donald girod wrote:
I posted this before and got no response so I'm trying again. A while
ago I used some wood I salvaged from a crate. It was fairly hard, not
terribly heavy, had grain like white oak (very porous), was somewhat
greenish in color, and happened to be very curly--a very pretty piece of
wood for use in a crate. But when I cut it, the basement filled with
this remarkable spicy odor. White oak has a very noticeable and
pleasant odor but this wood is positively fantastic. I encountered a
small scrap today, made one cut in it, and the same thing happened. I
could work with this stuff all day just for the atmospheric effects.
Does anybody know what it might be? I know that if you ever smelled it,
you would never forget it.
Sassafras it is!!

I checked the smell again and it actually does smell like rootbeer!
Wonderful. I think my sample is probably just light-colored. I would
really like to get hold of some of this lumber, but I don't think it is
very common around here (western New York). My tree book shows very
limited distribution in this part of the country, more common to the
south.