Sassafras tree on our bank went south a couple years ago. I was waiting for a couple of the dead branches to break off so it wouldn't get caught in the cherry tree next to it. They finally did. So time to take it down. Ideally I wanted to lay it down on up on the bank, or try and put it across the driveway between a big cedar tree and burning bush. Any other way would take out rather newly planted river birch tree and fence along the driveway or on the house. View from driveway, Sassafras on right So I opted to try and put it up on the bank. Made the notch more towards the cherry, figuring with the lower bend in the tree, gravity and the bank would try and spin it, taking it where I didn't want it. Bingo! 16" towards the stump. Bucked it and staged it for the fiskars. Lots of bark fell off. It'll get stacked with some cherry. Some limb wood to still get. Rocked the chain at some point. and overloaded the trailer, resulting in a tire off the rim. Echo 7310 with 24" bar did the job.
Bravo on the tree. Bummer on the tire. Sass is just great to add to other hardwoods to get them burning. My mom always complains if she doesn’t have enough Sass.
Basically a shoulder season wood. Not much for btu's. Dries relatively fast, but not as fast as other SS woods. Splits easily. Sparks a lot in the fire. Very fragrant. One of my favorite wood smells.
Nice job getting it on the ground safely. Did you give it a good sniff? One of my favorite wood smells! Too bad about the chain and tire. Casualties of hoarding! Will that be burned in the Fall? Should be good by then.
Just for the record, I usually get done alot more in the amount of time I worked. Every time I went to cut, I stopped and stepped back to see if there was a better way. Probably over thought it too much. First time dropping a tree that had the type of bends this one did, and being on the bank didn't help. Everything that buZZsaw BRAD said. It is the best smelling tree that I have ever cut. I really like it for SS or mixed in with better BTU wood.
Better safe than sorry. Felling in an awkward spot (hill) can be tricky. One of the white oaks i dropped last weekend i took my time planning the direction of fall. Not much room for error and i was sort of going against its lean.
Once the tire went, I figured someone was telling me to stop for the day. Not sure when I'll burn it. It's going on a stack for 3 years down the road. But, it will be ready by fall. Good to know it's there if I need it.
I will burn any wood. Its all heat. That said I have'nt found a lot of BTU's in Sassafras. It did mill up into some very pretty trim for my house and I think it is way underrated for that.
Sassy is an excellent outdoor wood. Very rot resistant. Easy to work as well. Have some here we milled last year. May make some raised planter boxes out of it.
Nice work Biddleman. Double whammy w/ the chain & tire. Hopefully both can be fixed up in short order.
They can get big, but the OP one is typical larger one around here. I did come across this one a few years ago cut down roadside. Tried to find the property owner to cut but couldnt.
I’d tell them to kill the grass and mulch everything. They are lucky it didn’t die when they paved the driveway. It appears the root system was destroyed on driveway side. They probably didn’t know what they had in the front yard.
