Elm smells sweet?

[gzecc]

Never burned elm until last night and this morning. It smells nice outside. Is it my beautiful country NJ air or the sweet smell of the elm I am burning?

 

[wendell]

It has to be the elm. I can't imagine it is NJ!

 

[Risser09]

I've only ever known elm to smell like piss, much like New Jersey =-(

 

[LLigetfa]

Mebbe he just come from da outhouse!

 

[SmokinPiney]

Hey hey hey, not all of NJ smells like crap. Least not where i live. We still have farms, woods, and alot less houses than most areas in this state. Im surrounded by blueberries, cranberry bogs, and thousands of acres of state forest. Smells nice outside!

 

[wendell]

I know a lot of people complain about the smell of elm but once it is seasoned, there really is no smell. I'm sitting a few feet from about 20 splits and don't smell a thing.

 

[gzecc]

I smelled it outside! This wood is from a long dead standing tree that I just cut down. The upper branches are very dry <20%. Bark has been off for a couple of years.

 

[Duetech]

Skunks are attracted to each other and must think the smell is good other wise there would be fewer if any skunks. A few years ago, while driving, I went around a curve and almost hit a turkey vulture feasting on a road kill skunk. My first thought of reflection, after the slight swerve and mild braking, was yechh how could they eat anything like that. My second thought was it's probably the only time they get to eat anything that has a different taste kind of like "it all tastes the same" ya know?. I used to hate the way elm smelled while burning in my wood furnace but in my gasifier dry elm doesn't smell bad at all but then there's time my wife thinks I'm an absolute skunk. Oh she'd hit me. Gotta go! Hehehe!

 

[wendell]

...was yechh how could they eat anything like that. My second thought was it's probably the only time they get to eat anything that has a different taste kind of like "it all tastes the same" ya know?.

Maybe it tastes like chicken!

 

[fullbore]

I'm sure it smells better than the underseasoned oak I split in my basement last night. It actually made me gag!

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Oak smells good. But not skunks or vultures...or elm.

 

[Later]

Piss on a campfire to experience elm smoke.

 

[Der Fuirmeister]

burned a lot of white and red elm. I'll take the red over white. White rots faster, even standing. But both burn well.

Rather than hijack this thread, I'm going to start a new post on worst smelling wood.............

 

[Duetech]

Copy and paste the link and it will give you a variety of different woods and their btu ratings. ((broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)). The worst smelling wood I have run across is yellow in color and smells much worse than elm. I don't know what the name of it is but when you smell it a name will come to mind. I thought about this thread for a while and I came to an understanding about the smell of elm...It's better than spilled fuel oil or running diesel.

 

[day52]

Around here we have 2 kinds of elm--perhaps the red and white as mentioned, but we called them American and p_ _ _. The Am. smells very sweet when dead and split. The other deserves its name even if it is slang. The stuff we called American would split pretty good, the other was very stringy. Unfortunately, neither gets very big because of disease, but occasionally we'll get one 15-18" across. Both burn pretty decent when seasoned.

 

[gzecc]

Bingo Day52, I must have american elm. It was not stingy at all. It is 24" across and 50yrs old.