Identification of Unknown wonderful smelling wood species

[Steven Herbin]

About 15 years ago, I bought a bunch of this wood. At the time I was living in upstate NY and the sawmill recommended this wood for making drawers because of the smell and the ease of working. The wood has a greenish tint and it has a wonderful minty fresh smell. We use the shavings in our bedroom drawers to keep them smelling fresh.

The problem is, I have now used my last piece and can't remember what it's called.

Is there anyone there who can identify this wood? Many thanks in advance.
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[Mel Fulks]

My guess is sassafras

[Steven Herbin]

Mel-

That's it!

Now I remember .

Thanks a million. I knew I'd get an answer here. Now I have to find a supplier.

[John K Jordan]

Road trip to TN? We can take down a tree or three. All the free sassafras wood you can carry. Bring a trailer if you want a lot.

My property is full of sassafras. I've cut a lot and burned it. I've sawn some of the larger trees and processed a bunch into turning blanks.
Many sassafras trees have a relatively short life - I probably have at least 10 that need to come down. Even the wood from standing dead trees has the pleasant smell. Smells good as firewood too.

The bark from the roots used to be popular for making sassafras tea.

The leaves are interesting. There are three shapes on the tree.

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JKJ

[Mark Gibney]

So interesting about the three different leaf shapes.

[Patrick McCarthy]

John, are all 3 shapes on the SAME tree, or are there 3 variations of the trees, each with their own shaped leaves?

Thanks in advance, Patrick

[Alan Rutherford]

...The bark from the roots used to be popular for making sassafras tea....

We might have some of those so I looked for a little more information from Dr. Google. I was disappointed to find: "...One cup of tea made with 2.5 grams of sassafras contains about 200 mg of safrole. This is about 4.5 times the dose that researchers think is poisonous...."

I also found a website about Florida native plants that says "Tea can be made with young roots and [sassafras] leaves may be used in salads or cooked with other greens."

Nothing is simple any more.

[John K Jordan]

John, are all 3 shapes on the SAME tree, or are there 3 variations of the trees, each with their own shaped leaves?

Thanks in advance, Patrick

Each tree has all three shapes!

JKJ