Sassafras for Timber Framing

[mattlynch]

Hello everybody.

I have a small timber framing company and a client has recently asked if I can build a 20x36 cruck style pavilion out of sassafras. It is an abundant resource here in mid-TN and less expensive than white oak.

Has anybody had experience with sassafras in timber framing? I know this was posted before but I have searched and searched and cannot find the old post.

Thanks for the help!

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I've no experience using sass for timber framing but I can tell you that they mill rail road ties from sass and it makes very good long lasting fence posts.  Ive got split sass fence posts here that have been there 15 plus years.

[Chilterns]

I seem to recall that Eric Sloan makes mention of Sassafras in his book :-

SLOAN, E., 1965. A Reverence for Wood. New York, USA: Ballantine Books.

[Don P]

I like the wood, it is light, stable, decay resistant. "Poor man's Oak" it also gets sold as chestnut occasionally.  It is not particularly strong, especially when I see it in the same line with white oak, and it has no published allowable design values. The average ultimate strengths are in the tables in chapter 4 of the Wood Handbook but those are not the design numbers. I think it would be a fine framing wood if you can get that worked out.

Sloane mentions it mostly as a medicinal. He notes that Jamestown colonists in 1622 were charged with collecting 100 lbs per man per year for the crown on penalty of 10 lbs of tobacco. Both new products that were creating strong demand back home.

[mattlynch]

Sloane mentions it mostly as a medicinal. He notes that Jamestown colonists in 1622 were charged with collecting 100 lbs per man per year for the crown on penalty of 10 lbs of tobacco. Both new products that were creating strong demand back home.

Don P - Super fascinating! 

I built a bridge using some sassafras posts mixed in at the client's request, but the design was way overbuilt so I felt very comfortable doing so. This will be a large 4 bent 20x36 cruck (see attached picture), so I definitely don't want to take any chances. Just figured I'd see if anybody has tried something this big out of sass before.


 

 

[mattlynch]

 

 
 Doesn't quite match the title of the post anymore since we scrapped the sassafras idea and went with white oak. And it certainly took me awhile, but finally got the cruck standing. White Oak frame, rough sawn cherry decking, brava composite slate roofing. More pics to follow soon of decking and roofing.
 

[Dan_Shade]

Very nice. 

When building a cruck, how do you go about finding similar arched logs? 

[Chilterns]

You don't ! - you have to learn to work with what you've got.

The above design is not a "true" cruck since it does not employ continuous cruck blades (sill to ridge or collar) and thus it might potentially be more accurately described as being a hammer beam roof (sans post) featuring upper "sling" braces in much the same way as was employed in Westminster Hall roof (although a little more complicated).

[Jim_Rogers]

Very nice.

When building a cruck, how do you go about finding similar arched logs?

Dan:
One way to do it:


 
Jim Rogers

[Chilterns]

or, Jim's suggested technique could also be employed full scale as was recently used in the search for a new underloute used to make the curved forward keel of a replica Saxon (Hoo) ship. See :-

https://twitter.com/OWGGroup/status/1520660033918414848