Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Ranger B on June 17, 2010, 09:14:28 am
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I'm making my first bow from mulberry (Kids bow). You'll be able to see it because I am making a video of how to make a selfbow with it, but I'm not super happy with mulberry. Perhaps, it's just this stave but it's a lot softer than I expected. Tillering requires a lot of gentle work with this wood. Anyone else had similar experiences?
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I think comparisons to osage to it an injustice, more like hackberry. That said, if you use enough wood it's excellent in my experience. But you have to leverage it's low density, so I like a relaitively deep core but long design. For a kids bow it should be excellent.
The other problem I had with it was it did not seem to take heat bending too well. I had a couple projects where it was the dickens to get the string to center. On the other hand, I had some billets with 3" of reflex, and I never did get it out during the tillering... ;-)
One I made crushed the belly, but it was hick backed and deep cored and I just didn't get the ratio right. Another blew at a knot, but I'd heated that son-ofa-gun there prolly 10 times and musta had the mc way low.
As with any wood, the specimen, that tree, makes a big difference too. Kinda like osage, the density can vary a lot.
I really liked it, but it's tricky in terms of fit and finish, seemed to washboard at the ring transitions really bad.
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The Mulberry I've gotten down here is a lot denser than a Piece I got in a trade from NC. It was light yellow, heavy and real nice growth rings. I had no trouble dry heat bending it either. The wood from NC was lighter and soft.
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mulberry is actually in the hickory family, every once in a while ya even get a bad piece of hickory, maybe just a poor stick, good luck with it
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I think it's a good stave I just expected it to be harder. I quickly realized that it was closer to hackberry. Bow is coming along okay so I've adapted :)
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jimmy, what I've used is hard to tell from Osage except the color is lighter.
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Ive cut a nice big straight log thinking this is going to be fun, and split it and prepped it for drying after I took on down to 3/4 bow dimensions and let it dry then tillered to bending and to full draw.The belly fiber crushed on both limbs after about ten shots I just thought I did something wrong. and did the rest of the staves extra wide 2" only to have the same thing happen on all of them.It had dried for a good year and half.That wood looks a little like Osage on the root, but that's It and it wood is yellow.
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mulberry is actually in the hickory family, every once in a while ya even get a bad piece of hickory, maybe just a poor stick, good luck with it
Actually they aren't even part of the same order much less family or tribe.
Osage is part of the Mulberry family.
Family: Moraceae
Tribe: Moreae
Unfortunately not all mulberry are equal. Red mulberry makes a good bow but white mulberry doesn't. Red and white will cross giving a inferior quality of wood.
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All the times I've worked with mulberry I've been really happy with it, absolutely zero problems and a treat to work with. And heat-bends like butter. And that's the crappy NC red mulberry that Eddie is hatin' on. The last mulberry bow I made was a 62" ntn deep, stacked-belly longbow a fuzz over an inch wide that draws in the low 50's with very little set. You'' wind up with a little thicker limbs for the weight than you would with osage, but I class it as one of the better bow woods in my area.
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We're actually coming along nicely. Once I realized that I'd better take it easy and slow I did okay. Here is where we are.
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/RangerB/IMG_9111.jpg)
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/RangerB/IMG_9110.jpg)
(http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll210/RangerB/IMG_9109.jpg)
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Very nice bow, Jimmy!
I agree with Hillbilly. I have made quite a few mulberry bows and have been pleased with all of them. I have made bows from the heartwood, heartwood with a a few rings of sapwood on the back, 50/50 heartwood/sapwood and all sapwood and all came out well. The more sapwood you use the thicker the limb will be. I find adding about 10% length/width over the same design as osage works pretty good.
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very nice bow ranger he looks happy !, the mulberry i've worked with was good and the toasted belly really makes the grain stand out. i think the guy down here in valdosta that uses it all the time is murry gaskins , he has good luck with it
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Looks good Jimmy,the smile says it all, That young man has been patient watching you,
now he can shoot. :) Squirrel's watch out. ;) ;) Nice job. :)
Pappy
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What a nice looking bow, but I can't get over the great form that youngster has pulling that bow. He's going to be tough later on...
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He does have great form. I hope he keeps paying attention and focusing like he has over the past year or so. He's been shooting since he was 3 y.o. and he's a pretty quick study. If you haven't seen the video check him out.
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Jg9t66gXQ/url]
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not sure why that hyperlink didn't work but the url is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Jg9t66gXQ
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Wow, your son is pretty damn good. Shooting that bow with confidence and great form!
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What an awesome video. I had to watch the squirrel shot a couple times. He did jump the string a little but he didn't move far enough. Very cool stuff and that's what its all about. Thanks for posting!
gmc
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Justin, of course you're right, just had a brain fart, sorry about the missinformation, Bub
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Good looking bow Jimmy and very satisfied archer. I like mulberry and had similar thoughts but ended up using wider and thicker mentality to produce some pretty decent bows from a plentiful resource.
Tracy
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That bow is looking good, Jimmy. Your son will be knocking them down in no time. Hillbilly, I love Mulberry, I just don't see that much difference between what i'm using and Osage.
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Ranger get that young man a handle so he can start posting. "great stuff"