I LOVE the way Shellac smells!

[Josh]

...as well as toasted wood when heat-treating a bow's belly. (Elm and Osage smell the best to me)  Or...the smell of fresh-cut Osage.  I know it is toxic but I also like the smell of fresh-mixed Urac 185.  Anybody else have any nostalgic smells related to our craft they want to add? 

[ErictheViking]

Beeswax, especially when melted and rubbed into a bow to seal it.  I love shellac to seal with but not the smell I would have to agree about heat treating. the smell from toasting the belly reminds me of campires. have only done vine maple and box store maple(whatever it was) so no preference to wood species. I really like the smell from any freshly cut wood, just makes me think of the outdoors.

[JW_Halverson]

Something really good about the smell of hackberry

[osage outlaw]

I love the smell of heating osage....mmmmm

[Bevan R.]

Only wood I really like the smell of is sassafras. I never get tired of smelling that. Even ceder gets old after very long.

[gstoneberg]

I love the smell of cooking backstrap...that was killed with osage. 

George

[JW_Halverson]

Geez, stoneberg!  You don't play the trump card so early in the game!

[Carson (CMB)]

I love the smell of fletch-lac!  Takes me back to making my first dozen arrows almost instantly.  And the buzz is nice 

Really love the smell of port orford cedar, makes breaking a shaft a little more bearable. Beeswax is heavenly.  So is douglas-fir pitch.

[Adam]

My favorites are sassafras and 50/50 beeswax/deer fat.  My wife, however, enjoys neither, so I have to keep them in the basement.

[JW_Halverson]

Lotta guys are posting how they like the smell of beeswax.  If you people ever get the chance to lean over a freshly opened beehive full of bees on a cool morning you are in for a treat.  The heat from the hive cluster rises up into your face carrying the smell of the honey, the wax, the pollen, the bees very own breath.  There is the sweetness, but a muskiness too from the bees themselves.  Along with the humming of the hive, the activity, and the hint of smoke from calming the bees is purely intoxicating. 

[Pat B]

Heating osage with EVOO on it smells like popcorn! 

[H Rhodes]

port orford cedar....  i don't use them for my arrow shafts anymore, but doggone it, that is what an arrow is supposed to smell like!

[blackhawk]

I agree with everything mentioned so far   might i add tru-oil,linseed oil,fresh cut Hophornbeam has a sweet smell when just cut. And why hasnt hickory been mentioned yet?

[Kpete]

I knew you guys were sniffing something!  I yooush to work, uh, in a ventilatincated rooooom, but now I can'th shee iv da vindowth is, uh, is ophen or shutticated.  ???
Actually, the first wiff of a pronghorn buck brings a flood of euphoria.  You know you are in open country, lots of sky,  and liver and onions in the near future.   However, get a little of the "wax" from his sent glands on your fingers and you will get sick of it before too long.
Please be careful with the "toxic" fumes.  I lost a dear friend to brain cancer, and although it can't be proven,  years of fletching arrows professionally and other adhesive fumes were suspect.  I shared the "pronghorn perfume" with him and dearly miss him.  So...take the warnings seriously.
JW,  I have made some bee hives but have not been able to locate bees to put in them.  Those offering bees delivered to parts of Wyoming never return my calls.  Not sure about the success of shipping them here.  I want to smell the bees!