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We all have woods that we like or hate the smell of, so which are your favorites and which are your most hated?

Favorites:

Brazilian Rosewood
Imbuia
Cedar....red or spanish, it's all good...


Worst:

Amboyna Burl
Ziricote

Don Williams39042.7746296296

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Favorite is sapele. No close second.
Smells a little like cinnamon.

Ebony is definitely the worst. No close second. Smells a little like a cow pen.

My senses are a bit warped but I like Ziricote...it has a bit of smell like freshly ground pepper. Braz is nice and cedar too. I kinda like cocobolo too, but what do I know.

I really love Port Orford Cedar. Like, alot. And I think Camphor burl smells like hard candies in a good way.

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Burton
http://www.legeytinstruments.com
Brookline, MA.

Good old EIR as a favorite...ebony stinks to me.

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Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

MDF.

Imbuia. Reminds me of the 60's in San Francisco.

Favorite is Myall - an Australian desert acacia that smells like violets.

Red Cedar is awful - I used to like it but now I'm alergic one wif has me running for the door.

My fave is Honduran rosewood, smells sort of like tobacco leaves to me. EIR is kind of nice too. I also bought a set of imbuia and it smells pretty nice although I haven't worked with it yet.

I haven't run into anything I really don't like yet.

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53% of all statistics are made up on the spot
http://driftwoodguitars.blogspot.com/

Spanish Cedar...

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

Brw.
Madrose.
EIR
bending coco smells good too.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

If rosewood smells like roses, does zebrawood smell like zebras? I think it
might, 'cause zebrawood stinks to me!

My favorite is padauk - very sweet and fruity smell.

Warm cocobolo smells like red hots (little red candies) to me - definitely my favorite. Spanish cedar is nice too. Port Orford cedar is pungent but smells good - I can only take it in small doses, it's the strongest smelling wood I know of.

I'm going to agree with crazytooguy - zebrawood is kind of funky. I don't remember what it smells like but the last time I handled the stuff, it was nasty.

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John Lewis
Wannabe builder owned by 2 crazy dachshunds

I like EIR, and I also like the kind of 'spicy' smell claro walnut has... padauk is nice too

I least like the smell of alaska yellow cedar... kind of a weird funky "wet dog" smell that takes forever to get off your fingers. I used it for the top of the archtop I built, and my fingers smelled funky for 6 months....drfuzz39042.9362847222

    I really love the smell of Brazilian rosewood being worked. I keep a few small blocks of it around the shop just to sand once in a while to fill the place with that aroma. It's not my favorite wood tonally or aesthetically, but I love the smell it puts off when it's open.

   I also love all of the Cedars as they're opened up. It's a great smell that wakes me up, but it also sparks some memories of a huge old cedar lined chest that My Mom had since as far back as I can rememeber. She kept all sorts of small family treasures and trinkets in it and the smell was part of the experience as she would pull them out occasionally for us to see and hear stories about. The items meant little to me, but the stories put life and love behind them and I wish I had a few of them now. Good memories of simpler times.

   The chest was destroyed...along with all of the heirlooms inside many years ago in a house fire that she and my Dad suffered. I remember very little else that was in the house, but could write a list of the things that were in that chest.

   I think about those times at the foot of her bed every time I crack a piece of Cedar open with a tool and find myself doing just that to spark memories sometimes.

Funny how things come back to us,
Kevin Gallagher

This stuff is among my favs, right up there with BRW.



It is an Aussie desert timber called Raspberry Jam ( Acacia acuminata) when cut it smells just like.....you guessed it Raspberry Jam.

One of my least fav is some, but not all, very dark coloured Jarrah, when you work it, it can sometimes smell just like you have run over a dry dog turd with the lawn mower on a hot day Funny, the lighter coloured stuff smells fine.

Cheers

Kim larkim39042.9528240741

brw, hands down.

I love the smell of cocobolo in the morning.

Al

Nothing smells better than Spanish Cypress. Maybe not even a girl...

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Best Imbuya next braz
Worst pink ivory
Puke smell mastadon!!

Lance

Brazilian rosewood
Port Orford cedar
Padauk
Bloodwood.

A student got some blocks of camphor burl which we ran through my sander, and the shop had that strong sweet smell for weeks after. Almost licorice-like.
I dislike licorice, but this burl smelled just grand.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

Joshua...I hear you about Spanish Cypress...for me it is only slightly behind Brazilian Rosewood.

Brazilian Rosewood
Brazilian Tulipwood (Dalbergia)
Spanish Cypress
Narra
Port Orford Cedar
Alaskan Yellow Cedar

While all of these smell nice, there are many that do not smell good.

Zebrawood (who stepped in it???) will really smell up the shop, especially if sanded. At one time I was part of a saw mill in Guyana cutting lignum vitae, purpleheart, greenheart, yellowheart and redheart among other tropical woods.

There were some woods that when green were so foul that it would make people gag. Those we air dried and even then cut them only on a day when the wind was blowing away from where we lived.

Some of these unidentified hardwoods had all kinds of other traits. There were woods that if you got a splinter would numb that finger or hand!! Others had so much resin in the wood that they would stain semi-permanently anything they touched.

Spanish cedar--perfume of the gods! I've always disliked the smell of that moth-repelling aromatic cedar. Repels me, too!

    My least favorite is hickory! I got caught sliding on my butt in the shower in junior high school. Coach Reed hit me so hard I could taste it!

    Also, wet Doug fir, if it gets that smell! It kind of smells like mold had too much to drink at a beer party!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)