Dealing with fruitwoods?

Mulberry cracks easier than pear

Mike Schwing from Md.

>So good luck! Personally, I would leave it extra thick, and anchorseal the entire turning, maybe even twice. Let it sit on the shelf for five years or so. I gave up on mulberry, it was too unproductive for me.

By the way

Mike Schwing from Md.

>I should state that I'm a proponent of waxing/anchosealing the entire bowl anyway. I do that with all of my bowls except for silver maple, which I can't even get to crack with a hammer. I'm in no hurry, so when I think the blank is dry, I turn the wax off and true it up, then sit it aside for a few weeks or so to let any residual warping occur, then finish it up.

Re: Mulberry cracks easier than pear

Brad Vietje

>I'm almost with Mike on this one. Mulberry does tend to crack a lot, but I've had some decent luck turning to final thickness green, then drying slowly. I'd recommend doing some of each, thick and thin, and seeing what happens. I've got some Red Mulberry logs, and the wood cracks from the bark inward if left too long in log form, so I'd definately cut it up into useable sizes and wax it. I'd probably rough turn it ASAP. It gives up a lot of water as it dries, becomming much lighter than many other woods.

BTW: The sapwood shrinks dramatically more than the heartwood in the Mulberry I've tried, which could be a thin-walled design opportunity... ?

Safe Spinning,

Brad Vietje

Thetford, VT

Re: Dealing with fruitwoods?

keith zimmerman, Normal, IL

>I have to agree with both Mike and Brad about Mulberry. It does crack readily, but I still turn it. I started turning about 2 1/2 years ago and all I had was mulberry. The first bowl I made is mulberry and it still hasn't cracked.

For me, cutting the wood into blanks, then anchorseal on all sides, helps retart cracking. It doesn't stop it though. I would say that about a third of the blanks I made cracked. I have found that turning thin helps. Most of the mulberry I have turned thin hasn't cracked.

I have had enough success that I continue to turn a lot of fruitwoods.

Good luck with your mulberry, and remember to use anchorseal.

keithz

Re: Dealing with fruitwoods?

David

>My vast fruitwood experience is practically nil, but I can tell you of my one experience. I picked up a couple limbs of "Thorn Apple" according to the guy doing the trimming.

Anyway, I sealed the ends of the branches, and recently hacked off a piece to make an end-grain cup. I left the cup walls thick - probably close to half an inch (original plan was much thinner, but it looked so cool I stopped). I also sanded it smooth (I read somewhere that you shouldn't do this because it slows the drying process, but I think I've had cases where it helped by slowing it down), and left a tenon on the bottom (too small, that should be entertaining), anchorsealed the bottom of the tenon and the cup, and stuck it in a couple of paperbags in the basement.

Two weeks later, I took a look and found that the top of the cup was starting to crack at the pith, which I had left unsealed I have no idea why. The center of this wood was really far to one side, lining right up with the edge of the cup. I put anchorseal on it, turned the cup upside down in the bags (rim down), and that is where it is now.

The cup is much lighter than it was (didn't weigh it), it still smells like apple, and the cracking seems to have stopped. Best of all, it looks extremely cool, and I can't detect any warping at all. I don't know how long it will take to dry, although a lot of progress has been made already. Just hope it holds up in the drying process.

Try Boiling

Barbara Gill, Remlik VA

>

Re: Mulberry cracks easier than pear

Greg in Oshkosh

>Interesting comments. I have turned about 10-15 bowls from mulberry from 8-18". All were rough turned to a 10% wall thickness and then thrown into a paper bag. None of them showed any cracking and based on this small sample it is a much easier wood to handle than apple or locust. Must be midwestern Mulberry vs eastern.

Greg

Re: Dealing with fruitwoods?

Barry Irby

>I have turned a number of bowls from Bradford pear and have found it great to turn green. Turned it fairly thin and finished it. The bowls were six to ten inches in diameter and 3/16 to a quarter thick. Finished with lacquer. They did fine, but one blank that I left thicker after coring them cracked all to pieces. I have half logs that have sat around with anchor seal on the ends for months and then I turned them and went straight to the finish and they have been fine. From my experience, I like Bradford Pear. Sort of grainless and turns like butter. Maybe I stumbled onto the right combination in going straight to the finish.

Re: Strength vs. Stress (Sorta Long)

Gary Evans, Tallassee, TN

>Hi Carole,

Finding the balance between the strength of your wood and the drying stresses that are induced is the key to keeping any variety of wood from cracking. As wood dries, it gets stronger and will withstand more stress.

Unfortunately, the very act of cutting the wood into pieces exposes the interior wood of the piece to humidity conditions that induce huge stresses relative to its' prior condition in the log. The best we can do is try to buffer those stresses by either roughing out the piece as soon as possible (along with anchorsealing end grain,) or putting the wood into an area of relatively high relative humidity.

I haven't tried this yet, but based on every thing I've learned about drying wood, I am thinking that a "humidity box" may be a good idea for particularly difficult woods. Basically a box with humidifier attached that will allow one to control the changes in humidity that the wood is exposed to. What you are trying to avoid is the "shock" that comes from taking the wood from high humidity to much lower humidity over a very short time period, particularly when the wood is green and, therefore, relatively weak.

Every show I go to, I hear comments about woods that are hard to keep from cracking, including apple, dogwood, mulberry, etc. I keep all my wood on a creek bank under some trees (high RH,) and I have not had problems with any of these species cracking excessively, even without end coating. I took some dogwood with me to Gainesville that had been laying for the better part of 2 years without benefit of AnchorSeal. It only took about an inch off each end to get to solid wood.

I could go on, but I'll stop here.

Hope this helps,

Gary