Sassafras is a wood I have worked with before and it’s most appealing characteristic is the scent of root beer that will fill your shop when you cut it. The wood itself has its challenges because it is very porous and open grained so it doesn’t cut cleanly at all on the cross grain and requires a good deal of sanding to make it smooth. Fortunately, Sassafras isn’t particularly hard so it sands easily compared to some other woods.
Sassafras 9 x 3.5
In case you are wondering, yes, there was a second Sassafras bowl that was essentially identical to this one and they would have made a nice pair, but, sadly, as does sometimes happen, at the last minute, during the final turns on the Cole Jaws it had a catch and literally flew over my head and halfway across the shop. The result was severe damage to several places on the rim and it was beyond salvage and repair. Lucky for me that I have literally hundreds more pieces of wood to turn so I can afford to lose one now and then. The experience serves to reinforce my contention that something can go wrong at any stage and until the piece is off the lathe for good, tragedy can still strike.
All major cuts were made using the Easy Wood Tool system on my Robust American Beauty lathe, although I do use Robert Sorby bowl gouges for light final passes before sanding. Forward chucking was in a Nova Chuck, while reverse chucking was done using a Nova Chuck with Cole Jaws. Sanding was with Gold and Green Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworks. Final finish is Shellawax.
As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever your wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!