How to Make Mulberry Wood Hockey Sticks

Mulberry trees are common throughout North America, and they can grow in width at a rate of half an inch per year. Mulberry trees are often unwanted due to their immense appetite for nutrients in the soil and their ability to prevent undergrowth from receiving enough sunlight to survive. The wood of the mulberry tree is low density and has been known to be used for different styles of sporting equipment. If you’re uprooting a mulberry tree from your property, you can use the wood to create a basic hockey stick that can be used recreationally.

Things You'll Need

• Table saw
• Circular saw
• Paper
• Pencil
• Staple gun
• Staples, 1-inch
• Electric jigsaw
• Wood glue
• L bracket
• Cordless drill
• Screws, 1-inch

Instructions

1. Using your table saw, cut one piece of your mulberry wood into a thin shaft that measures 2 inches on one side and 1 1/2 inches on the other. These dimensions will make up the width of the stick handle, which you will wrap your hands around during play.

2. Cut the mulberry wood shaft to a length that is 60 to 78 inches long with your circular saw. A taller player will be able to control a longer hockey stick. When finished, hold the shaft in your hands at a slight diagonal angle from your body and rest the bottom of the shaft on the ground. If the shaft feels too tall to the point of being awkward to hold, take a few more inches off. There should be about a foot of clearance between your grip and the top of the stick.

3. Cut another piece of mulberry into a rectangle with a width of 1 1/2 inches using your table saw. The length of the rectangle should be at least 20 inches, and its height must be at least 10 inches.

4. Draw a blade design on a sheet of paper with a pencil. The blade of a hockey stick is normally 10 to 15 inches long and has a height of about 3 1/2 inches. On one end of the design, create a taper by drawing two mostly parallel lines that extend diagonally and upward away from the blade. The taper will begin at blade width and end at a width of 2 inches. Do not draw a taper that extends much beyond the height of the blade.

5. Secure the blade design drawing to the center of the second mulberry wood piece with a staple gun and 1-inch staples. Create the blade by cutting around the outline of the blade design with your electric jigsaw.

6. Apply wood glue to the top of the shaft and place the blade taper on top. Make sure that the 1 1/2-inch and 2-inch sides on both the taper and shaft are placed together so that the entire hockey stick looks clean. Lay the hockey stick out on a table for about an hour for the glue to begin drying.

7. Secure the blade to the shaft with an L bracket. The height of either side of the bracket should be 1 inch or less, and it should have at least two holes on either side so the bracket can be attached to both the shaft and the blade taper. Use a cordless drill and 1-inch screws to secure the L bracket to the hockey stick.

Tips & Warnings

• Use a router to give the blade a curve. A curved blade helps for better handling of a ball or puck.

• Be careful with using your mulberry hockey stick during play. Hockey sticks for professional use are constructed with many layers of composite material, such as Kevlar or carbon. Sticks made from only wood are much more prone to snap during play.

References

• Rockatteer: Home-made Hockey Stick
• Murray Gaskins: Red Mulberry
• Dimensions Guide: Hockey Stick Length