favourite flavour of wood ?!?

[Walt Caza]

After working with miles of foul tasting MDF, I recently did a stair
rail project in Mahogany. I had forgotten how I enjoy the taste of
machining real wood. When I told someone about it, they were puzzled
that I referred to how the wood tasted.

So I figure (bad pun) that only a fellow woodworker would know how
sweet Mahogany tastes coming off the tablesaw blade in the morning.
With all the exotics available, do you have any favourites ?
(pardon my Canadian spelling)

Walt

[glenn bradley]

It might be a California thing and I do enjoy the smell/taste of other species but fresh sawn red oak always smells like home.

[Frank Pellow]

I like spruce -in pieces of wood where some of the gum is still present.

Why should yo appoligize for Canadian spelling?

[Laurie Brown]

Weird, I was having a similar thought the other day as regards to the senses and wood. Like you, I've done alot of work in MDF and recently I've been making a cabinet out of oak. I was working on the stiles and rails for the doors, and put two of the pieces together and they made an almost musical sound. Instantly it reminded me of when I was a kid, and used to play with wood blocks, and the sound the blocks made when they hit each other. It's something that hasn't occured to me since.

I can't say I like the taste of any sort of wood dust, but I definitely can enjoy the sound wood makes. Now I'm considering a wood windchime project....

[Dennis Perry]

It's not zebrawood

Dennis

[Steve Wargo]

Working with a lot of hand tools I really love mahogany, but Walnut has a great smell too it.

[Bruce Volden]

Hands down!! Cherry is my favorite, even under the laser machines it just plain smells sweet.


Bruce

[Larry Fox]

Never paid attention to the taste but I love the smell of cherry and - surprising as it may seem - poplar. I have been cutting some veneer-core ply lately and I can really smell the poplar and I find it pleasant.

As Steve points out, Walnut also has a great smell.

[Alan DuBoff]

Walnut is by far my favorite of most all woods to work with, it is just nice to do anything with. Cuts, carves, does everything nicely.

Cherry and Maple are also 2 that I like to work with, but Walnut is without a doubt my favorite.

[Doug Shepard]

Never paid attention to the taste but I love the smell of cherry and - surprising as it may seem - poplar. I have been cutting some veneer-core ply lately and I can really smell the poplar and I find it pleasant.

As Steve points out, Walnut also has a great smell.

Ditto on the poplar. Sometimes the dog and I sit down and gnaw on a stick together. Great stuff.

[Bruce Shiverdecker]

Since I'm one of the lucky ones and am not affected adversly by "toxic" woods, I can call my two favorites:

Cocobola and Walnut, with Cherry coming in a Close third.

Bruce

[Ron Robinson]

Very Weied,

I was just thinking last week while making a frame that I love the smell of walnut while I'm working. Smell is a powerful memory trigger and machining walnut puts me back in junior high wood shop.

Ron Robinson

[Frank Fusco]

Depens on the project. For small items, like pens nothing beats Bethlehem Olive wood, the aroma is heavenly. I enjoy the smell of aromatic red cedar even though I am sensitive to the dust.

[Alan DuBoff]

Depens on the project. For small items, like pens nothing beats Bethlehem Olive wood, the aroma is heavenly. I enjoy the smell of aromatic red cedar even though I am sensitive to the dust.

Frank, your mention of pens reminds me of a pen I made out of Amboyna Burl last year, it was certainly one of the nicest smelling woods to work with, a pleasure. Not very common and pricey, but the smell is ever so wonderful.

[Kevin Jaynes]

Walnut is by far my favorite of most all woods to work with .....

Besides wet white oak dust, what do you use to get the stain off your fingers?
I am speaking from the standpoint of a sawyer .... maybe woodworking with it doesn't have the same effect I can't remember as I haven't built anything with it for years.

My favorite wood to cut on my sawmills is Eastern Red Cedar, because it cuts easy and doesn't eat blades as fast as hardwoods. But of course, opening up a sycamore that has been laying around spalting for a year is alway a joy too!