Non-fruiting Mulberry

[Brice Rogers]

I picked up some non-fruiting mulberry. It is a pretty yellow wood with a lot of chatoyance.

I'm trying to slice it up into D's without the pith prior to rough turning. But it is really dulling my chainsaw and tools quickly. I'm not sure if there might be debris in the bark or the wood is just plain hard or includes silicon. When I'm rough turning it, it also dulls my lathe tools very quickly. The stuff that I am processing right now are branches/reaction wood.

The wood has some moisture in it but the tree was basically dead or dying.

Has anyone else had issues with mulberry dulling tools?

[John Keeton]

I am sure there are some species that are more likely to have silica in them, but I have found that even just certain trees do for some reason. I recently turned some silver maple that sent me to the wheel much more often than a lot of harder woods. In my experience, silica is more the culprit than the hardness of the wood.

[Bob Bergstrom]

Same as John here. I've turned walnut, maple, oak and others that sent me to the grinder quite often. I won't even cut the Osage around my area because it is so hard on my saw chain. Unless the wood is exceptional I would toss it?

[William Adams]

It seems to be a function of the soil the tree grows in --- I remember when I was a kid, my father and I cut some black locust from a single stand of trees --- one was upslope of a small stream, the other downslope --- we could identify them since the upslope trees were covered in poison ivy which we had cut at the base the previous spring.

The upslope trees were hard enough that we were re-sharpening the chain halfway through a given tree, while the downslope trees were slightly less hard and we could make it through a tree before having to resharpen.

[Steve Doerr]

Brice, the mulberry that I just cut is a non-fruit bearing as well. It is the same yellow as yours and has lots of curl and burls. It is very hard but have not had the issue as much as you have with the dulling of my chain or my tools. Since this was my first mulberry, I was surprised at how yellow the wood is. I'm wondering what it will look like as it ages.

[Stan Calow]

It turns dull brown relatively quickly.

[Joe Kaufman]

It turns dull brown relatively quickly.
And the sapwood lightens to almost white, quite a contrast between the dull brown and white.

[Leo Van Der Loo]

I have turned quite a bit of Mulberry, the fruitless is the same as the ones with fruit, as Mulberry tree can be bi-sexual or unisexual, where the male trees do not bear fruit.

The biggest problem I have with Mulberry is that it likes to split the sapwood part, the silica problem I never ran into with Mulberry.

I find both freshly turned and the matured color quite nice in Mulberry, two pictures here of some individual use salad bowls with the yellow and the rich honey brown color.

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[Brice Rogers]

Thanks for the feedback, guys. The processing is going very slowly. My saw chain is dull again and a little chewed up. I am going to Harbor Fright and pick up a chain sharpener and go to the small engine store to buy a new chain. I'll probably sharpen the current chain a few more times until I'm done with the project and then put the new chain on.

Joe and Leo, I too like the contrast between the almost white wood and the heart wood. On this wood though the white sapwood is very soft due to having been standing dead for some time. I left some in place on my rough outsto see if it firms up when it fully dries. I'm planning on trying some pieces with either CA or wood hardener if necessary.

[Jason Edwards]

I've never turned it, but I've cut a bit of it with a chain saw. Dulls it faster than than other hard woods. Need to sharpen each tank of gas, sometimes sooner. Be careful taking down the trees too. If there is any tension in the wood it springs back worse than other species, in my experience anyway.

[Brice Rogers]

I bought the Harbor Fright :eek: chain sharpener. It was cheap ($30) and made of plastic. But it actually does a fairly decent job of grinding each tooth. I have a 60 tooth chain so I do 30 with one slant and 30 of the other slant. The only complaint is that when I switch betwen plus 30 degrees and minus 30 degrees I need to readjust the amount of grind.

Between sharpenings, I'll do touch up with a saw file.

The white sapwood is very soft. I can dent it with my fingernail. But the darker heartwood is - - in some cases - - very very hard.

Nine logs done and 3 to go.