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  1. #1
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    Default Northern Silky oak

    Is northern Silky oak supposed to smell like stale milk, or baby vomit? Just curious, someone said, yes some of it smells like s--t, but just not sure. When machined that is...

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  3. #2
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    Some certainly does when 'fresh', but it seems to lose most of the smell in time, there was only a faint whiff of it in the old recycled stuff I used in my tool cupboard. There are several species that can be lumped under "Silky Oak" besides Cardwellia sublimis, and some might be pongier than others - don't know them well enough, but JohnG should be able to enlighten us.

    I can remember when I was a kid, they were building extra rooms on the school, and using a lot of S.O. for the fittings - you could smell the stuff whenever they put a length over the tablesaw that was set up under the new building. Seemed like half the kids in the school had suddenly chucked-up!

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  4. #3
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    Well from one of my other posts "score of the week", I was given a circa 1960's Silky oak cot and when I started sizing it the smell was unbelievable. I thought it had that baby sick / dried stale milk smell and I thought it was due to being a cot and a bit of sick from years of being a cot. The more I worked it the stronger the smell got. Nasty coincidence.

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    That's not my recollection of the smell of machined NSO. I really enjoyed visiting Winkworth's Joinery in Cairns in the 1960 & 70's as they machined heaps of NSO for casement & hopper style windows and entrance doors. Even now I enjoy machining NSO and have some lovely old growth recycled stuff.
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  6. #5
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    Wet oak (like freshly sawn log) has a smell to it,kinda sour. But dry oak doesnt have much odour at all.

    My bet is that you're smelling the borates it was treated with. Thats the good thing about properly borate treated timber.... it fixes deep in the wood not on it like the modern pressure treated preservative chemicals. It's harmless, dont fret it: its on the list of essential trace elements you need to live and the tiny exposure you get from handling long dry borate treated lumber can only do you good.

    I'm about to start cutting oak BTW - if anyone wants any in given sizes nows a good time to stick your hand up. NSO is getting scarce, and this is an opportunity to secure supplies for a couple years.

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