pyotr filipivich wrote:
-MIKE- on Sun, 11 Feb 2018 19:24:38 -0600
typed in rec.woodworking the following:
On 2/11/18 7:14 PM, pyotr filipivich wrote:

Yes, that is my quandary. I have a stack of pallets, and some
rather nice (for some values of nice) boards in some of them.
Hardwood, I think "oak" - but I do not know. One thing I do know,
when I saw them loose, the wood gives off a pungent smell, similar
to that of strong vinegar. (I hope it is the wood, and not the saw
blade.)

There are at least half a dozen woods I can identify by their smell when
being cut.
Oak, walnut, bubinga, cedar (duh!), hickory, purpleheart, white pine,
probably more if I think about it.

Yeah, I can tell pine from "not pine"

But which one smells like vinegar?

Could be oak or arsenic. Pallets get drug along trailer floors that have
had who knows what spilled on them.