mullberry to chase or not to chase

[bryan irwin]

just wondering do you need to take off the sap wood or leave it on do you have to chase a ring.

[Fred Arnold]

I haven't finished a bow from mulberry yet. I do have 2 working/curing. I chased the ring on the first one to the first good heartwood and chased the other down to 2 sapwood rings. I now know with natural sunlight, reading glasses, and patience I can chase sapwood 

[bryan irwin]

thanks haven't worked any mulberry just wondering

[Fred Arnold]

I have mulberry on my property and have taken down probably 5 trees. The first 3 were basically old, dead standing and the only bow I tried to make from them delaminated at every ring. It was too old and dry but it taught me something. Since then I cut down 2 others and the wood is stronger. From my experience mulberry has a tendency to warp and twist while curing unless you strap it down to something straight. It also develops more reflex than I want to work with while drying. I do have a couple of nice staves and swear I will make a bow out of that danged wood someday /

[Pat B]

Brian, I've made mulberry bows with all sapwood, a few rings of sap left on, 50/50 and all heartwood. They all worked well(as long as you know the sap wood is sound) with the all heartwood being the thinnest and the all sapwood being the thickest. Mulberry with a few sapwood rings(one if its thick) gives nice contrast between the sap and heartwoods. Steve Parker built a mulberry ELB with sapwood back that had a cool yew look to it.

[Joec123able]

Either Way has worked fine for me