Turning newbie seeks advice on mulberry blanks

[aquan8tor]

I'm completely new to turning...all I've done is a couple spindles that I was just f'n around with. I really want to turn some bowls, but all I have is a crappy craftsman lathe......Yeah, I know I'm not going to be turning any 12" bowls with it, but I got it for $50 used, and figured I'd get a taste to see if it was worth getting an old cast iron machine or not. I paid almost twice that for a set of chisels and scrapers.


So I've been doing a little reading, and got a little 4" faceplate, but I really don't know much about different woods to turn. Today I took down a big red mulberry tree for a friend, and took home a bunch of blocks. Mulberry has kinda cool grain. Call me crazy, but it reminds me a little of hickory grain, but sure is softer. The brain is actually just like some hickory flitches I cut recently, but is a nice lemony-honey color. So is it a good turning wood? I'll be sealing all the blocks with wax tomorrow, and processing them into blanks on the bandsaw later this summer. Any advice??

 

[trimmmed]

I have never turned mulberry but have seen a few by others. Looks like a nice wood and folks seem to like it. What is important is how fast she cracks, hopefully someone will be along that can advise on that. But it sounds like you got a bit of it, might as well turn some green and check it out.

 

[aquan8tor]

I've been reading a site about boiling; http://www.woodturningvideosplus.com/boiling-protocol.html


I guess mulberry could be considerd an "unstable" wood in regard to cracking. I'll be waxing the blocks before noon today for sure. I took home blocks equivalent to 36-40" worth of trunk--24" dia, but I cut them into roughly 10-12" cubes, working around the natural cracks or separations in the grain of the trunk. It looks really burled on the outside, but I was disappointed that none of it really shows up on the inside like with cherry or walnut. I guess that's just the way it grows or something.

I've been reading about the paper bag method too. I know some folks put burl slabs or burled veneer in green sawdust in paper bags to avoid checking; I guess this would help with bowls too?