Shopsmith Forums

Wow!

Some years back I'd seen a place in Southern Indiana where they worked a lot of Sassafras. I lately got some big pieces, started breaking them down. Oh boy, what an aroma! A nice, tea-like / menthol-like aroma whenever planing or sawing. Really got a nice effect by resawing this plank. No problems whatsoever resawing this on the SS bandsaw.

Chris

Nothing like fresh sawed wood. Any plans on what you want to build with the boards?

Mike

Sniff Sniff Root Beer?

That sounds like a fun wood to work with, Sassafras, mmmm I wonder where someone in IL can find some of that????

Looking forward to seeing a project out of these and now it well it works. I'm guessing that is it a softer wood?

Ed

nuhobby wrote:Wow!

Some years back I'd seen a place in Southern Indiana where they worked a lot of Sassafras. I lately got some big pieces, started breaking them down. Oh boy, what an aroma! A nice, tea-like / menthol-like aroma whenever planing or sawing. Really got a nice effect by resawing this plank. No problems whatsoever resawing this on the SS bandsaw.

Sassafras_Resawn.jpg

Chris

Chris, can you email me the sawdust? Chips?
scraps?

Here in Ari(d)zona, I'd KILL for some sassafras!
Just to smell the aroma.

steve

Yeap, it's a fairly light-weight and soft wood, but sort of looks like Ash when it's planed out. I actually used some Paypal dollars to get my boards from an auction seller. Sending chips and shavings is a good idea.... In fact, I'm thinking of making a wine-bottle box, and including a little bag of shavings in it. This would be a gift for a buddy out East. I don't think I can ship actual wine, but a box with shavings in it could ship just fine!

Chris

nuhobby wrote:Yeap, it's a fairly light-weight and soft wood, but sort of looks like Ash when it's planed out. I actually used some Paypal dollars to get my boards from an auction seller. Sending chips and shavings is a good idea.... In fact, I'm thinking of making a wine-bottle box, and including a little bag of shavings in it. This would be a gift for a buddy out East. I don't think I can ship actual wine, but a box with shavings in it could ship just fine!

Chris

I like the box/gift idea. There was quite a bit of sassafras in a stack of old rough-sawn lumber I bought, but I had no idea what it was until I made a fresh cut and smelled it. I still didn't know what it was, but the scent made it easy to ID.

My grandmother used to make tea from sassafras roots. It smelled up the whole house and they actually sold it in the grocery store. It has sence been determined to be a carcinogen.

A carcinogen? Wow.

We drank gallons of tea from it growing up.

I guess it shouldn't surprise me though. I think I can walk into a humid room and gain weight. So many good things aren't supposed to be good for us today.

Today I drink a lot of Green Tea. I hope they don't find it is a problem as well.

Everett

Sassafras tea was popular with my parents when they were kids, and I remember digging up roots and making some a time or two as a kid myself. So I researched this a bit, as I also have a fair amount of sassafras wood that I would like to use.

What I found is that safrole, the oil in sassafras, is classified under substances "Reasonably Anticipated to be Human Carcinogens". Back in the 60's it was found to be carcinogenic in lab rats, and subsequently banned from food by the FDA. But it is not proven to be carcinogenic in humans.

There are also various studies showing anti-carcinogenic effects. Apparently is has potential for treating leukemia in humans. This article has a good overview and extensive references.

Safrole is also used in the manufacture of MDMA, aka the illicit drug "ecstacy" (or "XTC"). Which I suspect may have something to do with government discouragement of its use.

As I have no plans for eating any of my sassafras wood, I'm not going to worry about it.