Sassafras that is. I was asked to take it down earlier this Spring at oldest stepdaughters. Awkward spot to work as it was on a stone wall and hill. No escape zone when it would fall over. Interior rot at stump level. A gnarly limb that would snag on neighboring trees when it fell. I gave my suggestion and they didnt like it i guess as it required moving a bunch of stuff out of the way. Her BF and father rigged up some type of pully and used the truck to get it over. I did not witness this in person (thank God) as they are a lot more redneck than me. His stump Last summer the tree was covered with carpenter ants. Ive never seen that many come out of a tree. The pileated woodpeckers were feasting Surprisingly the rot didnt go that far up the tree. Third 12" round bucked and the meat was good after that. 18" diameter stump so half cord yield. Bound up the 201 on the gnarly limb Misjudged the tension. 462 to the rescue. PITA getting it out in the humid weather. Took my time and got it done. He got some rounds i bucked to 12" for his small stove. The rest cut to 16". Took about half home. Ill get the rest next time. One 4' log to be milled for an outdoor sink stand build for them.
Nice work on the sweet/spicy Sassafras Brad. I commend you for being outside working in this oppressive humidity today. You almost need gills to breathe in this weather
It wasnt pleasant thats for sure. Took my time. First real sticky weather of the season. Had to carry them to wheelbarrow the wheel to staging area, back up PU and load to add insult to injury. It was either the sassy or noodle a bunch of gnarl hickory chunks from last Fall.
Don’t reckon we have that here. Make decent firewood I guess? Looks like some work was put in today , well done !
It was all I could do to walk behind the lawnmower yesterday. About an hour. Kudos for wooding in this yucky air!
If you can find some that are straight and mill them the lumber is beautiful. Around here they grow on creek banks and are pretty straight.
As a favor for someone, and SS wood for the stack, Id take it too. Goint north out of new haven I've seen a lot of sassy, but just the whippersnappers. I wouldn't recognise the bark of the bigger trees. Neat score!
I love sassafras, once dry, it is uber light, often is a beautiful wood grain, splits like a dream, burns nice flame. But it makes fireworks.
Are they in a woods or edge of a field? Wind stress maybe? Ive seen some crooked ones but most i see are on the straight side. The limbs coming off of them is another story though. Usually how i can ID them from a distance. This one had an ugly gnarly limb.
I read somewhere that the reason a lot of cherry trees grow crooked has to do with what was harvested over the centuries. The tall straight ones were cut down for lumber, leaving the gnarly ones behind to reproduce. They in turn made more gnarly trees, which is the bulk of what we see cherry as today. Maybe the sassafras story is similar. Although genetics aside, under good light/growing conditions I would think any tree should grow straight. Next door to me are a couple cherry trees in good sunlight, and they're shooting up nice and straight. The ones that grew in the thick woods on the other side of me are crooked from reaching for light though.
It sure is nice stock We've milled a couple logs even though they were on the short side. Limited on size as they only way to get them on my PU is by flip flop lifting. I was going to save the smaller logs for milling but some interior rot would really limited what, if any boards could be sawn from it. We'll cut some 2x4's from the one 4' log i saved to build a frame for a dry sink for them. I salvaged an old stainless sink from a kitchen gut and it will get repurposed for their garden...veggie washing station etc. Sassy is very rot resistant. Piece of sassafras we milled a couple years ago.
I hear ya on cutting small enough to load by hand. That's a good looking board. If you get a chance to mill some persimmon jump on it. Makes beautiful lumber.
I cant say ive ever seen a persimmon in person around here. I think Kentucky coffee tree has some pretty grain too. Weve milled some shorter mulberry logs. Cool to watch the yellow sawdust come off the mill. Id like to find black walnut. Only one small log milled. Rare score for me. Eastern red cedar is still my favorite to mill.
