Mulberry and elm

isassi · February 05, 2006, 09:24:40 PM

What I am wondering is has anyone used mulberry to do anything with? How about chinese elm? I was roped into helping some guys fell some big elms and a mulberry, and I kep a few logs. I sawed the mulberry and the best elm logs today and was really surprised by how nice the mulberry looks. The elm I will dry and use for planks, maybe for a log deck. Any ideas?

Part_Timer · February 05, 2006, 09:32:14 PM

A friend of mine built a hope chest out of mulberry. It turned out quite nice.

RichlandSawyer · February 05, 2006, 09:41:48 PM

hello Joasis,

I've sawed some mulberry and used it im my woodshop, It machines nice and turns a dirty brown color when dry. So dont expect it to stay that nice creamy white. One of the reasons i'm building a new bandmill is so i can saw trees like this for myself. Mulberry, boxeldar, elm,silver maple, etc. are considered junk wood around here so you cant get any rough sawn.

isassi · February 05, 2006, 09:51:13 PM

This mulberry is a brilliant yellow...the grain is really defined..flat sawed it, and it looks great. Of couse, I have no idea what it will be like cured or if it will split easily, ect. I heard of farmers cutting down cottonwoods in this area and having them milled for really cheap lumber. One old farmer stored his in a barn for years, and long after his death, his som was cleaning out the barn and came across this stack of lumber and gave it to a woodworker type who discovered it was hard as iron and made some beautiful furniture from it. I saw a dresser he made from it and you wood have sworn it was fine maple or some other hardwood then a worthless cottonwood.

Daren · February 06, 2006, 07:01:39 AM

I sawed some Chinese elm once, didn't find anyone to buy it. So I made stuff (chests, quilt racks...) with it and sold it that way. It was o.k. to work with. I am using the last of it up making a couple hundred little sign blanks for a lady who wants to paint them and resell them. Not really the best wood choice, it is kinda hard wood. A softer wood would saw better on the scroll saw, but it is hard enough I can saw them, then run them through the planer without them blowing up. Intead of planing whole boards and sawing the cutouts.

Mulberry is another story, that is very desirable, if you can get clear lumber it is real pretty. It is a hot firewood too, right up there with oak, hotter than ash from the book I have. It makes great bbq/smoking wood. It smells like a cake baking when it burns. That is my favorite bbq wood, better than cherry,apple... So even the scrap that doesn't make good lumber is worth having around for me.

isassi · February 06, 2006, 07:18:10 AM

Darin; Have any idea what the mulberry will cure out to color and grain? My wife took one look yesterday and said "yuck...looks like baby poo"...something like that...I like the yellow color, just wish I had saved more of the tree. I was amazed how wet it and the elm are considering we are in a drought here. Of course, it is a strange year weather wise. 70 degrees yesterday and the trees are really budding out...about 2 months early.

Daren · February 06, 2006, 08:13:44 AM

It will darken quite abit. Here is a piece I grabbed from the shop. I keep small samples of all my wood for customers to pick out what they want stuff built from if they don't know. This piece is dry, unfinished, just ran through the planer. It is on a walnut table, up against a white wall for color reference. It's not really a clear piece, just some scrap with a couple knots, but you get the idea.

Max sawdust · February 06, 2006, 08:22:43 AM

Mulbery is nice, Yes the green/yellow color will fade, but you will still have contrast from sap to heartwood.

It works real nice, I have made picture frames and the like out of it. (The mulberrys I had were not that big) :-[

max

isassi · February 06, 2006, 08:24:32 AM

Nice piece. I really admire the chests you have on your web page...I keep grinning to myself thinking about my desire to build a cedar chest helped lead me astray into sawing again :D and..paying .50 bd/ft for a pecan log. I still haven't built the cedar chest but I am thinking about a round top design, maybe using slats for the top and shaving them a degree or so on a jointer to get the curve. I think they call this design a camel back, but I don't have a picture of it. ??? I think the boards I cut Max, are 10 inches wide by 8 ft...didn't check, just sawed...but you should have seen what went to the dump...had I only known. :(

Daren · February 06, 2006, 08:31:16 AM

I decided after I picked up the piece of Mulberry, the table needed a picture too . That is a hall table, the top is ONE board 19" wide. I threw my cell phone on it to give some scale. I like wide boards. ;D

I have built a few round top cedar chests (I am sure I have a picture somewhere :D). A piece of advice, build the lid first. The box is easy to make to fit the lid. The first one I built I made the chest then really had to work at making the lid perfect.

GF · February 06, 2006, 11:17:18 AM

Here is some k pattern molding I made from some kiln dried cottonwood, I was experimenting with it. If the grain is clear and free of knots it molds out pretty nice, if nothing else it would make good paint grade moulding.

SwampDonkey · February 06, 2006, 12:15:03 PM

I was wondering if anyone used hackberry (Celtis), which is in the elm family. It's range in Canada is around the Great Lakes (Michegan, Ontario) in Ontario.

Daren · February 06, 2006, 01:09:16 PM

SwampDonkey, I have used hackberry. It is not the junk wood everyone thinks it is. It dries pretty white, but the heart is real dark (the ones we have around here the heart is 3"-4" on a 20" log). Is sand smooth and takes stain well.
I just cut trim for a whole cabin from cottonwood. I don't have a molder, the guy wanted just flat cheap window, door casing and base mold. I just happened to have a big cottonwood in the yard a guy brought thinking it was something else. It REALLY shrinks when it dries, it stays flat, but it shrinks big time. I made my workbench out of it, the top is 2" thick. It is soft enough I can wrestle other wood types around on the top and it does hurt them. I sawed a bunch 24" wide for cabinet backs too.

SwampDonkey · February 06, 2006, 02:16:05 PM

My grandfather used large-toothed aspen for a piece of moulding on his cupboards. He thought it was basswood, but it doesn't grow up there in the woods except one planted tree in Andover I noticed.

Phorester · February 06, 2006, 08:42:58 PM

SWAMP, hackberry is very common here. Decades ago it was used frequently by local furniture makers. It is a very white wood, dosen't twist or warp much. I would categorize it as medium hard, not too heavy, not too light, if there is such a category (?). In addition to flat parts, I've seen curved chair backs made from it, the top and bottom curved horizontal rails with vertical spindles in between. Go for it.

SwampDonkey · February 06, 2006, 09:31:52 PM

I don't have any hackberry, was just curious. Elm has a bad reputation among firewood processors who won't touch it around here except the limb wood. But, I know most anyone doing woodworking would love to have it. I've turned stuff from it. My uncle had to cut down a couple yard elms over the years and he hauled them back on the hill to rot. I took the second 8 foot log off one to a portable mill, but I never got it back. :

Gathered some chunks from the brush pile for turning before the toad stools took over.

jrokusek · February 07, 2006, 09:36:58 AM

Elm has interlocking grain - so it's a real pain to split, but chairmakers like it for chair seats for some reason. Mulberry is beautiful stuff! To me it looks like oak or ash but has a medium to dark yellow tint to it. After you make some mulberry lumber, take the scraps and make a fire with them in your grill. Let it burn down to almost all coals, throw a couple steaks on, cover the grill and let it smoke. YUM! Cook it as you would with charcoal. Also great for smoking pork, OK for beef...I like hickory better for beef though.

Jim