Love the smell of red oak... I’ve only smelled a few pieces in my days that were bad and a small amount of decal had set in.
I built a 7'X7'X7' smoker on Kodiak Island. It held a hundred or so small Pink Salmon at a time. We had Alder wood, the only hardwood which naturally grew there. I think we lacked the ability to control the heat, so the salmon was often dry. Anyway, a bear tore it up the very next winter - I can imagine him chewing on the fat soaked plywood. Remembering that, and seeing this one of stone reminds me of the three little pigs story. Tell your friend - damm good job on that smoker, cause bears eat the wooden ones.
It doesn’t happen often but there’s still a reason the old timers coined the phrase pizz oak One of those can stink up your whole processing area until it begins drying.
