Mulberry stave, bow for wife's Christmas

[dane lund]

I have a 56" mulberry stave, with a little prop twist, nice white wood, and some knots. Would like to make a light, (20-25lb) bow for my wife for Christmas.
Never worked Mulberry before, I assume it is treated like any other white wood? The back under the cambium, is the back of the bow? No ring chasing?
Would appreciate any design help!!!
Thanks in advance.

[RAU]

the mulberry ive dealt with isnt white wood and i treat it like osage and chased a hearwood ring.

[Pat B]

Generally you would use the heartwood like osage but you can use the sapwood if it was treated properly off the stump. For a heartwood bow it will be about 10% larger all around.

[Blaflair2]

Is it mull erry or hackberry?

[dane lund]

It was given to me as Mulberry. It has ½" of very white wood, then a nice dark brown sapwood to the center of the stave.

[Pat B]

I would remove the sapwood and build the bow with only heartwood. Being that you don't know the history of the stave I wouldn't trust  the sapwood under tension.

[Springbuck]

  I like white mulberry branches and saplings for bows and treat it like white wood. No problems, hard to break, better than elm.  But, red mulberry really likes to be treated like lower end osage and have a ring chased out.

Either take heat treating well.  How much thickness and width do you have to work with?

[dane lund]

Springbuck,
The stave is about 2 ½" wide, and 2 to 2 ½" thick. The sapwood (white) is about ½" thick.

I'd have to remove 2 or 3 rings to get to a solid one in the sapwood.
Do you treat knots the same way as Osage? It has a bunch of pin knots.

[Pat B]

You treat knots the same in any wood.

[Prarie Bowyer]

What is lower end osage?

[Sidewinder]

Lol Prairie Bowyer, I heard that. I didn't know there was such a thing as lower end osage,  I must have been fortunate enough to have never run into osage that wasn't dense. Some more than others but dense none the less.   I would treat the mulberry like osage only it is not as dense and needs to be wider and possibly longer dependng on the design and such. If all else fails mulberry makes excellent smoking wood too.   Danny

[dane lund]

I'm only looking for around 25#@26".  So can I get that out of this piece of mulberry?

Any help with layout for that size bow?

[Blaflair2]

I've never had lower end yeller wood either 

[DC]

That's the stuff from the bottom of the tree

[wizardgoat]

Sapwood is the white stuff, heartwood is the brown stuff