Calling all noses

[Jim Silva]

I was recently given a board of what I was told was Butternut. It looked sort of like ash to me but I've never seen butternut outside of a few pictures of bowls other people have done. Pictures on the web look like butternut, ash, catalpa are possible suspects but I'm sure I've missed some. It's very similar to ash to my eye but I've never had ash smell like this did.

I do know it was cut somewhere in Pennsylvania and when I cut/turned it, it smelled kinda eucalyptusy. (Eucalyptish? Eucalyptoid? Eucalypty?:confused:).

I don't have a photo of it as I'm a complete moron and forgot that my phone has a camera...:D but I'll try to get one next week for the sake of confirmation.

Any olfactory sleuths out there?

[Nathan Hawkes]

Butternut and walnut have a rather peculiar odor for sure. I don't know how alike to eucalyptus either is, but its definitely peculiar. Very organic odor. Also, to me, catalpa, sassafras, and butternut are all relatively similar in color, and all can have very pronounced grain to them. I've personally never turned catalpa, so I can't comment to its odor, but sassafras is a pretty unmistakable odor of root beer (sassparilla)

[Jeff Nicol]

Of the woods you mentioned, butternut and catalpa would have about the same weight and density (SOFTER & LIGHTER) Ash would be dense and heavy compared to them. Ash does not have a very pungent odor, just nice and woody! Butternut has brown to golden tones in the wood and catalpa is more gray greenish and the growth rings are ussually very large compared to butternut. Catalpa has a very distict sharp smell that reminds me of paper that was wrapped around some of the cigars my Dad smoked when I was a kid, I think it is the same stuff they make humidors out of or line with, Spanish cedar. I just got a fresh cut chunck of Catalpa and it smells up the whole shop. We will know more when we see pictures.

Here is a picture comparing Catalpa and butternut.

Jeff

[John Keeton]

Jim, this is some sassafras that has BLO and clear shellac applied. The actual color may be just a very slight bit more amber than this pic shows and that is probably due to the BLO. It was a very light brown/tan before the BLO and more like the color in the pic.
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[Reed Gray]

I did get some fresh butternut once, and it smelled kind of like vinegar to me. Catalpa has a sweetish type smell that I haven't been able to figure out if I love it, or it almost makes me sick it is so sweet. The butternut I had was not as heavy as black walnut (butternut is called white walnut and is in the juglens family) but heavier and more dense than catalpa. The pictures shown look just like what I have gotten.

robo hippy

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I was recently given a board of what I was told was Butternut. It looked sort of like ash to me but I've never seen butternut outside of a few pictures of bowls other people have done. Pictures on the web look like butternut, ash, catalpa are possible suspects but I'm sure I've missed some. It's very similar to ash to my eye but I've never had ash smell like this did.

I do know it was cut somewhere in Pennsylvania and when I cut/turned it, it smelled kinda eucalyptusy. (Eucalyptish? Eucalyptoid? Eucalypty?:confused:).

I don't have a photo of it as I'm a complete moron and forgot that my phone has a camera...:D but I'll try to get one next week for the sake of confirmation.

Any olfactory sleuths out there?

Don't know what Eucalyptus smells like Jim, besides even the same species of trees do not all smell the same, location does have an influence on it.
I do have some Catalpa in rough blocks and Ash, but no Butternut.
Catalpa does have a spicy smell, Ash when dry and machined has normally a certain smell, hard to put in words but easy to smell, Butternut also smells a certain way, but I think dry wood smell is not the same as wet wood smell, anyway I have a couple of pictures here of Ash, Butternut and Catalpa.
One thing Butternut always/usually has is a scalloped appearance, as for weight and hardness, Ash is hard and heavy, Catalpa and Butternut are quite soft, Catalpa is slightly softer than Butternut and Catalpa is also a little lighter in weight than Butternut HTH

[Jim Silva]

Thanks for posting those Leo.
As I said in my post, the wood looks very ash-y to me and the color and grain is similar to your 5th image which is white ash... But the smell is the thing that has me questioning that. I've never smelled catalpa but what you and others describe is more like what I'm smelling than descriptions of butternut which I was told it was.

It smells like a mentholated cough drop to me and I've never had ash smell like that, although I'm not sure I've ever worked with ash that hadn't been kiln dried so cooking may change the scent.

As soon as the blizzard passes and I dig out I'll be back to the shop to get a few photos. Thanks for all the responses.

[Brian Effinger]

It smells like a mentholated cough drop to me

To me, that says sassafras.

I could be wrong, but sassafras does smell like that.

[Jim Silva]

Here's a poor quality photo from my phone of this Sassa-asha-butter-talpa wood. If all else fails I'll just average out the answers and take the winner lol.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I think Brian has got it right, it does look like Sassafras, nice
And yes it does look a lot like Ash, haven't turned any fresh Sassafras for a while, just did 2 Birdhouses with Sassafras bodies but it was dry branch wood.

[Dick Strauss]

The local white ash (green wood) here in NW Ohio kind of smells like fresh cooked oatmeal as you turn it. Local sassafras definitely has an aromatic sweet spicy smell kind of like anise (black licorice). I've never turned catalpa so I can't help there.

Sassafras has a very thick bark similar to black walnut.