Mulberry Bowls

Earlier this year, a limb broke off a Mulberry tree in Mom’s yard. She saved a couple pieces for me, which was pretty special because she was suffering from dementia, and wasn't always able to "connect the dots" like that. She passed away this summer.

My sons got a couple of these bowls for Christmas – this was a tree they both played around. There was almost always a rope swing hanging there. Hopefully this is a special memory for them.

Those are great and the story is special. Thanks for sharing them.

I just got several large pieces of a downed mulberry tree. I had no idea this wood was so dense and hard to cut. I struggled to prep the logs into blanks for bowls. In the tree that I got I noticed that the center was cracked throughout the entire tree. Is that that a normal characteristic of mulberry? If this wood is this hard on my chainsaw, how hard is it to turn? Also, should I remove the sapwood?

This is the only mulberry I've turned, and likely to stay that way as we have none that I know of around this area.
I didn't have any issues with this tree - probably similar to walnut in how it cut. Of course every tree is different.... It did have a lot of cracks, but most of them were in the limb already (cracked while on-the-tree, probably years ago - I assume due to the staining), A few developed after I processed the billets, but nothing significantly different from other woods I've worked.
This limb had a pretty narrow sapwood band and I left it in (as is my norm with any wood). You can see a glimpse of it in the upper-right bowl and the NE one. I expect the sapwood color will dull over time.

Thanks Dave for the reply. I am going to rough out some bowls today. Some of them will have cracks. That's just part of the inherent beauty of wood.