I was walking out of a friends house and smelled his neighbors smoke, and I said "oh he's burning silver maple." Then I thought WTF? How did I know that by the smell of the smoke? I know all the species of the wood I burn, and (in the back of my mind) I think of what species I'm throwing into the wood boiler. I've noticed a distinct smell of cottonwood, hedge, silver maple, and honey locust, all the other kinds just smell like firewood. Have you experienced anything similar?
??????? I take it you've never burned Black Cherry before? It's my favorite wood to burn in the stove when I know I'm going to be outside. Like wood perfume. And then there's cedar & different Fir's and Pines. Maple mostly just smells like wood to me.
How did I forget about cherry? Face/palm. Yes I can easily identify cherry too. Also you are right about cedar and pine too. I don't burn them often I forgot about them too.
Distinctive smoke smells to me - White Pine Black locust White birch Poplar Mesquite (smoker) Hickory (smoker) Most everything else smells like generic smoke to me.
Definitely. Some species just have a distinctive aroma. Good ones are sugar Maple, cherry, elm, hickory and apple. The best is beech. Many woods, like ash just smell like generic wood smell. Some like black locust and box elder don't smell good to me when burning.
Most definitely. I think its funny how poplar and cottonwood are in the same aspen family but here poplar smells nice and cottonwood stinks!!
All poplar I have burned, a couple species, have smelled like this to me. I have to believe that some trees smell differently, depending on minerals and such in each location. So they can smell differently depending on the soil. That and everyone's nose is different, as far as what they smell.
I enjoy the smell of cherry in all phases of firewood production from felling through burning. To me, nothing smells as good as cherry wood smoke on a crisp, cold day. I also like apple, hickory, beech wood smoke too, especially in the smoker.
Must be, I find Poplar to be nasty and acrid. Almost forgot about Black Walnut and Apple. Black Walnut is nearly the same burning as it is working it/cutting it with a power saw. One of the oldest wood smells in my mental library.
Never burned Birch before this season, but it has to be about the best smelling wood I've had the pleasure of sniffing. I even prefer the scent over Hickory.
Black Cherry is my favorite smelling wood. I was coming home the other day and could easily tell my wife had been feeding the stove with cherry shorties. I walked in the door, mentioned this to her, she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said nonchalantly "it's all firewood".. I wanted to throw my hands up in disgust To her credit, she sees no difference between wonder bread and rye from a bakery. Or Budweiser from an Imperial Stout. Anyway, Black Cherry is my favorite, but apple, sugar maple and black birch all have a distinct pleasant aroma to me.
Popple and birch are in my ancient memory bank. It's what we cut and burned when I was a baby. I don't heat with cherry, it goes in the cooking/smoking area along with apple, golden oak, and white oak. We burn oak, maple, ash, elm, locust, birch, popple, and any other decent wood. I love the smell of oak, locust, popple, and birch. It depends on the soil and area. The smoking woods are saved because they are awesome. I have about 2 cord of cooking/smoking wood now....apple, cherry, white oak, golden oak, red oak, and hickory. I use maple too if I just want some more heat but not a lot of smoke. We can't smell our chimney when the fire is hot, it's just heat waves. But when the fire is low, oh boy. I probably make the neighbors hungry. I drool when the grill/smoker is going.
One thing I notice is that I can smell the smoke odors of wood when I first put it in the stove but as soon as the cat ignites that smell is gone.
