Favorite smelling wood (or other material) to turn

Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
JasonM

JasonM

Member
Joined
Jul 6, 2008
Messages
175
Location
Waxahachie, Tx. USA
Doing a lot of prep work for projects this past weekend and it had me drilling and cutting a variety of woods.

I was working with some BOW and was reminded again how much I love working with that wood. Not just the ease of working with it, but the smell is wonderful to me. I'm also a big fan of the smell from working with Tulipwood.

I know there are probably a ton of other pleasantly fragrant woods out there I've never even heard of.

What are some of your favorites?
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
BOW, of course. But Paduak is also really good.

Though it should be mentioned that we preferably shouldn't be able to answer this, as our lung protection should make sure that the wood/dust doesn't reach our nose... But that's only in an ideal world.

Other than antler, most everything smells good to me.... Even acrylic...
 
JasonM said:
I know there are probably a ton of other pleasantly fragrant woods out there I've never even heard of. What are some of your favorites?
Click to expand...

You'll never forget the scent of western yellow cedar once you've worked with it... As nice as my wife's fancy purfume... :)
 
I like the smell of antler. Smells like money! :-)

But, seriously folks... Olive wood is about the only thing I can think of that actually smells good that I've turned. I hear about some of the others, but must have never gotten around to turning any.
 
There are indeed a few wood species that have a strong smell that are in most cases pleasurable to most people, I say this because not long ago I had a fellow that openly admitted that he totally hates the smell of Olive wood...!:eek:

There are 4 to which I work regularly with and I can never get enough of their smell, they are Olive wood, Macrocarpa, and Knotted pine (full of resin) and my #39 Australian Eucalyptus Peninsularis (oil producer). The strongest of them all, of the 44 species I work with, is the dry Macrocarpa, just something else...!

Olive wood smells a lot stronger and better when is green and semi-dry, when very dry, most of the resins are gone, and so most of its smell...!

Cheers
George
 
Last edited:
I LOVE the way that Bloodwood smells... It sort of smells like a mixture of berries and citrus.

I've been using an Ivory altrnative that smells like Coconut when it gets cut...
 
Zebrawood...smells like fresh zebra chit! OK, I kid, I kid!

Sassafrass...minty smelling to me.
ERC....smells like moms HOPE chest.




Scott (garage still smells funny) B
 
Sandalwood has got to be my favorite... I was lucky enough to have someone bring me a few pieces back from a trip to India... Amazing smell, but very plain looking wood.

I like bocote... It smells like pickles to me.

Amboyna and the rosewoods are nice as well.
 
I'm super excited now! I just bought some BOW blanks that I'm going to use on a set of pens for my parents. I've never worked with it before, so now I have something to really look forward to. I just turned my first lignum vitae blank and thought it smelled nice. I was also surprised how nice it looked when I was done vs. what the blank looked like before turning.
 
A friend just brought me a suitcase full of wood from Peru. There was a number of pieces of a wood called ishpingo and I just turned it a few days ago. It was wonderful smelling---very much like vanilla.

Carmen
 
NewLondon88 said:
SDB777 said:
Zebrawood...smells like fresh zebra chit! OK, I kid, I kid!
Click to expand...

Oh, be honest. it DOES smell like chit! First time I turned it, I kept checking
my shoes to see what I stepped in.
Click to expand...


Wife walked out in the garage while I was turning it and wondered what I had done. Guess she thought I had dropped a buscuit!



Scott (the smell was in my clothes for days) B
 
One that has not been mentioned:

Mango. Got to turn one piece last year---caused me to purchase several blanks---now, I just have to get it on the lathe, again!!
 
some of my favorites are padauk, and olive wood(sometimes),



Some of the nasty ones are in no particular order, PR, Indian Rosewood, Zebrawood(i checked if my dogs got into my shop 1st time), just to name a few.
 
Signed-In Members Don't See This Ad
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom