Sasafrass

[Robert Lindstadt]

I aquired to cuts of sassafras’s logs yesterday!
I cut then in have today and will coat ends with some anchor seal
Wonder should rough cut them while wet and fresh or let dry! I read that it can be a hard wood to finish ?
Any suggestions are welcome!

 

[Alan Weinberg]

Will take years to dry in that format. Anchorseal them to stop checking and cut them up when you are rest to turn. Or make blanks and anchorseal those.

 

[John K Jordan]

I've finished sassafras with a variety of finishes, never had any problem. I only turn and finish dry wood.

Here's a music box (sassafras has good tonal qualities), finished with "danish" oil.


Sassafras is a quite stable wood, but it can crack. If you want to turn it green into bowls or something, like other green wood I'd seal the ends and turn as soon as possible. For turning dry I cut into various sizes of blanks, seal, and dry until the weight quits changing.
Smells great, but be aware that there may be some health issues with turning the chemicals in the wood when turning sassafras. You might want to look it up.

We have a lot of sassafras here. Some on my sawmill to I'll cut into turning blanks.


JKJ

 

[Robert Lindstadt]

Will take years to dry in that format. Anchorseal them to stop checking and cut them up when you are rest to turn. Or make blanks and anchorseal those.

I cut then in half today with my chain saw
I probably with cut round two of them and the one will cut in a couple square for spindle and anchor seal them, I gave one away to another turner to try!

 

[Robert Lindstadt]

I've finished sassafras with a variety of finishes, never had any problem. I only turn and finish dry wood.

Here's a music box (sassafras has good tonal qualities), finished with "danish" oil.
View attachment 75603

Sassafras is a quite stable wood, but it can crack. If you want to turn it green into bowls or something, like other green wood I'd seal the ends and turn as soon as possible. For turning dry I cut into various sizes of blanks, seal, and dry until the weight quits changing.
Smells great, but be aware that there may be some health issues with turning the chemicals in the wood when turning sassafras. You might want to look it up.

We have a lot of sassafras here. Some on my sawmill to I'll cut into turning blanks.
View attachment 75605

JKJ

It’s wondering if it’s hard to turn as I’ve seen on the internet?
I will wear my Trent shield for sure!

 

[Paul Paukstelis]

I've turned a lot of sassafras. I don't find it particularly hard to turn. It turns very nicely green and as John says, it is quite stable. I've found it to be a good choice when I do short (1 hour) bowl turning lessons because it doesn't move much and I can have students do a second turning in about a month and have a nice bowl with little warpage.

I've turned a few sassafras bowls that I finished with sanding sealer and shellac and they made really interesting noises as the finish dried. Not really a cracking sound, more like walking on dry pine needles.

 

[Bob Vaughan]

It is another ring porous hardwood like ash, oak, chestnut and other coarse grained woods. Softer than ash. If some have found it difficult, then they need more practice.

 

[hockenbery]

Have turned some. It cuts nicely if your cut down hill. Smells nice,
Most pieces lack interesting grain.
It’s a softer wood than I prefer for functional bowls.

 

[robo hippy]

The only bad thing about the sassafras is that the smell does not stay around for more than about a day. Not much of it growing around here though. I have a catalpa box I bought from some one, and the smell still lingers after years. Not a smell I like.

robo hippy

 

[Richard Coers]

Are you suggesting it's hard to apply a finish, or difficult to final turn? Hard wood to finish is a bit vague. Applying a finish to any wood species appears to be tough for lots of people

 

[Jon Rista]

I've finished sassafras with a variety of finishes, never had any problem. I only turn and finish dry wood.

Here's a music box (sassafras has good tonal qualities), finished with "danish" oil.
View attachment 75603

Sassafras is a quite stable wood, but it can crack. If you want to turn it green into bowls or something, like other green wood I'd seal the ends and turn as soon as possible. For turning dry I cut into various sizes of blanks, seal, and dry until the weight quits changing.
Smells great, but be aware that there may be some health issues with turning the chemicals in the wood when turning sassafras. You might want to look it up.


JKJ

Love the design of that. Including the feet! Did you turn those little feet as well? Any chance you have a picture of just the feet (or one foot)? I have always liked boxes with little feet like that...

 

[Michael Anderson]

I’ve turned Sassafras a couple of times. Like Bob said above, it’s no different than any other ring-porous wood (albeit a bit softer than many Oaks and Ash). Grain and color varies from pretty bland off-white to tan with dark streaks. Try to get as good of a tool finish as you can to cut down on uneven sanding.

 

[Paul Paukstelis]

Its blandness and the fact that I have had 4 or 5 trees come done in my property has led me to use it for some "limited-lifetime" type applications:

 

[John K Jordan]

Love the design of that. Including the feet! Did you turn those little feet as well?

That little box is long gone, gave it to a friend in Italy.

I make feet different each time, whatever I feel like at the time. For an example of some others I made (from brass) on another box look at my document on turning metals on the wood lathe in the Tutorials and Tips sub-forum on this web site.

JKJ

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I've turned a bit of sassafras, too. As others have said, it's like most ring porous woods. I'd add that it's pretty soft at 600 Janka. So probably the difficulty finishing is due to that more than anything. I can't help but post this (again). This came from a dead standing tree that was probably killed by the blight.

