OOOOO, dat smell!

[Engineer]

Of black birch, that is. 

Picked up three trailer loads, maybe 30-35 ten-foot logs, of 6-16" diameter black birch from a customer's property yesterday.   He had twenty acres logged off and set aside all the black birch for me.  The small stuff is gonna be firewood, but I'm sawing braces for my timber frame out of anything that is big enough.    Hoo-wee!  Thought that wintergreen smell was intoxicating when chainsawing, but run the stuff through the mill, and boy is it nice.    I gotta get me more of this stuff.   8)

Can't wait to put up some pictures, we are gonna be putting up my house frame in three weeks.  It's a four-bent splined frame in a raised post-style.   Frame is native eastern white pine, birch braces, cherry and oak splines, and hickory octagon pegs.   Anybody who wants to show up, c'mon along.   ;D

[Gilman]

Never smell black birch before, does it smell like or similar to any other wood?

Looking forward to the pictures.

[Engineer]

Black, and to a lesser extent, yellow birch, have a very strong but pleasant wintergreen smell when freshly cut.   Not like any other wood I know of.    By the time it's dry and milled, you've lost almost all the odor.   

[Part_Timer]

have you ever cut sassafrass ( i wish I could spell)  We cut up a small uprooted tree this fall.  It smelled real nice every time you kicked up the dust.  Can't wait to get some more

[tnlogger]

part_timer that is some of the best wood to make barn doors with light and it don't rot if off the ground.

[RoadKill]

Sassafrass used to be used to give old fashioned Root Beer that unique taste, until somebody figured out it was toxic.     ???  It still smells great when you strip the bark off root stock. 

Black birch/yellow birch/cherry birch all have wintergreen oil in the bark - it is basically the same chemical as aspirin so maybe it takes away your headache as well.  They used to harvest twigs and bark and steam distill it to get the oil for wintergreen flavor.  First time I cut it I thought somebody was chewing spearmint gum.   :D

[Cedarman]

I believe safrole is the carcinogenic ingredient of Sassafras. They take out the safrole and I think you can still buy it some places.  I don't know how many cups you have to drink to get enough to do harm.

[Fla._Deadheader]

  All the old timers in Arkansas were wiped out by Sassafras tea, at around 95 years of age.  : :

  I gave a bunch of roots to an ole gal one time, so she could fix me a batch of tea. Turned around and sold it all on the radio swap shop.  >:( : :D


  Y'all aint sawed until you whacked up some Camphor trees.  : ;D ;D ;D :D :D

  Look ma, no bugs  ;) ;)


Try some Melaleuca (Paperbark) trees. Smells like a pharmacy.  ;D ;D ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

I sawed about 5 Mbf of black birch the other week.  We run the logs through a debarker, so the smell is even stronger.   The next day we sawed about 2 Mbf of sassafras.  That's all of the aromatics for another month.

You might find some of your birch to be curly.  I run into it pretty often. 

I was thinking that the chemical for aspirn comes from the willow.  Salicillic acid from the Salix genus. 

[RoadKill]

Wintergreen oil from birch trees is methyl salicylate - must be related to salicyllic acid somehow  ???
Yeah - curly birch is pretty stuff.  I've seen a number of antique tables that a storeowner swore was cherry and it was nicely stained birch with a little curl.

[Engineer]

I bet I do have some curly birch.  I peeled som strips of bark off the butt of one log, and the grain underneath was pretty twisted.  Now I *really* can't wait to saw it (gotta wait until the weekend though).

j

[ARKANSAWYER]

   Yea you should not drink that Sassy tea.  I had to go get some roots for my GrandMa for her spring tonic that she has to have.  She also wanted some polk salad but it is not up good yet.  It is a shame that stuff is bad for you since she is 92 and I am 44 and have drunk gallons of the stuff.  We put it in the water on the wood stove to smell up the house.  Shur love sawing it.

[SwampDonkey]

Aspirin comes from highbush cranberry bark also. But, not many folks cutting cranberry unless to eraticate it. Grows quite prolifically around here as do willow. Young moose rely on the willow for early development. If you have a patch of willow and moose in the area, they'll strip it to bits. I've been cutting willow in my plantation the last two days.

[ohsoloco]

Years ago I bought an ounce or two of sassafrass for making tea from a store over in the next valley that sells all kinds of herbs.  That stuff was REALLY good, I drank a couple cups a day for a week or so, then I'd almost pass out every time I stood up  :D  I heard it thins your blood  ???  Guess I shoulda drank a cup or two a week     

I'd love to saw some of that stuff

[LeeB]

In Louisiana the leaves are groung to make what is known as "file". Pronounced fee lay. It is used in gumbo and soups. quite tasty. LeeB