saffafras
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Gboutdoors
Burning Hunk
Welcome ! Sassafras is a very quick drying wood that burns good but fast like pine. I have lots of them on my land but only cut up what falls do to storms. With all the oak we have I don't waist space or time with it. I do more pine then Sassafras only because we get more storm damaged pine.
Do a search and you will find a few posts on it .
Do a search and you will find a few posts on it .
I like it. Got some hurricane Sandy sassafras from my dad. It was still in rounds, but mc was under 20%. I have mostly oak and maple. This stuff lights off like pine, and it smells good while you split / stack it. You do seem to get more ash, but its really light, and compacts quickly when you disturb it. Good to have in the pile.
Gabe
Gabe
Like Gboutdoors said it burns nice but fast. Also pops a bit when burning because of moisture pockets but not too bad, smells really nice when splitting it too. Doesn't throw a ton of heat like the bigger guns do, but it burns nice. Give it a try, you'll see for yourself that it has a place in your woodpile.
I've been burning quite a bot of sassafras this year, and really like it. It's great start-up wood...doesn't last too long but gets going quick and easy. It snaps and pops quite a bit too. Great warmer weather wood / start-up wood. Mine did dry out quickly too.
I have a bunch of it from fallen dead trees on my property. I don't use it to burn in my wood stove, I use it in my smoker.
And dry sassfras doesn't start like dry pine, I don't where people are getting this from.
Dry sassfras starts more like solid gasoline.
And dry sassfras doesn't start like dry pine, I don't where people are getting this from.
Dry sassfras starts more like solid gasoline.
Paulywalnut
Minister of Fire
osagebow
Minister of Fire
splits super easy. Makes good stringer poles to stack on, very rot resistant. Will regrow quickly from a the stump.
if I was to have access to a LOT of it I would stack it alone like oak or with other fast drying soft woods instead of stacking it inside my primary heat stacks of ash, elm, cherry, etc. Great to have but you don't want to run into a sass only portion of the stacks during a cold snap. At least I wouldn't.
I use it early, as it's great for a quick heat up when it's not too cold out. It's a quick fire too. Its great for starting the stove or for mixing with other hardwood like oak and beech.
I'm going to go against the grain here and say that sassafras is pretty much junk. It burns out way too fast to be of any use and is DIRTY. The bark doesn't want to come off until its in your house and then it chips off everywhere. The bark is like 2 1/2" thick and always has more moisture in it. Your time is better spent on other wood.
How dare you! 
I agree somewhat. I don't go after it specifically but if it's in the way of other trees I want for wood I'll take it down and make use of it as early season or late season wood. I believe it does have its place for sure. Even in cold temps, it gets a cold stove up to temp quicker and then you can reload with choice pieces to maintain the heat through a burn cycle. I haven't experienced the messy bark you've seen, but I do purposely break off pieces of bark to use as kindling if I have a few sticks on the rack next to the stove.
I agree somewhat. I don't go after it specifically but if it's in the way of other trees I want for wood I'll take it down and make use of it as early season or late season wood. I believe it does have its place for sure. Even in cold temps, it gets a cold stove up to temp quicker and then you can reload with choice pieces to maintain the heat through a burn cycle. I haven't experienced the messy bark you've seen, but I do purposely break off pieces of bark to use as kindling if I have a few sticks on the rack next to the stove.
Holzstapel
Burning Hunk
It just so happened that last night I pulled out a bundle of all sassafras and loaded it all into my stove at 9pm. It took off blazing and in a matter of minutes I was adjusting the air. It filled the firebox with bright flames and the stove got hotter than usual, much faster than usual. The secondaries were FLYING! This morning at 5am I had plenty of coals to fire the stove back up - this time with red oak. I like sassafras! It's also a pleasure to split.
I'll give you that it practically falls apart when splitting. The trees I had in my yard were gnarly, knotty, twisted and downright ugly. Seems like I got some z-grade sassafras...
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