Sassafras price per board foot

Plan on about $5.25 a board foot for 4/4 stock at U.S. retail (our 2026-08 estimate — your yard gets the final word). A typical board, 6″ wide and 8′ long, will run you around $21.00.

Cut a sassafras board and your whole shop smells like root beer — that's not a metaphor, its root bark flavored the original brew. Appalachian tradition put sassafras in dough bowls, boat trim, and, memorably, coffins; the mountain joke was that it kept you comfortable in the next world too. The tree itself can't decide on a leaf shape — it grows three different ones on the same branch, like it's still sketching.

Light, ash-like grain and a root-beer smell in the shop. Stable and rot-resistant for its weight; boards run narrow.

Sassafras at a glance

What common thicknesses cost

Same 6″ × 8′ board, priced by rough thickness (thicker stock often carries a small premium on top of this — figured on volume alone):

Will it stay flat?

Light, steady, and more rot-resistant than its weight suggests — think of it as cedar's hardwood-looking cousin that smells like a soda fountain.

The measured numbers: drying from green, sassafras shrinks about 6.2% across a flatsawn board's width (tangential) and 4.0% across quartersawn (radial) — that ratio is why the two cuts behave so differently in your house.

Buying sassafras without regrets

The trees run small, so the boards run narrow and knotty; a wide, clear sassafras board is a genuine find. Where it grows, it's cheap. Where it doesn't, it's a phone call.

At the finishing bench

It wears ash's bold grain in a warmer color, and oil suits it perfectly. Mind the edges — sassafras is brittle across the grain and chips if you get casual.

Sources & further reading

• Sassafras — The Wood Database
• Sassafras albidum — Wikipedia

Plan a sassafras project

Prices vary with region, grade, width, and figure. Cheaper neighbor: Hickory ($4.95). A step up: Cherry ($5.85).