smell of butternut?

[Sharon of the Dell]

This is probably a really dumb question!
I have an old bookcase I tore apart. At first I thought it was oak, but after looking at carvings done in butternut, I think it my be that.
The smell of the wood is great! Kind of sweet, maybe, kind of nutty. Possibly a little walnut smell to it.
Anyway, does butternut smell real good like that? It will help with identification.
I'm to busy right now to post a picture of it.
Thanks!

[Robson Valley]

Congratulations! You might have a pretty good sniffer! Not a dumb question at all.

Juglans cinerea = Butternut
Juglans nigra = Black Walnut
Juglans regia = English Walnut

OOPS! Timer beeping. Gottagetmybreadintheoven.

[Bob K.]

I love the smell of butternut and from what you described it kind of sounds like butternut to me. The color of it should kind of a golden brown.

[mdallensr]

You beat me to the post. I've been working on a new carving blank today, a big piece of butternut. I remember now how much I like the smell of butternut; it's been some time since I carved it. Mike

[Dan Wegiel]

Hi Sharon,
Last year I carved a fairly large piece and the whole time I was working on it I was craving things like fresh bread, popcorn and all kinds of stuff then it hit me, the wood smells just like butter! It was a tad green so the smell was very fresh and I guess a little nutty, excellent wood to work with, has beautiful grain but you've got to fight the munchies while working with it or you'll gain a bunch of weight.
Dan

[Buffalo Bif]

If you can get a good look at the endgrain, Butternut tends to have a 'scalloped' pattern to the growth rings, something I have never seen in Oak.
Hope this helps.

[jmischel]

I've only carved one piece of butternut. Don't recall it having a distinctive odor, but this piece was kiln dried and then spent uncounted years in somebody's garage here in the Texas heat.

I guarantee that once you get started carving it, you're not going to confuse butternut with oak. Butternut carves almost as easily as basswood. The several types of oak I've carved were very, very hard.

[flyfisherman_53]

Where can one purchase some butternut wood reasonable ? I live in southern michigan. I have checked with some of my conacts who cut roughcut wood but know one has any.

[TreeWizard]

Fly, Butternut trees are becoming rare. Like many of our trees they are being affected by several diseases.

I've had some good luck at getting butternut at reasonable prices on E Bay.

[mdallensr]

Fly, the Sauder Village carving show is later this month, in north-western Ohio, and not much of a drive from southern Michigan. There will be at least one vendor there selling carving wood, including butternut (I hope!). I bought some there last show, and some more this March at the Ohio Decoy Collector and Carving show in Westlake, near Cleveland. It's definitely getting harder to find. Mike