Druid

Truly amazing to go back to your roots, excuse the pun. Will this wood become something else or will it remain in the beauty of its creation in nature? Semper Fi.

-- Rich, Nevada,

oh what a wonderful story and carving!!
Wel ldone.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Some people would just pitch this 3” piece of wood in the trash or burn it, but you have brought it to life. The fellow has a frown, but I bet inside that piece of Sasafras is smiling. Where are you going to put it?

-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota

EGA,

This is a nice carving. Only someone with an “artistic eye” would have seen the inner beauty of the sassafras stick. To most it would have been nothing more than firewood but you managed to bring the carving to the surface.

Nice job and thanks for the post.

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

I love Sassafras trees and especially what you created with this piece.

-- Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.

I might add, thanks for the nice words. Did You Know? The sasfras tree root is where the original flavor for root beer originated. The green root smells about ten times stronger than the root beer that’s sold now. I’m sure there’s many different generic flavors used now. The old traveling medicine man made many cures (was all in the mind) with his magic mixture, root tea, root oil, cure all’s,etc,etc!! My Grandmother believed this brew, roots cut up, stripped and smashed to a pulp and boiled with water was the magic cure all. If we could sneak a little sugar (where she hid it) we would mix and (tadaaah root beer). In the old westerns,
“Bartender bring me a bottle and the kid here a sasaprillo”, again ( root beer) ! A little sprout of just the right size pulled out of the ground in a moment of stress, would also do for a switch,”butt beater” The worse the crime the bigger the rod! Think all the growups followed the saying “spare the rod spoil the child”.

-- www.flickr.com/photos/egamarine/

I’ve got a timber full of 8inch and smaller sassafrass trees… I had no idea the wood could be so beautiful… We’ve always considered it a scrub tree, something that chokes out the white oak and hickory. I like to chew on the green chutes of new growth when I’m walking the timber. I’ve never boiled the root, tho I’m told it’s pretty good. We’ve always used the saplings for weiner sticks when we were camping, because it’s easy to whittle a point on the end and it gives the hot dogs a nicer flavor… I need to go out in the next few days and dig up some root before the sap moves…

-- As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

Great story and beautiful carvings. Thank you for posting

God Bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Have you ever noticed that the leaves on a sasfras tree has two different shapes.

-- Ron in Osseo, Minnesota

It seem’s as if i’ve heard that before. I went back on the fence row late yesterday and yep, there is. Of course the leaves haven’t developed fully yet. Interesting and thanks Ron for the imput, I won’t forget it.

Thanks Tom for all the nice comments on my mess. I think you would agree, us ole folks, prodded with a little comment, kind of keeps me goine.

Steve, actually the sasafras wood is harder than a wood peckers beak. It dosent grow big and fast enough for wholesale lumber production, but for carving, it’s great for keeping a real tough finish for intricate detail.

Since I only needed one picture for this carving, yesterday I posted a little angel about 10 inches tall and a little cross that the wife wanted in the other two pics. Black walnut the angel and cross and will be posting a rocking chair that I made for her out of the same tree. Thanks again to all for the nice comments.

-- www.flickr.com/photos/egamarine/