Printed from smellbook.com/smells/oak-wood. This printout keeps the entry for Oak Wood itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A dry warm wood smell associated with oak timber, furniture and barrel-like material character.
One of its types, Source, means the smell is named after “a physical origin that can contribute a smell”; it is not an evidence source, such as a study or a book. The page for Oak lists every smell recorded as coming from it.
Setting: material. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
Oak wood smells dry and warm, with a firm, slightly tannic edge that sits at the back of the nose. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
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Other entries that link to this one
Links SmellBook records for this entry: what it comes from, where you meet it, molecules and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT OAK WOOD
Oak wood smells dry and warm, with a firm, slightly tannic edge that sits at the back of the nose. Freshly cut timber can add a faintly sour, green sharpness, while old furniture and floorboards often seem softer and more mellow. The impression is moderate rather than loud, steady and grounded, and it is sometimes confused with general sawdust or the inside of a wooden cask.
It is met in woodshops and timber yards, around new or restored oak furniture, and near stacked logs and floorboards being sanded. Many people also link it with wine cellars and barrel stores, where the wood smell mixes with damp air and fruit.
Typical settings: furniture, woodshop, timber.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
Material: Wood.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: Aroma of toasted oak wood. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
2 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. Each molecule this claim names has only the role the claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell.
Oak Wood is a broad material profile; finishing, age and moisture can change it substantially.
Words that are easy to mix up: When does woody become smoky?, Is every warm smell spicy? and When is woody also resinous?
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
A sensory panel described toasted sessile oak with six aroma descriptors (fresh wood, fresh green, sweet, roasted, spicy and smoky), and thymoquinone (pencil and cedar odour) and verbenone (fresh, menthol and tea-leaf odour) were identified as contributing volatiles.
Toasted cooperage oak (Quercus petraea) studied for wine and spirits; untoasted or other oak may differ.
How this was found: Odour analysis with human assessors. People smelled the separated compounds or the material itself (for example gas chromatography–olfactometry, dilution analysis, recombination or a sensory panel). Source: primary study; sensory or perception work.
Marie Courregelongue & Alexandre Pons
DOI 10.20870/oeno-one.2024.58.4.7883Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. Each molecule named here has only the role the claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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IN FRAGRANCE & SPACES
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Oak Wood.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0102 — Oak Woodsmellbook:smell:oak-woodhttps://smellbook.com/smells/oak-woodSmellBook. (2026). Oak Wood (revision 4, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:oak-wood. https://smellbook.com/smells/oak-wood@misc{smellbook_oak_wood_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Oak Wood},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:oak-wood},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/oak-wood}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-oak-wood-r4 TI - Oak Wood AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/oak-wood N1 - SB-0102; smellbook:smell:oak-wood; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/oak-wood ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Oak Wood is a broad material profile; finishing, age and moisture can change it substantially.
Other entries whose editors linked to Oak Wood:
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