Gentlemen I live near Fort Riley KS and I was looking for some free wood so I pass this huge pile of tree's that have been recently cut and I just could not believe all that wood was still there!!!, so been the opportunistic person I'm I decided to cut some and take it home. Well when I was splitting that wood it stunk so bad. I'm new to wood cutting but my goodness, can anyone tell me what Kind of wood will smell that bad?
Well a lot of the members here say red oak smells but others have an acquired hooter so its more of a cheese smell for them. Ive found cottonwood to smell like pee then it later becomes like BO smell. Would help to have pics though.
Welcome to the forum Randy No way of knowing without seeing but I am willing to bet there could very well be lots of cottonwood in your area and that can smell pretty bad. Cottonwood can grow to be rather huge too. Here is a picture of one cottonwood. It shows some bark so you can compare with what you have. But realize the bark can look a bit different in different parts of the tree and also with different ages of the tree.
I saw this one awhile back Dennis, I wasn't sure if you said you had cut it down or tree service did??
Willow can get pretty funky, too, though I like how it smells after drying when burning. It can have different odors.. to me, most smells like pee, but I just had a bunch dropped off that smells like animal feces. Loads of fun, wet willow.
It was on a neighbor's place and I do not know if he cut it or someone else did. Pete, it is all gone now. He wanted to get it off the edge of that field.
Well it is cottonwood thank you all for your help, Now what do I do with it my wife will kill me if I burn this in the house, will the smell go away when fully dry?
Yeah it should do that as it dries up. Just keep it above ground it has potential to just rot easily in wet spots. The smell stays only when the wood is wet here in WA but seasons take a bit longer. Cut into smaller splits but dont bring any in the house yet haha!
Definitely it will go away and all will be well on the home front. You will find that it burns hot but I doubt you would have any problems with overheating. It also will make some coals but not like good hardwoods will. Many folks use cottonwood all winter long and get along just fine. I also think there is a little difference in the cottonwood from our area vs your area. Your's may not have as much sap as the further eastern varieties.
Yeah all woods tend to have a distinct smell to them and some can be quite offensive. But, they all burn. The smell will diminish as it dries out but there's still an "essence" there when you catch a whiff of it burning. That's why I prefer burning my red pine over the aspen poplar I've got here.
