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Mulberry...

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gpw:
 We have tons of Mulberry trees around here, very easy to find and harvest... never tried this wood yet , but have a nice 7' stave in the shop ...nice sapwood , sorta' light osage colored heartwood ...Anybody have any experience with making mulberry bows???

DCM:
I've made several.  They say red is better than white.  I've used only red.  It's a predominantly heartwood tree so strip off the outer growth rings down the yellow wood for the bow's back.  I judge it to be about as dense as elm so 1 5/8" wide or better for a typical flatbow.  Like elm, it will reflex and noodle up spontaneously so I'd hog it down to bow size pretty fast (once you get it spilt and backed down) and put it on a caul to season a bit.  I'd imagine a good clean straight grained specimien with some crown would make a nice long stinny bow, like an elb.  I'd WAG 1 1/4" or less of wood would be sufficient for one of those, perhps 68" long for 50" @ 28" or more.  It will chrysal in a narrow deep design so work the whole limb.  Go for it.

Hillbilly:
Mulberry is good wood, haven't used a lot of it but I've made a couple flatbows and an elb from it. The finished bow will be thicker for its weight than with heavier woods. Like David said, for most purposes, treat it like light osage (osage is in the Mulberry family btw) and chase a heartwood ring. The ELB I made from it has two rings of sapwood on the back with no problems.

Pat B:
I've made nice bows from mulberry. Some with sapwood left on and some all heartwood. You will get better performance from all heartwood. Make your bow about 10% longer and wider than osage. It bends easily with dry heat and a bit of oil.      Pat

SimonUK:
Pat, what kind of oil should we use when using dry heat?

Thanks, Simon

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