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Author Topic: Rings sooooo thick......  (Read 3972 times)

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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Rings sooooo thick......
« on: May 13, 2012, 09:19:05 am »
I chased them with my bandsaw! No kiddin'. I grabbed a wide red mulberry billet I have had for two years, almost looks like a board its so flat. The sapwood is at least 2" thick with 5/8" rings and the heartwood is equal in thickness and rings. It came from a massive tree trunk, maybe 5-6' circumfrence. Im quite sure the whole bow will be one sapwood ring with a touch of heartwood on top of my handle. I tried chasing a ring with a draw knife, that aint happnin' no matter who ya' are. These rings will not seperate like all other woods I have used, hence the bandsaw chasing. Its spliced together and ready for rough shaping. I may cover it with roo rawhide "Gus" swapped me for. The back on one of the billets has two knots I dont like at all. I filled them with left over URAC after the splice joint was done. We shall see in a few days if she holds strong! 

I dont see many mulberry bows posted, what gives? Is it a regional wood more than I am aware?
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Offline Pat B

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2012, 09:40:08 am »
Pearlie, I've made some very nice mulberry bows. They are about 10% to 15% bigger(all around) but mulberry does make good bows. I have made them all sapwood, 50/50 sap/heart, thin sapwood backing and all heartwood. The more sapwood the thicker the limbs will be. The best bows are all heartwood.
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Offline gstoneberg

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2012, 09:43:16 am »
Hmm, that's odd Pearly.  My first 2 or 3 bows were mulberry and I did the whole bow with a draw knife.  I don't remember having any trouble chasing rings.  One of them had a limb with a single ring because the rings were so thick, it was spliced to a billet of much thinner rings.  Came out with limbs of different thicknesses.  Anyway, I stopped using mulberry because osage also grew there and once I made an osage bow I didn't go back to mulberry.  It's not that it isn't a good bow wood, it's that mulberry bows of the same design are bigger and they just felt clunky to me.  I got spoiled for sure.  The best shooting bow I've ever made was mulberry.  I killed a doe with it and then gave it to my brother.  Wish I had that one back.  They are normally loaded with pin knots.  That's the only down side to mulberry I remember.

George
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Offline BowEd

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2012, 09:48:32 am »
Diddo on Georges reply.
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Offline crooketarrow

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2012, 09:54:12 am »
  No need to back it just becuase of the thick ring. I had 2 OSAGE staves I helped cut that I made bows the rings were over 1/2. One ring bows the only 2 I've ever made both turned out ok. Mine were also from a OLD TREE 3 1/2 feet across. The hole tree have really thick rings. My help was 3 stave of my choise.
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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #5 on: May 13, 2012, 09:59:24 am »
Pat I would have needed 6 x 6 billets to get all heartwood from it. Know whatta mean?  I split them out 4 x 4 which meant most was sapwood leftover.

George it was like the rings had super glue between them. I feel I would have ruined my knife edge if I had kept beating on them. I bet I went 2-3" in five minutes. This sapwood is rock hard, harder than any wood I have tinkered with. I have to travel a good distance to get yellow wood so I try my best to sprinkle in some "others" as to not use up my precious supply of osage. If it grew down the road you can bet I wouldnt have another chunk of wood anywhere near my shop!
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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #6 on: May 13, 2012, 10:00:51 am »
Crooket the ring thickness doesnt bother me, its the knots on the back I dont trust. If it was osage I wouldnt even consider backing it.
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Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #7 on: May 13, 2012, 11:56:19 am »
A clean back ring is strong in relation to the wood. If you don't violate that back ring the knots have already protected themselves by adding more wood around themselves.
  A mulberry bow can perform as well as an osage bow if you make it slightly bigger. The physical weight is much less in mulberry than osage. 
  Your best bows will come from all heartwood but you can make good lighter weight(45# or less)bows with any combination of heart/sap or just sapwood alone.
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Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #8 on: May 13, 2012, 12:54:24 pm »
Im figuring that out already Pat. The limbs are 5/8" thick and flex quite a bit. If it was osage it wouldnt even budge at 5/8" thick. I left it 1 3/4" wide and 67" ttt., flatbow style.
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Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Pat B

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #9 on: May 13, 2012, 01:43:35 pm »
That design will give you a good taste of Mulberry. From there I know you will experiment.  ;)
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Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

blackhawk

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #10 on: May 13, 2012, 05:22:51 pm »
ya done yet?...i see ya posted this earlier this morn ;)

hey if ya got any more to spare,then bring some down to marshall n we'll figure something out to trade for it....i still havent tried mulberry yet.

screw those knots and leave it a selfbow ;)

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Offline PEARL DRUMS

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #11 on: May 13, 2012, 07:18:45 pm »
Quote from: blackhawk on May 13, 2012, 05:22:51 pm
ya done yet?...i see ya posted this earlier this morn ;)

hey if ya got any more to spare,then bring some down to marshall n we'll figure something out to trade for it....i still havent tried mulberry yet.

screw those knots and leave it a selfbow ;)


Dont tell me what to do! And yes I have a spare billet you can have. I will bring it down in my semi trailer to Marshall.
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Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.

Offline Buckeye Guy

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #12 on: May 13, 2012, 09:44:02 pm »
Yes bring some down to Marshall, I will trad you some with smaller rings and lots of cracks !!  ;)
I just cant get the stuff to dry without cracking !
Maybe I need some younger muscles to pull that ton of sapwood off before it starts shrinking !
Guy
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Offline Gus

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #13 on: May 13, 2012, 11:42:54 pm »
Can't wait to see it take shape PD!

I have about a thousand Pounds of Mulberry seasoning at present.
But I gotta be patient...

:)

-gus
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Offline crooketarrow

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Re: Rings sooooo thick......
« Reply #14 on: May 14, 2012, 11:48:10 am »
   I understand but my exsperance is that MULLBERRY holds really good around knots. B
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