 

[Bob Vaughan]

The only bad thing about the sassafras is that the smell does not stay around for more than about a day. Not much of it growing around here though. I have a catalpa box I bought from some one, and the smell still lingers after years. Not a smell I like.

robo hippy

The catalpa shavings have an oily residue that makes a smooth floor dangerously slick besides smelling awful. I roughed out a batch in 2003 for a nephew since the wood came from his home place. I finished one bowl for him and gave him the rest of the roughed out bowls for someone else to finish. It was easy enough to turn when green but never again. Lesson learned.

 

[Richard Coers]

The catalpa shavings have an oily residue that makes a smooth floor dangerously slick besides smelling awful. I roughed out a batch in 2003 for a nephew since the wood came from his home place. I finished one bowl for him and gave him the rest of the roughed out bowls for someone else to finish. It was easy enough to turn when green but never again. Lesson learned.

I love the earthy smell of catalpa, as well as the extremely light weight. Sells well for me, even if I get a little creative with it.

 

[John K Jordan]

Catalpa seems to grow fast. I once dug up a small one and planted it in the horse pasture - it made a great shade tree in short order.
Anyone try turning paulownia? One of the fastest growing trees in the world, lighter in weight than catalpa. I usually kill them but let a couple grow. One is now over 50' high and maybe 20" in diameter. I think I'll take it down and see what kind of turning blanks it makes.

Paulownia | The Wood Database (Hardwood)

www.wood-database.com

JKJ

 

[Webb Willmott]

Hope you planted a male Catalpa tree. Growing up, there was a street behind my home lined with Catalpa trees and half were female. The fruit they drop smells just like poo.

 

[Bob Vaughan]

Neighbor took down a paulownia in 2004. My son got the base log and turned an ornamental mushroom out of it. Coarse grain but easy to excavate. As a wood for turning bowls or spindles, it isn't much.

 

[Dean Center]

My son took down a northern catalpa in his yard and I made a number of smaller items with it. I never noticed any smell, good or bad, and never had trouble with it being slippery underfoot. I wonder if trees grown at the northern extent of the catalpa range, in a dry climate, may produce a different result the southern catalpa variety grown in usual surroundings.

 

[Bob Vaughan]

Growing region may well have something to do with it. The tree I encountered was from south western West Virginia.

 

[Robert Lindstadt]

Are you suggesting it's hard to apply a finish, or difficult to final turn? Hard wood to finish is a bit vague. Applying a finish to any wood species appears to be tough for lots of people

They say the sanding of your turned piece!

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Its blandness and the fact that I have had 4 or 5 trees come done in my property has led me to use it for some "limited-lifetime" type applications:
View attachment 75626 View attachment 75627

How did those hold up? Sassafras is supposed to be pretty durable in terms of rot.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Catalpa seems to grow fast. I once dug up a small one and planted it in the horse pasture - it made a great shade tree in short order.
Anyone try turning paulownia? One of the fastest growing trees in the world, lighter in weight than catalpa. I usually kill them but let a couple grow. One is now over 50' high and maybe 20" in diameter. I think I'll take it down and see what kind of turning blanks it makes.

Paulownia | The Wood Database (Hardwood)

www.wood-database.com

JKJ

I have one paulownia I discovered last year. It's maybe 2" smaller than yours. I plan to cut it down and cut it up for turning, carving, and guitar body blanks. Maybe this winter.

 

[Paul Paukstelis]

I turned some paulownia a while back. It turned nicely when it was green. I went back to some blanks after a year or so and it was a lot of trouble. Even with all the normal precautions it tore out like crazy, making it much more trouble than it was worth. You can easily tell which log are paulownia from the hole through the pith.

 

[robo hippy]

I do remember an episode of Roy Underhill and he was visiting a boat maker, and he commented about identifying the wood by the smell, and it was sassafras.

The Paulonia/Royal Empress tree would be planted by a father when he had a daughter. By the time she was of marrying age, it could be harvested and made into furniture. They can get 16 inch plus diameter and 60 foot high in 10 years. There is always a big hole for the pith. I did see a thing about them taking a red hot metal plate and scorching the surface of it and then sanding some of the black away. It looked really nice. I would expect it to be almost as soft as balsa wood. It also makes a good "tone" wood for the Koto/zither common in Japan. Not sure how it would work for a guitar.

robo hippy

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I do remember an episode of Roy Underhill and he was visiting a boat maker, and he commented about identifying the wood by the smell, and it was sassafras.

The Paulonia/Royal Empress tree would be planted by a father when he had a daughter. By the time she was of marrying age, it could be harvested and made into furniture. They can get 16 inch plus diameter and 60 foot high in 10 years. There is always a big hole for the pith. I did see a thing about them taking a red hot metal plate and scorching the surface of it and then sanding some of the black away. It looked really nice. I would expect it to be almost as soft as balsa wood. It also makes a good "tone" wood for the Koto/zither common in Japan. Not sure how it would work for a guitar.

robo hippy

I understand it's popular for solid body electric guitars due to its light weight.

 

[robo hippy]

Well Kent, that is one I have not heard. Jeff Beck will always be one of my favorite guitar players. One of his favorite woods was made from bass wood. Generally not considered a tone wood, but for what ever reasons, he liked that one.

robo hippy

 

[Dave Hulett]

The catalpa shavings have an oily residue that makes a smooth floor dangerously slick besides smelling awful. I roughed out a batch in 2003 for a nephew since the wood came from his home place. I finished one bowl for him and gave him the rest of the roughed out bowls for someone else to finish. It was easy enough to turn when green but never again. Lesson learned.

turn sassafras a few years ago. Loved the smell. My shop smelled like and A&W Rootbeer stand!