Kevin, and Bob,
Our experience with Sassafras is more like Kevin's. It has a pleasing smell when machining. Its similar to, but maybe better than, milling a large run of Cherry. Fills the shop with a nice aroma.
I have no issues whatsoever with the smell of sassafras (we work with it all the time and have about 2MBF of 6/4 sitting outside waiting for a chair run).
My concern was with the thickness. We have never gone this far below .750" for cabinet doors. Im not concerned about our construction but more about how we will feel about the the visual weight and body of the cabinet.
Its beautiful material. And a dream to work with. Machines easily, sands like a dream, tearout is a joke but this material being so thin will only see the sander.... Its kind of soft which I dont care for, but....
And Kevin yes, Sassafras grows commonly here though not often in large diameters and straight. It tends to be a soft fast growing wood so its searching for the sun and tends to be a bit less than straight out of the tree.
That said, this lot of material came from large trees (larger than any sassafras Ive seen) and is extremely dimensionally stable. Some of the boards are 10" wide.
We saw a lot of timber and Ive not had a sassafras tree that would make a 10" board.