That smell

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woodboys

woodboys

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2008
Messages
251
Location
Rogers,Ark.
I just turned some marblewood and that has a little odor to it and I've been cutting up a lot of desert ironwood lately and that has a little odor to it and I got to thinking what is the stinkyest wood you've turned?
 
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Marblewood is probably some of the stinkiest I've turned, but you haven't experienced stink until you've turned antler or tooth.
 
I watched someone turn a crabapple bowl and to me it smelt like a baby's dirty diaper.

Some red oaks when sanding a floor to refinish, smells like you pissed in the radiator at school. Floor finishers around here call it **** oak.

I know most of the local woods by there smell while working.
 
I have turned a wood called Black Stinkwood. When you work with it it smells like a old outhouse seat that been "%$&#" on for 40years, but the wood is very pretty and therefore the smell is worth enduring.
For those who like details:
Ocotea bullata (Stinkwood tree) is a species of flowering plant in the family Lauraceae, native to South Africa.
Other names for it are Cape Walnut, Stinkhout, Cape Laurel and Laurel wood. It derives its name from having a strong and unpleasant smell when fresh felled or processed.
 
Yellow heart smells like urine to me. Camphor is quite pungent, but to me very few things smell as bad as green oak.
 
Water Buffalo horn makes my workshop smell like I'm working in a cesspool. It's even worse when you start grinding it and making a fine dust. No respirator in the world can combat that smell.
 
pipecrafter said:
Water Buffalo horn makes my workshop smell like I'm working in a cesspool. It's even worse when you start grinding it and making a fine dust. No respirator in the world can combat that smell.
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Okay, that's officially crossed off my turning list:biggrin:

And I guess I may as well cancel a segmented Buffalo Horn and Black Stinkwood combo:giggle:
 
Russian Olive is one of the nastiest woods I've turned! But as someone mentioned above, antler beats that hands down!

Scott.
 
I'd have to agree with the yellowheart and marblewood. DocStram gave me some marblewood a few years ago and I thought it was old wood from a chickencoop or something. Smelled like chicken crap. I drilled it and didnt turn it because I was scared it had some sort of bacteria in it.
 
Skye said:
I'd have to agree with the yellowheart and marblewood. DocStram gave me some marblewood a few years ago and I thought it was old wood from a chickencoop or something. Smelled like chicken crap. I drilled it and didnt turn it because I was scared it had some sort of bacteria in it.
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Yeah .. and get this. Skye wanted a lousy refund. Like, what was that all about?? I mean, $8 a blank for Stink wood seemed reasonable to me. :biggrin::biggrin:
 
I thought Desert Ironwood was bad, it does smell like petrified dino-dung, then i moved up a notch and tried antlers (which will in fact chase all family members from the house, FWIW), The water buffalo horn chased ME out of the house! Where can I find some of that ebonite????:biggrin:
 
I'd have to cast my vote for zebrawood. Smells like a wet dog, no lie. I use a hardcore DC setup where I have suction at every station where I cut, drill, or turn the wood. I don't smell anything now :biggrin: Seriously, though, you need to learn about a lot of these woods. If you can smell the wood at all, then you're breathing in some nasty, harmful dust. Anything in the rosewood (dalbergia) family esp.

I had an order for 75 tulipwood pens last year, and the first day I turned them for about 9 hours straight with no DC, well I got poison ivy all on my forearms!!! Turns out the active allergen in poison ivy is also in tulipwood. I hooked up a DC setup and didn't have a problem after that. SERIOUSLY though, some of these woods we work with are TOXIC TOXIC TOXIC!! I have a couple references I found if you want to know which woods you should be extra careful with:
http://www.gvwg.ca/docs/Articles/WoodToxicity.htm
 

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You have to wonder what made someone decide to cut some of these woods up the first time. Like the stinkwood Constant talked about. I can see it now.
Someone walks by a storm damaged tree and goes what's that smell? And finds out it's the tree and goes gee I think I'll make my buddy a present out of that. Or better yet a pen so he can have that s**t in his hands all day. YUUUCK
 
in reply to a workshop smelling like ass there is a wood that goes by the name of Ichii-Gashi (Quercus Gilva, Formosa) I kid you not!!!!! And I think one should at least wash your hands after handeling it:eek::eek: perhaps you should have said its my Ichii gashi
 
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Constant Laubscher said:
I have turned a wood called Black Stinkwood. When you work with it it smells like a old outhouse seat that been "%$&#" on for 40years, but the wood is very pretty and therefore the smell is worth enduring.quote]

Hmmm... you just gave me another source for pen stock. Up here in Maine there are a lot of old outhouse seats... :biggrin:
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jtrusselle said:
Hmmm... you just gave me another source for pen stock. Up here in Maine there are a lot of old outhouse seats... :biggrin:
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HA!! That would be a good pen to give away.. and mention that you like
the smell of different woods. Of course, they'll put it up to their noses..
then mention the source.

Videotape is recommended..
 
Ed, with all the Ironwood I've been doing lately my wife doesn't even want to do my laundry and tells me to wear dark clothes.
 
I had some black ebony that smelled like a wet cow lot.. not really pleasant, but made a nice pen.. I have some green willow that smells like a musty sour swamp and the green oak I turned had a sour smell to it. Most woods don't really smell all that bad to me.. I kinda like the smell of wood. Antler does have an odor, but I've done so much, I've gotten used to it. Not so fond of water buffalo, but I like the results.
 
Marblewood smells like horse crap.

I made this fishing rod grip out of marblewood and lignumvitae. I like the smell of the lignum MUCH more than the manurewood, er, uh, marblewood.
wood_handles.JPG






devowoodworking said:
Okay, that's officially crossed off my turning list:biggrin:

And I guess I may as well cancel a segmented Buffalo Horn and Black Stinkwood combo:giggle:
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Buy the stabilized horn blanks from CSA. I have turned several of them, and while they do have a smell, it's not that bad.
 
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