Mulberry wood darkening

[willstewart]

A brief report on (not terribly successful) efforts to prevent fresh yellow Mulberry wood from darkening using uv-protective coatings

[John Plater]

Excellent research, thank you Will  Your findings match my experiences of using mulberry. Actually some customers have deliberately left their purchases in strong sunlight as they prefer the lovely chestnut brown colour. I will look out for your updates.
ATB John

[willstewart]

John - FYI a side experiment with a new sample and a few drops of ammonia (household dilute), left, & vinegar/acetic acid, right.  The latter has little effect but the former does immediately darken the wood.  So a vapour exposure (that is in a sealed plastic lunch box suspended over a cm or so of household ammonia), such as is traditionally used to darken oak, might get the amber colour quite quickly!

[willstewart]

Correction - or maybe not - the ammonia-induced colouring seems to disappear upon evaporation!

[John Plater]

Thank you Will ! Some years ago I did experiment with bleaching the mulberry and then using a yellow spirit stain. At the time I was not particularly impressed but maybe I will revisit it.
ATB John