Mulberry for arrows?

[Hrothgar]

Has anyone ever tried using mulberry for arrows? Earlier this summer I helped a friend cut down a mulberry tree.  Over the weekend we noticed the stump had sprouted about a dozen suckers, all of them 9 to 10 feet long, straight, no limbs-just big leaves at the end of the shoots; some nearly as big around as a rake handle. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to cut several and bundle them while they dry. I've been wanting to make a long south American style bow with corresponding 5-6 foot arrows and these seem like the perfect shafts. What do you guys think?

[Pat B]

In my experience shoots for shafting works better with second year growth. What you have is first year growth. You could cut them, bundle and let them dry then plain them down to arrow diameters then see how they spine out.

[JacksonCash]

That Mulberry stump will be the gift that keeps on giving too. I ended up having to dig out a stump near my house this spring, I'd cut it back about 3 times over 2 years.

[Buck67]

I'm experimenting with Mulberry for the first time as well.  Had a small tree growing next to the garage that was going to be a problem if I didn't cut it down this year.  I cut and saved all the long branches.  Got them bunched and tied up with zip cords right now.  I'll take a look at them in a couple of months to see what kind of Spine they have.

[Pat B]

You might do better with split out shafts from mulberry instead of shoots. Seems to me the shoots will be to big in diameter to make good shafting. If a log is straight and without twists you should be able to split out sections that you can later reduce to shafts with a small thumb plane...or you could saw out 1/2"x1/2"x36" or so stock and reduce with a thumb plane.