Sassafras don't keep!

[Ashful]

Was just splitting a few cords of stuff I felled and bucked about 15 months ago, which has been stacked in rounds in my wood lot ever since. Big ash and oaks on the bottom of the pile were muddy, but totally fine. However, the sassafras was punky inside, and it was stacked closer to the top of the pile! I believe it was good wood when stacked, and rotted in the round, over the last year. Anyone else seen this with sassafras?

 

[osagebow]

I have used sass poles to line our yard and driveway ditch (basically a stream in the spring) with little rotting. Haven't ever seen clean splits rot. Maybe unseen ant damage? High in sapwood? (it can be less resistant). I'm only 3 and 1/2 years into burning, but have used the sass poles for a long time.

 

[jatoxico]

Sass is supposed to be more rot resistant than a lot of other species. Used for posts.

 

[Ashful]

Well, I guess it must've been rotten when cut, then! It's almost all heartwood, and the majority of each round is good, but the center pith is punky in almost every round.

 

[jatoxico]

Its pretty light, not very substantial so it is kind of surprising that its rot resistant. Must have to do with the oils.

 

[Woody Stover]

I've been using Sass sleepers under pallets because of its high rating on the rot-resistance charts, and an abundance of dead ones here that I can use.

Its pretty light, not very substantial so it is kind of surprising that its rot resistant. Must have to do with the oils.

Black Cherry, another fairly light wood, is as well. I recently found a dead, fallen one with the sapwood almost completely gone, but heartwood was still solid. The trunk was held up off the ground, though...

 

[Fanatical1]

Well, I guess it must've been rotten when cut, then! It's almost all heartwood, and the majority of each round is good, but the center pith is punky in almost every round.

This is your answer. It's a very rot resistant wood often used for fence poles (I use them for the base to my wood piles).
I find a few of mine that are dead, to have some of the heartwood slightly rotted out or a little punky in the centers. I cut a few this spring and many of the centers were punky.

I also heard there is a disease going around causing this rot to occur in the heartwood of these trees?