If you are struggling to choose a type of wood to use for various projects around the home, one of the options that you might want to consider is mulberry wood. Mulberry trees, particularly red mulberry trees, grow all throughout the Northeastern United States. These trees are known for producing some really beautiful lumber, but how strong is it?
Today, we’re going to answer that question, based on a number of factors.
Is Mulberry a Hardwood or Softwood?
The mulberry tree is a flowering deciduous angiosperm tree, which means that it loses its leaves during the winter. According to these classifications, it is therefore also a hardwood. Although not all types of hardwood are actually hard, mulberry wood is actually quite hard and durable overall.
Mulberry Wood Strength: All You Need to Know
Today, we are going to evaluate the mulberry tree’s strength based on five main factors. These include the compressive strength, bending strength, stiffness, hardness, and density of the wood. All five of these factors must be examined to determine the overall strength of this material. There is really only one species of mulberry found in North America, the red mulberry, so this will be our main focus today.
Compressive Strength
The compressive strength of mulberry wood is 6,990 lbf per square inch (48.2 MPa). What is interesting to note is that in terms of compressive strength, as far as North American hardwoods go, mulberry ranks somewhat low. It has a higher compressive strength than poplar and oak but is lower than maple, birch, mahogany, walnut, and others.
That said, it does have a higher compressive strength than most types of North American softwood. In case you didn’t know, compressive strength is also known as crushing strength, and this refers to how much weight a piece of wood can take parallel to its grain.
Bending Strength
The mulberry tree features a bending strength of 11,680 lbf per square inch (100.7 MPa). Although that bending strength is fairly high, when compared to other North American hardwoods, it does rank somewhat low.
For instance, it does have a higher bending strength than yellow poplar, as well as virtually all types of softwood, but it also has a lower bending strength than oak, maple, birch, mahogany, walnut, ebony, teak, and others. Bending strength is also known as the modulus of rupture. This refers to how much weight a piece of wood can handle perpendicular to its grain.
Stiffness
Mulberry wood features a stiffness rating of 1,352,000 lbf per square inch (9.32 GPa). In the grand scheme of things, at least when compared to other North American hardwoods, this is not very stiff at all. Yes, mulberry wood is stiffer than virtually all types of North American softwood, but that’s it. It is not nearly as stiff as most types of hardwood, which include poplar, oak, maple, birch, mahogany, walnut, ebony, teak, and others. Stiffness may also be referred to as the modulus of elasticity, and this refers to how much weight a piece of wood can take in its center before it begins to bend or sag.
Hardness
What is impressive to note about mulberry wood is that it is quite hard. In fact, it is one of the harder types of wood that can be found in North America. This is interesting, seeing as this wood scored relatively low in the other categories so far.
Mulberry wood features a Janka hardness rating of 1,680 lbf. That’s higher than virtually all types of softwood, as well as most types of hardwood that can be found in North America. These include maple, poplar, oak, walnut, mahogany, and birch. However, it is not quite as hard as teak or ebony. The hardness of wood refers to how physically hard it is, which relates to its resilience towards denting and scratching. This is generally measured on the Janka hardness scale.
Density
The density of mulberry wood is 43 lbs per cubic foot (690 kgs per cubic meter). What is interesting is that this is quite average for North American hardwoods. For instance, swamp mahogany comes in at 49 lbs, black walnut at 38 lbs, yellow birch at 43 lbs, hard maple at 44 lbs, red oak at 43 lbs, and yellow poplar at 29 lbs per cubic foot. As you can see, mulberry is pretty average here. For those that don’t know, density refers to how heavy the wood is. This is usually measured in pounds per cubic foot or kilograms per cubic meter.
Is Mulberry Wood Strong?
In the grand scheme of things, mulberry wood is actually quite strong overall. It has a high compressive strength, impressive bending strength, is quite stiff and hard, and is also fairly dense and heavy. In terms of the various types of trees that grow in North America, mulberry is one of the toughest and most durable of all, especially when it comes to hardness.
It is a perfect type of wood to use for a variety of purposes, whether structural or decorative. That said, mulberry wood is very rare, so it is not easily found, and therefore quite expensive. It’s really not the kind of wood that you would find in large quantities at lumber stores for basic construction purposes.
Summary
The bottom line here is that if you can manage to get your hands on some of it, then mulberry wood is a fantastic option to consider. It may be relatively expensive, but it is also hard, dense, and very durable overall, not to mention absolutely stunning.