I'm with you,Doc.I call itAcer Nogoodnik.I have friends who tap them for syrup, but I hope I'm never hungry enough to eat Boxelder syrup.
As a woodworker I hate red oak. When I mill rough sawn boards it makes my shop smell like vomit. Hence my wife and kids can always tell when I am working with "vomit wood" as they call it.
yes pin oak is very stanky! but i kinda like it for sum reason. we have alot around here and my dad used to cut alot of it when i was a kid. now im cuttin it and luv it for burning in my stove...great heat, long burn low ash. so yea i kinda like the smell. also pin oak is very easy to identify...they grow strait up with little banches all the way to the ground.
If they put that smell up in bottles, I'd buy a small supply if the price was right.
To me it's sweet ambrosia. My mind associates the smell with gettin out there and gettin it done. Makes me think of lacing up the boots, sharp chains, topping off the oil for once without overfilling, and an empty truck bed that soon won't be.
The perfect compliment to oak whiff is the smell of 2-cycle exhaust. Like a whoopie pie goes better with a bottle of Moxie.
To be sure, fresh-cut red oak smells like an expired jar of Ragu dumped on a sweaty pair of tennis shoes that have been in a gym locker since the Clinton administration.
But I like it.
Red Oak does have a distinctive smell.I like it, and yes, it goes away as it dries.
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