry earlier in the year and it had a nice fruity plum smell.


----------



## ScotO (Jan 4, 2013)

Ehouse said:


> Dang, Scotty! My Ironwood didn't even make your short list! Never burned willow but I'd have to add Popple and Box Elder to the stinkers. Thinking about it, I burned what I think was Pin Cherry earlier in the year and it had a nice fruity plum smell.


I never had the pleasure of burning Ironwood, Ehouse.  I wish I could comment on it for ya, though.  Another wood I've never burned (and they say it smells phenomenal) is pecan.  

I agree with the "stinkers" though, we can also throw basswood into that list IMO.


----------



## geoxman (Jan 4, 2013)

peach then sassafras for me.


----------



## lukem (Jan 4, 2013)

Apple smells the best when burning....without a doubt.  I like walnut the best when cutting, but white oak smells pretty good too.  Some people think walnut stinks but I love it.


----------



## ScotO (Jan 4, 2013)

lukem said:


> Apple smells the best when burning....without a doubt.  I like walnut the best when cutting, but white oak smells pretty good too.  Some people think walnut stinks but I love it.


When cutting it's  white oak, walnut, sassafras, and birch for me....

Love that furniture smell of fresh cut walnut.  I have a stack of boards in the garage seasoning right now, the whole garage smells like a furniture factory!


----------



## yooperdave (Jan 4, 2013)

I don't know why, but I always enjoyed the aroma of the burning bark of a yellow birch...you know, the stringy part that catches fire like mad??


----------



## Freakingstang (Jan 4, 2013)

cutting/splitting red oak, ash and walnut

Burning: cherry, apple, pecan.


----------



## rideau (Jan 4, 2013)

Loive burning ironwood.  For the heat.

Maybe I am challenged, but I don't smell the different woods when burning them in my Woodstock stoves...didn't with the Fireview, don't with the PH.   Guess I'm missing some of the pleasure. 

Love to look at maple burning...get a green flame off it.  White birch gives a shining whitish flame.  Ironwood a really hot blue flame.  Love the different flames the different woods generate.


----------



## Jags (Jan 4, 2013)

Cutting - its cherry

Burning - Its cherry and hickory.


----------



## firefighterjake (Jan 4, 2013)

Apple, cherry and eastern white cedar.


----------



## homebrewz (Jan 4, 2013)

When cutting, black birch. I'm surprised no one has mentioned it yet. I love that wintergreen smell. When burning, probably apple.


----------



## mywaynow (Jan 4, 2013)

Cherry, Hickory then Walnut. Don't forget Oak, Beech and Ash. Then there's Dogwood, Maple and .......... but never Locust, at least before dusk.


----------



## Shane N (Jan 4, 2013)

I like the smell of cutting pine. It's like Christmas year 'round.


----------



## scroungerjeff (Jan 4, 2013)

Hoping to get a quality load of hickory. Have burned very little of it so I am not sure what to expect regarding smell. I believe it is a mockernut hickory that is down so not sure how that ranks against shagbark or shellbark. Anyone familiar with the subtle differences?  I agree that locust is great to split but stinky to burn.


----------



## andrewdee (Jan 4, 2013)

Sugar Maple for me !


----------



## jeff_t (Jan 4, 2013)

One of my customers is across the interstate and downwind from a Cracker Barrel. It's always fun to climb out of the truck and figure out what they are burning. Lately it's been ash and maple, but sometimes they get some hickory. Then, down the street there is a meat market that also sells barbecue take out. I drive by there again about 8:30, shortly after they fire up the smoker. Always cherry, apple, or hickory.

That's really the only highlight of my job.


----------



## fossil (Jan 4, 2013)

Western Larch (Tamarack).  Whenever I'm loading/reloading that wood, I have to go outside and smell it.  I love it.  Rick


----------



## Backwoods Savage (Jan 4, 2013)

Nothing comes close to sassafras when it comes to pleasant odor.


----------



## Hearth Mistress (Jan 4, 2013)

Ok, I don't smell my woodstove, only when I'm smoking am I paying attention to the smoke smell. Maybe it's becase I burn mostly ash in my stove, which to me doesn't smell like anything, other than wood burning 

However, when I'm smoking meat, pecan is tops than it's a tie between apple and cherry. Unless of course, I'm using wood chips made from Jack Daniels barrels, then neighbors I never knew I had are lured to my smoker to find out what that beautiful aroma is


----------



## Thistle (Jan 4, 2013)

Cutting - Black Cherry,Black Walnut,White Oak (includes Bur Oak,Post Oak etc),Slippery/Red Elm (not much left around here,smells like cinnamon),Eastern Red Cedar.Not much Apple around here,that I have access to anyway.

Burning - Black Cherry,Apple,Hickory,Norway/Silver Maple (like maple syrup!!),Scrap Yellow/White Pine/Doug Fir,Black Walnut,White Oak,Red Elm.

Smoking - Cherry or Apple for pretty much everything including poultry or salmon,its not overpowering,Hickory for beef/pork,mesquite for beef especially.Mulberry in small amounts mixed with White Oak is really nice.Also had great results with 50/50 mixes of White Oak/Cherry,Red & White Oak/Mesquite (most intense coals I've had so far) & White Oak/Hickory.


