That's interesting, J.R. Sassafras seems to be fairly hard wood once completely dry. I don't recall having ever seen one around here large enough for a gunstock blank, except for one. It was the world's record sassafras, and lived in a small town near me in the Methodist churchyard. It was cut down years ago due to internal rot.
I've got a sassafras pole that my Grandaddy had for weighing cotton that was hand picked and dumped on big burlap sheets, and tied up at the end of the day. There was a balance beam scale that was tied to the sassafras pole with plowline, and was hooked under the knots in the top of the sheet. Then, two men would lift the sheet of cotton and hold it steady, off the ground, while Grandaddy slid the "pea" along the beam until it balanced. That pole is slick as glass from the thousands of handlings, and hard as a nail.
SRH
