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I first heard the word sassafras many years ago at the Kutztown Folk Festival, where root beer was mad the old fashioned way using the root bark to give the soda its flavor. Nowadays they use artificial flavor for root beer but we still have the sassafras tree. The tree is a pioneer species, which means it moves into abandoned fields or logged out forests before most other trees. Sassafras can reach heights of 90 feet, but here in Pennsylvania 50 feet is about it's limit. It can be found sharing well-drained hillsides and hill tops with oak, sweetgum and dogwood. Sassafras bark is dark red brown color and is deeply furrowed in larger specimens. Though Sassafras has more than one type of leaf, it is one of the most easily identifiable trees in Penn's woods. The three different leaf shapes can be found randomly placed on the same tree. The most common leaf has three disinct lobes, or "fingers", which all point away from the stem end. The second type of leaf is the "mitten", which has one large lobe pointing away from the stem and a smaller side lobe that sticks out like a thumb. The third leaf is egg shaped with no lobes. Another way to identify sassafras is by it smell. Crush some leaves, break off a twig or cut it with a saw and the pleasant spicy aroma will be unmistakable. Sassafras does flower but the small clusters of yellow flowers aren't much help with identification. In the fall it does ge a distinctive 3/8" elliptical dark blue fruit in a red cup on a long red stem. Its fall foliage color is yellow. At one time sassafras was a commonly used lumber. Today its chief uses are fuel and fence posts. This is lucky for us turners because it works very well on the lathe. The wood has a hardness of 520 lbf (pounds per foot) green and 630 lbf dry; this is a little harder than chestnut but softer than the soft maples. As a softer wood it is rather brittle. The grain is straight, coarse and open like that of oak. Sassafrsss heartwood is pale brown to orange brown in color making it a good substitution for American chestnut. A narrow band of yellowis-white sapwood surrounds the heartwood. Color contrast between the heartwood and sapwood is subtle. The wood is non-toxic but the ever present smell can get tiring after a while. Whether turned cross grain or end grain, sassafras cuts very well with gouges, but tends to tear a bit when using scrapers. It can be turned green down to the finished product, with minor end grain checking. Over sanding can cause the surface to get ridges as the winter and summer grains are of different hardness. If you can make your cuts smoothe enough to start with 150 or 180 grit sandpaper you should be safe. Sanding past 240 or 320 isn't necessary due to the coarse grain. One method to smooth out the grain is to wet sand with a mixture of polyurethane and mineral spirits in equal parts. Saturate your piece, turn at 200 to 300 rpm's and a paste should form on your paper. Don't turn the sandpaper over or replace it. The paste will fill in the holdes of the course grain. Of course this method will only work if you plan to finish with polyurethane. The best finishes are oils and polyurethane. If you get the opportunity to acquire some of this wonderful turning wood, give it a try, you won't be disappointed. |