Rosewood Question

[Dolamon]

Rosewood tantalizes me - not just for its forbidden / endangered status though. I have four or five very early Rosewood instruments and was wondering ... is there any other wood which has its peculiar, smokey, intoxicating scent? One of them ( the "or" of the five instruments) is not labled as such and has much lighter coloring than the other four.

But the scent is the same ... anyone with knowledge or experience in this wood - or other similar smelling / looking wood?

[Luthier]

Dion, First, be aware that the dust from many species of wood can be harmful to breathe when machining so always wear a mask and have a good vacuum syatem. #Second, all wood has its own wonderful scent quality to it even when it is not being machined. #Third, I have never smelt a finer aroma from wood being machined than that of Brazilian Rosewood! Love it! Cherry is nice too but ya gotta love the smell of Brazillian Rosewood. #Speaking of aroma........ http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/coffee.gif

Don

[sunburst]

I've heard or read that Dalbergia is called ROSEwood because of the smell.

[John Flynn]

My favorite smelling tonewood, by far, is the mahogany that Martin uses on its guitars. My 000-15S smells intoxicating!

[Chris Baird]

The briar woods used to make tabacoo pipes smells a lot like rosewood. I once milled rosewood venneer and douglas fir billets on the same day. Talk about a great smelling shop.

[whistler]

I believe rosewood is supposed to smell like roses when freshly felled. Seasoned rosewood certainly has a distinctive and pleasant smell when being worked, but it doesn't smell anything like roses to me. Briar wood, of course, is true 'rose wood', but I doubt whether it comes in big enough pieces to make mandolins.

Plum has a pleasantly sharp, 'fruity' scent to it. Western red cedar reminds me of dried bananas. Spanish cedar (hardwood used for spanish guitar necks) has a similar scent to mahogany, but much more pungent and 'cedary'.

But my favourite tonewood scent has to be that of cypress, used for flamenco guitar back and sides. One day I'll make a mandolin out of it, just for the smell.

[Luthier]

Reminds me of a joke a once heard about outhouse wood......(enough said)

Don

[Michael Lewis]

Honey locust has an aroma of bees wax when being worked, quite pleasant.

All of the dalbergia rosewoods have their own unique smells, and once you become familiar with them you can identify many of them. Brazilian smells sweet and almost spicy, cocobolo smells very similar but much more spicy. Indian smells more earthy and less spicy. Oh what fun.

[Luthier]

........and let us not forget our favorite ice cream...Maple Walnut.....DOH

Don

[boatman]

Lignum Vitae has one of the more interesting smells of the tropical hardwoods. Rumor has it that the oils of this wood are used pharmaceutically for respiratory problems. I find it quite pleasing.

[Spruce]

Ah yes, the smell of wood...

What we call "Wild Cherry" on the island here smells exactly like cherry cider when freshly milled. #A great smell...

A van load of Port Orford Cedar is almost overpowering, especially after the 12-15 hours it takes to get it home...

But my favorite is still freshly split Engelmann spruce, high in the mountains somewhere in Idaho, possibly mingling with the smell of freshly caught trout sizzling in the frying pan...
That's living...

[Luthier]

.....I really am sorry for this....but is that where the expression....."fish and chips" came from?........DOH

ok...really....I'll stop now...

Don
(am I a luthier or a comedian)

[jim simpson]

Don,
That was great and appropriate! (I'm just sorry I didn't think of it first)
Jim

[Big Joe]

I love the odor of Cocobola. It is a member of the rosewood family, but has its own distinct grain, color, and smell. Great for woodturning!

[doanepoole]

I'm with Johnny...give me that crisp, soothing smell of mahogany any day.

I recently came across a Gibson guitar with bubinga that smelled (and looked) pretty good. I don't really know anything about this wood...the guitar sounded a bit boxy.