Mulberry

[RiverWalker]

So my future FIL mentioned to me that he knew someone who may be cutting down a mulberry tree and asked if any of the wood from that might be useful for any of the stuff I am looking to get into, I told him I didn't know, but that I'd look into it.

I searched lightly online and it sounds like mulberry is used for some things, but it wasn't quite as concise/definitive as I might have liked.

I am not sure what kind of mulberry it is or how big the tree is, but have any of you had much experience with mulberry? how does it handle, whats it good for, ect.

[Doug B]

If you want to turn some of it, then go get it!

I've used some local Mulberry to make some very nice looking bowls, pens and bottle stoppers. It has a lot of iridescence in it that really looks cool. I like it really well for a natural edge bowl - the bark stays attached well and looks good.

There are some bugs here that really thrive in it when it is left to dry, so I cut it up into blanks and soak it in Denatured Alcohol to speed the drying and keep the bugs out.

It is very hard when dry and cross cut is a real pain to turn because it chips out so badly.

No idea if your Mulberry will be like what I tried, but it sure is worth a try.

here are some pics of a few things I made from that Mulberry tree that me and a couple of guys from work cut down a couple years ago.

A natural edge bowl



a pen


another bowl


This is a pawn that I turned and the Mulberry polished very nicely

[Stretch]

Doug's mulberry look an awful lot like the mulberry I've messed with. It's a very hard wood, very similar in appearance an working properties to Bois d'Arc/hedge/bodark. If it's a big enough tree, I'd say it would be worth trying to get some lumber out of it.

[RiverWalker]

those are some purty turnings there.

I'll definitely see if I can get some of it then, sounds like it might be useful one way or the other.