A year or so back tried 50/50 Norway Maple/Cherry in the Weber kettle on some wild caught store bought Norwegian Salmon filets resting on a soaked Western Red Cedar plank.... WOW.


----------



## oldogy (Jan 4, 2013)

I have burned but a limited variety, but cherry followed by hickory would be my votes.


----------



## coaly (Jan 4, 2013)

We're always putting orange peels on the stove top at moderate temps. One has to wonder if orange wood smells like, er... orange?


----------



## bogydave (Jan 4, 2013)

Of the 2 choices I have (Birch & spruce) , spruce smells the best unless it's a log with allot of pitch.

The black smoke off the birch bark  is nasty stuff.

The smell of it in the stack seasoning, birch smells pretty good & the spruce don't have much odor at all. 

Neither wood has the good smell of the smoker when using "store bought" apple or hickory.


----------



## BuckthornBonnie (Jan 4, 2013)

Apple, Lilac, Hickory all smell nice to me.

A lot of the other hardwoods have the traditional "firewood" smell goin on... which I also love.

The worst is an undergrowth tree my old man loves cutting from wet areas.  The stuff is terrible!! (but very dense).


----------



## The Beagler (Jan 4, 2013)

Favorites: cherry & apple. Hickory & walnut a close second.  Worst: ornamental pear & tulip poplar


----------



## StihlHead (Jan 4, 2013)

Alder, apple, pecan, doug fir, larch, cherry/plum, & maple.

The bad 'uns: cottonwood, willow, aspen, & poplar all smell like cat pee.


----------



## Gark (Jan 4, 2013)

Eucalyptus.


----------



## StihlHead (Jan 4, 2013)

Eucs grow in Michigan?


----------



## Wood Duck (Jan 4, 2013)

When cutting i think Black Birch is the best because of the wintergreen smell, although I generally like the smell of most oaks, pines, red cedar, fruit woods, sassafras, maple, and I guess most woods.

I can't smell the wood when it burns in the stove unless I am outside, and then only until the secondaries kick in. With the secondaries burning it all smells like burning coal to me, which isn't a great smell in my opinion.


----------



## Cross Cut Saw (Jan 5, 2013)

I have very limited experience to reference from but I always like a little birch or white oak.

The birch is almost like incense, we used to have this little log cabin incense burner my mom would light up around the holidays, reminds me of that...


----------



## airportsteve (Jul 18, 2019)

I see that many think elm smells badly, but to me it smells like a horse barn or mules when it is split. I like the smell and it burns with a sweet aromatic smell. Maybe I am using a different specie of elm than some. It splits fairly well, and heartwood is rather dark when wet with a small ring of sapwood.


----------



## David.Ervin (Jul 18, 2019)

Cherry seems to be the most aromatic wood I've got access to.  One split in a load of other stuff, and you can smell it outside.  Hickory smells wonderful too, but makes me hungry for barbecue.


----------



## hickoryhoarder (Jul 25, 2019)

Apple, red oak, and sassafrass.


----------



## CincyBurner (Jul 26, 2019)

Nothing finer than the smell white oak seasoning in the stacks.  The aroma drifting on on a warm fall day is reminiscent of a nice bourbon.


----------



## CincyBurner (Jul 26, 2019)

_Cedrus_ (true cedars).  Native to Mediterranean and Himalayas (e.g. cedar of Lebanon, like in the Bible).  It's planted occasionally in the U.S. as a landscape specimen.
If you ever see anyone removing one try to snag some of the wood.  Oils in its wood make it extremely fragrant (incense like in intensity and smell).  My dad had a chunk of cedar wood stored 20+ years.  It was still fragrant when lightly sanded.
Great for woodworking, for making cedar chests (much more striking aroma than our non-related Eastern red cedar _Juniperus viginiana_).


----------



## billb3 (Aug 1, 2019)

Yellow birch and sassafras, but we don't have much of either of those.  Mostly have red maple which I don't like the smell of at all when I'm burning it and I'm outside, red and white oak which is rather a neutral and pine which I associate with campfire  because it is so prevalent at campgrounds. Cherry is OK but haven't had much of it lately.


----------



## Jan Pijpelink (Aug 1, 2019)

Nothing smells better and sweeter than free wood.


----------



## Sawset (Aug 2, 2019)

CincyBurner said:


> Nothing finer than the smell white oak seasoning in the stacks.  The aroma drifting on on a warm fall day is reminiscent of a nice bourbon.


I was trying to put my finger on it. I didn't want to sound redundant and plain saying I liked the smell of oak over all others, but that's it - only it's from the oak the wine barrels. When I walk by a freshly split stack, drying in the sun, or on a warm foggy morning sunrise - damp, luscious. Especially a large fresh split, stick my nose in it, breath deep.


----------



## lindnova (Aug 4, 2019)

Cherry is my favorite. Love the sweet smell when cutting.


----------



## Jazzberry (Aug 8, 2019)

All of the above posters have obviously never burned any Incense Cedar which there is nothing else even close.


----------



## HisTreeNut (Aug 8, 2019)

Have to agree that free smells pretty much the best to me also...but if I had a favorite combo...maple and applewood, with bacon frying along with a fresh pot of coffee brewing...


Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk


----------

