# That smell



## woodboys (Dec 11, 2008)

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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## monkeynutz (Dec 11, 2008)

Marblewood is probably some of the stinkiest I've turned, but you haven't experienced stink until you've turned antler or tooth.


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## scroller99 (Dec 11, 2008)

camphor smells a little rough


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## jrc (Dec 11, 2008)

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.


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## wolftat (Dec 11, 2008)

I would have to think the blank that Curtis recently made would smell pretty bad.:biggrin:


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## Constant Laubscher (Dec 11, 2008)

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.


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## jrc (Dec 11, 2008)

Red Elm or slippery elm smells like a horse barn.


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## hewunch (Dec 11, 2008)

Yellow heart smells like urine to me. Camphor is quite pungent, but to me very few things smell as bad as green oak.


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## pipecrafter (Dec 11, 2008)

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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## devowoodworking (Dec 11, 2008)

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.


 
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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## monkeynutz (Dec 11, 2008)

devowoodworking said:


> And I guess I may as well cancel a segmented Buffalo Horn and Black Stinkwood combo:giggle:


That sounds like a good plan to me...


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## ed4copies (Dec 11, 2008)

I'll see your Water Buffalo, but I'll raise you an Ebonite!


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## markgum (Dec 11, 2008)

ZEBRA WOOD is the worse I have done


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## Scott (Dec 11, 2008)

Russian Olive is one of the nastiest woods I've turned!  But as someone mentioned above, antler beats that hands down!

Scott.


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## Skye (Dec 11, 2008)

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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## DocStram (Dec 11, 2008)

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.




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:


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## jkeithrussell (Dec 11, 2008)

markgum said:


> ZEBRA WOOD is the worse I have done


 
Yep, me too.  The pen even stinks after it has been finished.  Beautiful grain, but smelly.


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## GoodTurns (Dec 11, 2008)

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:


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## Rarest wood (Dec 11, 2008)

Smell is in the nose of the beholder


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## GouletPens (Dec 11, 2008)

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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## woodboys (Dec 11, 2008)

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


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## pipecrafter (Dec 11, 2008)

ed4copies said:


> I'll see your Water Buffalo, but I'll raise you an Ebonite!



I don't even smell that stuff anymore.  My wife, however, can detect it two floors and an air filter away.


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## JohnU (Dec 11, 2008)

I dont like Bocote.  I'll take antler any day over bocote and cocobolo.


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## wdcav1952 (Dec 11, 2008)

The first time I turned desert ironwood, my daughter walked in and said "Daddy, why does your shop smell like ass?"


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## NewLondon88 (Dec 11, 2008)

wdcav1952 said:


> "Daddy, why does your shop smell like ass?"



And then you said "Honey? Why does your breath smell like Lifebuoy?"


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## pipecrafter (Dec 11, 2008)

JohnU said:


> I dont like Bocote.  I'll take antler any day over bocote and cocobolo.



Really?  I love the smell of cocobolo.  Smells like a mix of cinnamon, allspice, and vanilla.


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## Rarest wood (Dec 11, 2008)

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 perhaps you should have said its my Ichii gashi


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## jtrusselle (Dec 11, 2008)

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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## NewLondon88 (Dec 11, 2008)

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:



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..


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## ed4copies (Dec 11, 2008)

*Sorry, Cav, too good an opportunity!*



wdcav1952 said:


> The first time I turned desert ironwood, my daughter walked in and said "Daddy, why does your shop smell like ass?"


 
So, Cav replied, "Daddy will use his talc again tomorrow, forgot this morning!"


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## woodboys (Dec 11, 2008)

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.


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## TellicoTurning (Dec 11, 2008)

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.


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## tack (Dec 11, 2008)

I'd say that the Zebrawood I turned ranked pretty high on my stink-o-meter.


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## jedgerton (Dec 11, 2008)

Maybe that stinkwood would be good therapeutic device to cure people who chew on their pens!

John


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## Fred (Dec 11, 2008)

jedgerton said:


> Maybe that stinkwood would be good therapeutic device to cure people who chew on their pens!
> 
> John


 
If it doesn't then they need to turn the "cat crap cast pen blank" made available by Curtis recently!!!"


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## MikeInMo (Dec 12, 2008)

scroller99 said:


> camphor smells a little rough



I like the smell of camphor.


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## NewLondon88 (Dec 12, 2008)

MikeInMo said:


> I like the smell of camphor.



I'll second that .. I like camphor, cedar, amboyna, cocobolo, bloodwood,
lignum vitae .. 

but I agree with others that zebrawood, morado .. they make you check
your shoes to see if you stepped in something..


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## fritz64 (Dec 12, 2008)

hey guys just be thankfull that you can smell the stinkwood and the new cut hay.  havenot smelled anything since march of 1990. so keep telling me what i am missing.  bob


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## redfishsc (Dec 12, 2008)

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.












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:




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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## Nick (Dec 12, 2008)

Alaska Cedar


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## dntrost (Dec 12, 2008)

I can't smell hardly anything except antler and it stinks!


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## wolftat (Dec 13, 2008)

I don't mind the smell of any wood anymore, but then again, I've gotten a snoot full of Sarin gas. Russian Olive is pretty nasty to work with and the one wood that I like to avoid.


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## markgum (Dec 13, 2008)

Nick said:


> Alaska Cedar


 
so is Alaska Cedar bad ?  I thought all Cedar smelled good??


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