smelly wood

[deerefan]

Maybe its because I'm still a youg 'un (27) and haven't split my share of firewood to know the difference, but here goes: I spent a couple hours yesterday splitting oak for my heatilator. Nothing like getting out in the crisp air, just you and the Mrs., a chainsaw and your trusty splittin' axe! I noticed the wood had a pretty strong odor to it, not an offensive odor but almost "pickly". Is this normal? It smells nice, almost fresh. Just never really smelled it before. Any input?

 

[scott_vt]

Deerefan,
Split alot of oak over the years, much of it smelling like piss. Hence piss oak /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Humidity conditions need to be right for it to be really noticed.

scotty

 

[deerefan]

You hit the nail on the head w/ the odor. Smelled a little nicer though! The wood will not be dry and cured enough till next year, just trying to get a head start.

 

[tawilson]

I sawed, stickered and stacked some next to my work area at my campsite last summer. I'll put it a little further away next time.

 

[JimR]

Yup, You be splitting piss oak for sure. It does burn great once it is dry.

 

[beenthere]

If you are splitting oak, that is bacterially-infected oak (no such thing as 'piss' oak but you get the picture of how some name it that). Usually the infection is caused by root injury or logging injuries when careless 'barking' against a tree or tearing up of the surface roots. This wood tends to hold water, and takes longer to dry so the smell can be used as an indicator to 'set it back further' so it will have a couple years to get dry enough to burn efficiently. The 'infection' is not contagious or dangerous other than to the tree. When the wood is dry, it won't smell.
There are other woods (elm and sycamore come to mind) that can have that 'stewed' or 'pickled' smell to it.

 

[deerefan]

Yes, this wood was very wet. The tree had fallen in one of the hurricanes due mainly to the rot out of its massive trunk. It was hollow on the inside.

 

[Newblue]

Try smelling split black locust. I almost think twice about putting it in the stove. On the other hand, honey locust almost has perfume qualities.

Mike

 

[silo36]

Some wood's do smell less than pleasant to say the least. I have split a lot of oak over the years, and even a healthy oak resembles the smell of dog-stuff when it is green. When it's dry and burning though, it smells good in my opinion.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( think twice about putting it in the stove )</font>

I've never had occasion to try it myself, but one of my brothers said when he got his first place with a fireplace, he acquired a large quantity of free cottonwood fire wood. But he said when he smelled it burning, it was so bad that he had a big job of hauling it off to get rid of it.