Does Box Elder smell?

[Gary Herrmann]

I cut a half log section of box elder into bowl blanks tonight. One side did seem a little punky, but the wood - especially one blank smelled like dirt, which to me means mold. I didn't see any, but maybe the wood has rotted.

I smelled the other piece of box elder I have that came from a different tree, and it smelled the same. Have I just had bad luck with box elder, or do they smell like that? Or are they prone to rot or something?

[John Chandler]

Does Box Elder smell? Not if you cut off its nose.

[Jim Ketron]

Yes it does sometimes!
I cut some highly figured BE with red flame in it that stunk like a hog pen!
That was some very stinky wood but it looked awesome finished.

[Reed Gray]

Any tree when it has started to rot can smell. I get a lot of big leaf maple that smells very sour. I did have some box elder that smelled the same. All cottonwood seems to smell that way. Some myrtle smells wonderful, and some stinks.
robo hippy

[Stephen Mushinski]

In a word - Yep!

I know people that will not burn Box Elder in the house do to the smell.

We in the north call it Manitoba Maple.

[John Hart]

This is just a supposition....but if you consider why flaming box elder has it's flame, it is caused by damage to the tree, either by box elder beetles or by impact, wind damage, chainsaw enthusiasts...etc. When the damage occurs, fungus creeps in, grows, and migrates through the tree, giving the spectacular coloration. This causes the smell.

Just a guess, and if anyone knows for sure, I would certainly be interested.:)

[Chris Barton]

I have a little different take on this than John. I have fould that many of the blanks I have gotten have a distinct "barnyard" kind of odor and have found that many of them came from pasture land and thus, smelled like the very rich soil they came from. Grown in cow flop = smells like cow flop.

[John Hart]

Hmmm...I hadn't thought about that Chris. That might be right.:)

[Gary Herrmann]

Thanks guys. I'll just have to see if I can hold my breath while I turn. :)

[Bill Wyko]

If you want a great smelling wood, Bubinga smells like chocolate coffee and Bocote smells like strong oranges.:D

[Jim Becker]

I'll pass on sniffing the bubinga, thank you very much...it's the one species that I've found a major sensitivity to!

[Bill Wyko]

I've been lucky so far. No reaction to any wood yet.:o That Bocote is pretty pungent though.:eek:

[Jason Slutsky]

Since we're talking about other woods...I turned a piece of Kiaat last week and it smelled great. Kinda like tobacco. And no I'm not trying to smoke the shavings.

[George Tokarev]

Box elder bark and sap smells like those weird ladybug-looking things that swarm inside in the fall do when you crush 'em. Not pleasant, not as bad as some things.

The areas where you get stagnant water in the tree, like the crotches and injured places where you also get the red can be really bad. More like willow than the beetle smell.

[Sam Sayger]

John, I think you're onto something there. I've cut Box Elder before and today, I cut some that had been blown down and broken up a few months ago. Tho it was still living, it was badly broken and WOW does it stinK!! I was a little concerned for a while but I wondered if it may be a fungus. Also, I had a little "sneezing spell" a little while later and the smell lingers in my "nose" (or memory) yet! Pretty bad and to me it was sort of "acidic - sour"?? Good thought John.
Sam

[Brian Brown]

Does Box Elder smell?
Like sour milk wrapped in stale swamp, covered in horse manure (and a little cow thrown in for good measure) At least the stuff around here does. I think Chris is right. It depends a lot on where it was grown. A lot of what we get here comes from farms where it grows wild. The seeds float down ditch banks, and germinate where they land. I have a close pin you can borrow for your nose. The result is worth the stink.

[Mike Cruz]

Wow, Sam, you pulled up a 6 year old thread!

Not sure if ALL box elder smells. I cut up some pretty stinky wood in the past (one a maple...no ambrosia or anything...and the other a willow). Sometimes trees take the smells from the ground around them and that smell is carried into the tree. Willow is famous for it. The willow that I took (full of burls) was right behind an old dairy bank barn. The wood still had a LOT of moisture. Let's just say that turning that was like standing behind a peeing cow!!!!

I just cut up some flaming box elder earlier this week and I didn't find it to have any particular smell. Now I haven't turned any of it yet, but nothing from cutting it up.

I don't think it is the mold from the beetle entering the tree, causing the flame, that is causing the smell. Ambrosia maple is caused the same way and it does not particularly smell. So, I think it is a case by case basis, depending on where the tree lived.

[robert baccus]

Woods have 2 smells---one caused by the fresh sap and the second by the souring sugars in the saps. Hickory Stinks fresh and sasaffras will knock you down but walk around a hardwood sawmill sniffing and there is a hundred odors. Someone may hit you with a long stick too. Most woods will generate alcohols as they sour which influences how they burn in trash piles. Old Forester

[Curt Fuller]

Actually, Box Elder doesn't smell......it stinks. Smell is a verb meaning to perceive an odor. Stink is the verb meaning to emit an odor. (Not trying to be a smart ***, just kidding a little:rolleyes:) But yes, Box Elder can stink very much!

[Sam Sayger]

Having read one "posters" comment that in Manitoba, Canada it is referred to as a certain type of Maple and that leads me to wonder if it does have a high sugar content as most Maples do? As i said, I've cut lots of Box Elder before and made pen planks, etc and until I cut the tree which was totally destroyed by a storm about four months ago and smelling the odor (and observing the 'red color traces') i had no idea that it could stink as it does - so this was an "eye opener" for me. It could very well be that there's an enzyme present in the wood which may set in action the processes of creating the "red coloration stains" and the bad odor. Sugar would be a very good "fertilizer" or catalyst for this to happen. Not all Box Elders stink (in my experience) so this seems plausible.