Whats your favorite smelling wood to burn?

[ilovedougfir]

A big part of burning wood for me is the smell. Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe it’s something baked into us after thousands of years of humans sitting around fires.

I live near Seattle, WA and mostly burn Douglas fir. I love the scent. Alder is also really pleasant—almost sweet. We don’t have much oak around here, but whenever I’m in the Midwest, that smell is hard to beat too.

I’m curious—what’s your favorite wood to burn purely for the smell?

 

[stoveliker]

I don't know. My smoke goes outside...
And my cat makes most smell bad.

In my fire pit, first Eastern Red Cedar, then pitch pine, spruce.
I never got the appeal of cherry

 

[Murray01]

Pine

 

[GG Woody]

It's not poplar or cottonwood...

 

[vatmark]

I don’t really smell anything when the stoves going. I also have no clue what i am burning, I know we have a lot of white oak and red.

 

[bigealta]

Pine, it reminds me of skiing.
Cedar too.

Locust - definitely not

I try to tell what the neighbors are burning when i walk the dogs. Usually it's smoky and i can often tell if it's oak.

 

[Woody Stover]

Black Cherry is nice, and the small amount of River Birch I've burned had a sweet smell.
But as stoveliker said, cat stoves can stink. When they get hot, they start burning the creosote that has built up inside the box from previous smolder burning.

 

[Eman85]

Hickory, makes you hungry when you smell it, IYKYK. abou 40 years ago we lived in a house on the top of a hill with a long road/drive that circled the house. Heavy snow and I'd have to walk in about 1/4mi coming home from work. The smell of the stove burning, walking in the snow in the dark coming home wood smoke triggers that memory.

 

[Slimdusty]

I’ll probably catch some heat for this but I burn a lot of willow as I have much of it to clean up on my property. Honestly, when it is fully dry and seasoned, placed on a hot bed of coals, the smoke is a quite pleasant aroma.

 

[MongoMongoson]

I like sugar maple. That is what everyone was burning when I was a kid. I remember walking my paper route in the winter and seeing and smelling smoke coming out of everyone's chimney. I love the smell.

Black cherry is my #2. Popple is a great smell as well, but not a great firewood.

 

[stoveliker]

I’ll probably catch some heat for this

Haha, I see what you did there 🤣

 

[ilovedougfir]

I don't know. My smoke goes outside...
And my cat makes most smell bad.

In my fire pit, first Eastern Red Cedar, then pitch pine, spruce.
I never got the appeal of cherry

Why does the catalytic make it smell so bad? I was reallly dissapointed a few years back when I got a new stove with a cat that it kind of ruined the smell.

 

[stoveliker]

Catalysts change the chemical make up of the gases.
Unfortunately not to complete CO2 and H2O. And what remains are less appealing smelling gases.
Tube stoves also don't completely combust, but what's left there smells different (better, generally).

 

[Woody Stover]

Why does the catalytic make it smell so bad? I was reallly dissapointed a few years back when I got a new stove with a cat that it kind of ruined the smell.

Creosote; Post #7 above.

 

[stoveliker]

I don't think creosote has much to do with it.
Creosote is merely condensed gases that were not completely burned. Those gases are produced in the firebox.

Tube stoves burn those gases too - in secondary flame.
Cat stoves combust them in the cat.

I think it's the chemistry of the combustion of those gases that is different in a secondary jet flame than in a catalytic converter.

 

[Dajolu]

I don't think creosote has much to do with it.
Creosote is merely condensed gases that were not completely burned. Those gases are produced in the firebox.

Tube stoves burn those gases too - in secondary flame.
Cat stoves combust them in the cat.

I think it's the chemistry of the combustion of those gases that is different in a secondary jet flame than in a catalytic converter.

This may explain why my wife keeps telling me that the fire smell from our chimney doesn’t smell that a normal fire. She was concerned it was some kind of plastic or something burning.

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, I can understand an association with plastic or so when I smell what comes out of my chimney.

 

[Woody Stover]

I don't think creosote has much to do with it.
Creosote is merely condensed gases that were not completely burned. Those gases are produced in the firebox.

Tube stoves burn those gases too - in secondary flame.
Cat stoves combust them in the cat.

I think it's the chemistry of the combustion of those gases that is different in a secondary jet flame than in a catalytic converter.

