Official Luthiers Forum!

Due to the recent ice storm, a lot of trees have been cut down and left at the curb for disposal in our area. A friend and I have taken the opportunity to collect a few nice logs, mostly mulberry and bois d'arc. These woods are very similar in appearance, but I do not know how they compare in tonal qualities. We intend to experiment, but I was wondering if anyone on the forum had experience with the two and could give some comparison. I have heard bois d'arc mentioned with approval, but what about mulberry? I made a jewelry box of it long ago; I have no recollection of it other than it was relatively easy to work. Thanks in advance.

chris clendenen

I have heard that mulberry was used on some of the earliest wooden instruments. I use wood from a limb that fell from an old tree in my brother's yard. It makes nice bridge plates. I don't have anything big enough for a guitar, but the wood I have milled from that limb has a wonderful tap tone, warm and ringing with great sustain. If you end up with some wide mulberry boards I'd love to give it a test drive for you.

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Ken Franklin
clumsy yet persistent
https://www.kenfranklinukulele.com

They are both fine bow woods, Bois d'arc (or Osage Orange) actually means bow wood, doesn't it? So, if they are not big enough for guitars...

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Osage (as we call it) is an EXCELLENT tonewood. Very similar to BRW on paper. It has LOTS of bell like sustain. Not sure about Mullberry, never used it.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Thank you for the info. So far, we have found more pieces with guitar possibilities than with bow possibilities, although I have grabbed a couple of lengths that may work for that purpose. Hopefully, some of our bigger rounds will be going to the sawmill around the end of the month. I have learned, however, not to count my boards before they're sawn.

Chris

My understanding is that used it for bow wood......as in used to make bows to shoot arrows.....thus the name "bow wood".

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

You don't want that nasty old OSage... I'll send a truck up to clear it for you.

Mike

Just be careful using limb wood (Ive heard tell)- appearantly the tangenital shrinkage factor (or something like that) makes it incredibly unstable compared to the trunk wood... Its something Ive been learning... seasoning over the years,
and especially with these 5 apple trees Ive acquired a year or two back....
Im saving mine for turning and carving, also trading with turners and carvers,, - things like that....
Cheers
Charlie

Thanks, again. No worries about limb wood; most of the stuff we collected is trunk wood, although I grabbed a couple of big limbs for bow wood. Still looking forward to a trip to the sawmill (maybe tomorrow!) Flippin' computer keeps locking up; I think its giving up the ghost.

chris

Where is a source for osage orange? I'd like to make an instrument from woods found on my property - not from our actual trees, but you get the idea. We've got osage orange, maple, shagbark hickory, oak, locust, ginko (practically a big toothpick), and some sort of trees from the pine or spruce category. Plus cedar.

John,

www.woodfinder.com is a good place to start for many different species of lumber. Keep in mind that a lot of these vendors are *not* folks who deal with a lot of instrument grade lumber.

There is a great description of osage as a tonewood and sets for sale at rctonewoods.com. Just go to the B&S section. Sounds like a great tonewood. The comment from them sounds like it's coming straight at you, "if you haven't tried Osage yet I encourage you as it is a very underestimated tonewood!"
Has me thinking.

Thanks for the tips!

Somewhere long back I saw a post that Osage Orange was one of the stronger irritants, so take precautions when sanding.

Yes, Bob C at RC has OO from time to time. It's been of the Argentine variety, but it has that glassy ring that BRW has.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I was unaware of the irritant aspect; thanks for the heads-up.

chris

So is the Argentine osage orange the same as found here in the states?

I've no experience with osage orange on a guitar......but it sure sounds great on a turkey call.......loud and ringing.

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Formerly known as Adaboy.......

I tried to find any reference of that, and could not. Supposedly, the sap from either the fruit or tree is an irritant. There are many trees where the sap is an irritant, but when dried, the wood is no more irritating than any other wood.

I've only worked with Osage Orange a little, but I had no reaction to the dust. Grant Goltz sawed up a bunch of it and he had no trouble, and I think Bob Cefalu would mention it if it was an irritating wood to work with.

I just hate to see a seed like that get planted in people's minds if it is a false rumor. Many years ago, I had a tiny company selling Rainforest Alliance certified Smartwood lumber, and one of the woods, Chechen (Metopium brownei), hit some magazine writer's radar because it is related to poison ivy. He kind of sort of forgot to mention that working Chechen produces absolutely no symptoms, but he sure did mention it as a "cousin to poison ivy."

I have seen a dozen luthiers that built guitars with Osage Orange, and they all bragged up the tone ("glassy", or "similar to Brazilian Rosewood") but no one mentioned it as an irritant. I'm not saying it won't irritate anyone - Walnut dust and Red Cedar dust gives me fits - but let's not perpetuate unsubstantiated rumors.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia