Mulberry branch bow?

[eastcreekarchery]

I have a mulberry tree that has a nice 3” thick branch that i could cut and make a short bow with. You think it’s possible?

[Pat B]

How short. I've made 60" static recurve small diameter mulberry bows. You can use the sapwood if not enough you don't have enough heartwood. The more sapwood you use the thicker the bow will be.
 Do you plan to split the limb or just make one bow out of it?

[eastcreekarchery]

Probably around 40”. I think it’ll make one bow. Ill just carve the bow out of the stave and preserve the the back n maybe the bark too

[Pat B]

At 3" you could saw it in half lengthwise and splice it at the handle and make a full length bow.  I'd remove the bark and seal the back well and let it dry well.

[eastcreekarchery]

Ooo good idea. Thatll be an adventure for a beginner bowyer

[Morgan]

Go with the splice. 40” is very very short for a one piece self bow. 60” even is tricky if you’re not making a D bow. The top and bottom side of the branch are under different types of loads naturally, I would probably cut that branch down the middle where each billet will have both the top and bottom of the branch in it. It will probably give you some sideways warp as it dries, with a splice you could get a snake bow. If you cut it where the top of the branch is the back on one billet and bottom is the back on the other, I believe one will likely dry in deflex, and one in reflex.

[gutpile]

mulberry is hard to see rings IMO.. royal pain... got to get light just right and sometimes need to wet it.. early wood and late wood are almost same color... you can leave all sapwood on mulberry.. but you need to make it wide 1 3/4 .. 2 even better to mid limb at least or it will fret... found that out from experience haha..I got a sweet mulberry bow that after 100 or so shots started to fret... it is a decoration now .. . gut

[Pat B]

I've built lots of mulberry bows. Some all sapwood, some 1/2-1/2 sapwood/heartwood, some with as single sapwood back and some all heartwood. The all heartwood makes the best bows, can even rival osage because of physical weight difference. Like I said before the more sapwood the thicker the bow will be. Like Gut I'd say 1 3/4" to 2" wide for mulberry.

[eastcreekarchery]

When I get a chance ill post a pic of the branch for everyone to see