Anyone ever carve in Mulburry ??

[Veen]

I have an ton of Mulburry trees out here in all ages and stages. Is it a wood that I can carve in?? also poplars and willows ?? How long would they have to dry first if so ??

[jmischel]

Veen

Using the forum search function to look for mulberry, you'll see several threads. Others have carved it, both green and dried. Being a fruit wood, it's going to be pretty hard. From all reports, it's a beautiful wood that can be difficult to work with.

Several kinds of poplar seem to be very popular. Willows, too. As I recall, diamond willow is treasured for walking sticks.

Drying wood is a whole other story. The typical advice is to let it dry from 6 months to one year per inch of diameter. So if you want to dry a 2-inch thick branch, you'll wait between 1 and 2 years. That seems to be the rule of thumb, but others who have more experience will speak up with their advice and experience.

In general, any wood can be carved with varying degrees of difficulty and with varying degrees of success. If you're talking about carving strictly with hand tools, you're going to want to work with softer woods most of the time, unless you have lots of patience. The Janka hardness scale can give you a rough idea of how hard a particular wood will be to carve. The harder the wood, the more difficult it will be to carve. That doesn't cover things like tendency to split or other factors, but it will give you an idea of how hard you'll have to work.

Most woods carve easier when they're green. My admittedly limited experience indicates that green wood is softer and easier to push a knife through (or slice), but it tends to be somewhat stringy and controlling the knife is a little more difficult. Dry woods are harder to carve, but the wood seems more uniform and stable.

There's also the cracking problem when working with green wood. You carve something when the wood is green, and there's a high likelihood that it will crack as it dries. Some see the cracks as adding character while others view the cracks as ruining their carvings. It's all a matter of opinion.

[Veen]

Thanks Jim
I am probably spelling it wrong for starters lol.

[Claude]

Jim:
Thanks for posting that hardness scale link!

Claude

[jmischel]

@Veen: I didn't even notice that you'd spelled it wrong. But that would explain why search wasn't returning you any results.

@Claude: Happy to help out.

[Cottonwood]

Here is a walking stick I did in Mulberry. It is hard and the sap wood contrasts greatly from the heart wood. In this walking/hiking stick the heart wood was just at the proper depth to create a darker face. The mulberry stick is the one on the right.

[Veen]

Thanks for the replies.
Nice job on the sticks.
Could you please explain what heart wood means ??

[chuckbolton]

jim-- thanks for posting the hardness scale-- now i have an excuse for some of my issues-- im going to use some mulberry for a coffee spoon and kitchen utensils-- and most of the work will be done with a band saw and sander-- the grain is pretty, i think-- im using some limbs cut off while trimming trees last fall. and they are well dried so seem to be working good. next project ( i have several) will be in some redbud ( not on the list) so that will be an experiment.

[Cottonwood]

Hi, Veen!
Here is a discussion about heart wood and sap wood. It's about half way down into the article.....probably more than you ever would want to know.(grin)

Wood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[jmischel]

@chuckbolton: I don't know what kind of "redbud" you're talking about. I know that Texas Redbud is considered medium hard and that it tends to crack when drying.

With a little patience, you can often find the hardness of a particular type of wood by entering "wood type janka" on a Google search. Another good source is woodworkerssource.com. They have a Wood Library with info on lots of different species. You can search by common name or botanical name.

Good luck with it, though. Sounds like fun.