Last week, as I was getting ready to go to a friend and mentor’s shop to turn, I was looking for a project to take. I stumbled on a piece of a tree that wasn’t with all the rest of my green wood and looking at it, I’d forgotten where it came from and couldn’t come up with a reason why it would have been away from the rest of the wood hoard. I decided to take it and see what we could make out of it. When we cut into it, it became clear that it was mulberry. About a year ago, aco-worker told me his in-laws had a big mulberry tree come down in a storm and asked if I’d be interested in any of it to turn. That’s kinda like telling a crack addict that you know a guy who cooked up too much meth and wanted to know if they want a taste. The answer is always going to be a strong yes! The chunk of wood I took was thinner than the other chunks that came from the tree and was from a place in the tree where several branches had kinda joined together. Usually, that part of a tree will give one of two things: Either you’ll find a whole bunch of knots that are prone to cracking and are a pain in the butt to work with, or you’ll find some really cool looking grain patterns because the the tree doesn’t really know which way to grow when it hits those kinds of intersections. I figured we’d spin it up and see which I got.
We finished the outside at Bob’s shop. This morning, I finished the inside, about an hour and a half of sanding, and then started applying the finish. Mulberry is really good to turn, but it can get a little stringy and if there’s end grain, it can leave a really “chippy” surface. The final product will look good, it’s just that you’ll have to factor in some time for extra sanding. Here’s the final product.
This one is going to the wood pusher who hooked me up with the fix. That’s the standard deal. You give me a tree, I’ll give you something made from it.