After a low cat-only burn, if I start a new load and get flames going in the box, then open the door, I can see the creosote on the door and walls smoking. That's the same smell that's coming from the stack at times.
If I've opened up the air on a coaling load, burning any creo that has built up in the box at the beginning of the load, then I won't smell the creo very much when I start a new load. It's more of the typical wood smell, even after the cat is burning.
If the smell from the cat stove stack was the same bad smell any time the cat was burning, I could maybe buy the "combustion chemistry" theory. But that's not the case from the cat stoves I've run. They are really stinky when the box first heats up after a long, low burn.
I think you run a BK, and if you burn wide open for a half hour at the beginning of the load as BKVP suggests, go outside at that time, as the box is heating up; I'm pretty sure you will smell more of that heavy, acrid creo smell than you do once you've shut the stove back down to a cruising, cat-only burn.

 

[stoveliker]

Maybe system dependent as my case doesn't match your observations.

Creosote is being combusted at all stages; when there's no flame you are burning the same particles in the cat that can condense on the wall. That's my thought on why I don't have a different smell at different times, and why I think burning off condensed creosote in the firebox doesn't factor in the smells outside.

But systems surely do differ.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Free wood smells the best.

 

[Woody Stover]

when there's no flame you are burning the same particles in the cat that can condense on the wall....I think burning off condensed creosote in the firebox doesn't factor in the smells outside.

Creosote is formed when wood smoke is cooled, so I think that different chemical compounds may be formed, just as temperature differences can alter other chemical reactions. I've seen "wood tar" mentioned as a component of creosote. So when creo burns, I think it can produce a different odor than the combustion of just wood. I don't have a degree in chemistry, though. 😏
In a cold stove, when creosote in the box is thick and wet, it I get big flames going in the box and begin burning the creo before closing the bypass, I get big clouds of thick, dark, acrid smoke. It's not just steam from the creo drying out, and it's a totally different (terrible) smell than the smoke I get from a cold start with only wood in a clean box. That would seem to refute the theory that "chemistry of the combustion of those gases that is different in a secondary jet flame than in a catalytic converter" is the only thing responsible for odor differences.
Even after you close the bypass, the burning cat can't catch/burn all the creo smoke. That's why I think it's different than plain wood smoke. Granted, it's possible to blow unburned wood smoke through the cat as well, by having the air open too much; The smoke doesn't get enough residence time in the cat to get burned. But the creo smoke makes it through the cat, even when you don't have the air open very far at all. And even at the point that the creo smoke is no longer present, the stench still is, to some extent.
I'm really surprised that you haven't noticed this phenomenon, since you burn a BK, the undisputed King of black-glass creo production. 😆
I don't think we're going to get any input from anyone that is in this thread about what they've observed with creo, since we are off track from the original topic. I'd need to start a "Stinky Creo Smoke" thread. 😏 But I have seen it mentioned in several threads..
Next time I make it out to Long Island, I'll set up your stove for a nice, stinky creo fire, and we'll smoke-bomb the 'hood until your neighbors emerge, sneezing and wheezing, eyes watering and begging for mercy. 😆

 

[hawkeye4771]

I burn alot of Cherry and I do find the smell very desireable but when I burn some Yellow Birch that is a nice sweet smelling wood!!

 

[fao1989]

I don't think creosote has much to do with it.
Creosote is merely condensed gases that were not completely burned. Those gases are produced in the firebox.

Tube stoves burn those gases too - in secondary flame.
Cat stoves combust them in the cat.

I think it's the chemistry of the combustion of those gases that is different in a secondary jet flame than in a catalytic converter.

I've often wondered what the chemical difference is between oxidized primary fire off the log and catalyzed burning in the combustor? Clearly the oxidized primary fire gives off more volatile/burnable gases [then eaten by the combustor], while the catalyzed combustion has a different 'formula' and produces 'less' particulate smoke (for lack of a better term).

Is the combustor reaction also technically considered oxidation - just a different chemical pathway?

Any chemists or physicists out there that can break it down Barney style?

 

[stoveliker]

I have to partly agree with woody Stover that the mode of burning may affect things (density of creosote particles flying around could be different between a normal cat stove operation and one in which particles from the walls evaporate and then combust).

Yet, I think it's similar. They are produced by smoldering and combusted in a cat or are first deposited on the wall and then re-evaporated upon which they get combusted. "Same difference" as my kids would say. Same particles. (Unless their chemistry changes upon deposition on the walls of a cat stove. I thought they'd simply deposit but if a reaction occurs, the subsequent chemistry will change too).

Fire is oxidation. A cat also oxidizes. Ideally to pure water and CO2 but life is not ideal. So some chemicals other than those two will come out of the flue and that's what you smell. And those are different for a fire oxidizing vs a cat combusting.

 

[Grateful11]

Cherry then Hickory.