Meranti smell

[pipefitter]

I had friends over at times and they kept telling me they recognized the smell of the meranti from somewhere as I was cutting it. After much thought of where and what,we came to the conclusion that the smell is just like the wood used in cigar boxes.

[ 04-03-2005, 11:42 PM: Message edited by: pipefitter ]

[plyboat]

The distinctive smell of some cigar boxes and most humidors is Spanish Cedar, which is a Central and South American wood and I have always assumed it was type of Mahogany. I have made Spanish Cedar lined humidors and several of the Mahogany plywoods I have used over the years smell like it.
---Joel---

[sawcutmill]

Spainish Cedar is a member of the Luan family. not rot resitent in the least, Meranti is very brittle, and has some hardness to it.Be carful screwing in the ends of the boards as it has a tendancy to split!

[Billy Bones]

Originally posted by sawcutmill:
Spainish Cedar is a member of the Luan family. not rot resitent in the least, Meranti is very brittle, and has some hardness to it.Be carful screwing in the ends of the boards as it has a tendancy to split!You must be thinking of something else.

[Bruce Taylor]

When cutting doorskin (& "meraply" underlayment) I often catch a whiff of that distinctive Spanish Cedar smell.

[ 04-04-2005, 07:49 AM: Message edited by: Bruce Taylor ]

[pipefitter]

I sure like it better than the plumb creek fir marine exterior ply I used on the top cap of my Simmons. That Fir ply was next best thing to regular old CDX minus the open knots.The meranti was a dream to finish in comparison. Yes,it is alot like luan in feel and I felt it was related to luan but was still nice to work with except for the splintering around screw holes and stuff.All I could go by was the BS1088 rating it has and hope for the best. There is scraps of it sitting near my project that have been out in the weather 2 yrs now and still looks great. Some are very small thin rips that go to a point on the ends and even there it hasn't delaminated. I am satisfied with it's performance sofar.I ended up scoring my cut lines with a utility knife before I cut it to minimize the splintering.