Holly

Re: Holly

Philip Duffy

I have worked with holly a great deal. It dries very quickly, too quickly when green, and I have had a piece during a lunch break on the lathe. It is best if harvested during the winter, slabbed out thick and sealed with commercial sealer before letting it get near a lathe. It tends to create a blue-green stain. Make sure the pith is left in the firewood pile! Phil

Re: Holly

Hal Taylor

As Phillip says it turns a smoky gray on drying, but after bleaching it turns a beautiful white.

Holly - my experience

John K Jordan

>>>How much of a pith does Holly have? Is it likely to crack as it dries, like Maple? A friend just brought me two large trunk pieces of Holly and I'm unsure about how to cut and dry them. Any advice is appreciated.

Jerry, I love to use holly and have sawn and dried a fair amount. I am no expert but here are some things I've learned:

- As mentioned, Holly is known to stain and turn ugly but can be bleached. It is notoriously difficult to dry. To keep it white the experts (Gene Wengert, etc) recommend cutting the tree ONLY in the dead of winter when it is dormant, processing into boards/blanks, and drying. The holly I've cut in winter and sealed well with anchorseal has dried white. That I've cut at any other time of the year has turned ugly grey/greenish grey. Wengert also recommends drying fast which means a kiln but all mine is air dried.

- A gentleman on another forum chronicled his extensive chemical experiments to try to keep holly cut in warm weather from staining. None were successful.

- Holly is also notoriously unstable as it dries. I've had turning blanks crack down sides when cut a little too close to the pith. I've had longer pieces cut close to and at an angle to the pith cup, bow, and twist in "exciting" ways. (The angle and proximity to the pith almost predicts the type and amount of distortion.) How close is too close? Good question - probably depends on the size of the log as well as the differences in individual trees.

- I find blanks cut from larger holly trees are far easier to dry successfully than those from smaller diameter. The biggest reason is probably the blanks can be cut from the outer parts of the log where the T/R shrinkage across the blank is more uniform within the blank. Quartersawn boards or face turning blanks of course warp far less. I've successfully dried some fairly large square and rectangular blanks (some 3-4" thick, up to maybe 8" wide) cut from 18-20+" rounds. These, of course, take a while to dry - my largest have been air drying indoors for around 10 years. (The hardest thing is finding holly that big!!)

- When I cut blanks (such as spindle squares), as well as sealing the end grain I also wax the side or sides closest to the pith. This seems to help somewhat. If I fail to do this the holly sometimes has cracks in a day or two. I do the same for dogwood, another wood unstable until dry.

- You can find pure white holly at times for sale but it is expensive and not easy to find. A guy I know used to order it to use on his rose engine.

- Holly doesn't spalt worth a hoot. Well, it spalts OK but the times I've tried I've never gotten the black zone lines we look for, just the indistinct blotchy colored areas from the true fungal spalting. Maybe the fungii in holly just play too well together!

- When I process holly for turning I cut, wax, partially dry (most of the warping seems to happen within the first few months), then put back on the bandsaw and trim square, then re-wax the end grain. This lets me see if it stayed white and mark or remove any defects. In my experience if it's white then it will stay white.

Maybe of interest: http://www.wood-database.com/holly/ He mentions holly has a lot of knots which may compound drying problems since each has it's own pith, but I've been lucky I guess to mostly get clear holly.

When I do get beautifully white holly I guard it selfishly! Maybe I should get a shop safe...

I love holly for spindle turning:

JKJ

Re: Holly

Don Stephan

Holly around a house typically has a plethora of branches from the ground to the top, so little clear bowl blanks. It turns very well when green (I only make once turned bowls). Can't remember the brand name or grits, but I used a sanding screen product I think 80, 150 and 220 and the wood stayed pretty darned smooth as it dried. The green wood quickly clogs the screen but I used two pieces of each and kept tossing the clogged piece in a bucket of water. After a couple minutes a good shake in the water and the screen was clear.

warped Holly

John K Jordan

I forgot, I saved this little board to show how much Holly can warp on drying when cut too close to the pith. It was not restrained but just set on the shelf to air dry.

This was a small log and the pith ran close to the other side and at and angle to the long axis and also at an angle to the plane of the wide surface, three strikes against it. It also cracked nearly all the way down the other side. AND it has grey and green stain!

The board is actually cupped but the angle of the pith makes the cup act like a twist, like a piece cut diagonally from a cylinder.

JKJ

Re: Holly

Jerry Maske

So this is a fine kettle of fish I've gotten into. The lady that gave me these two big pieces has the rest of the tree on the ground; she showed me a picture. I can go get as much of it as I want. Guess I'll take a chain saw and a can of Anchor Seal.

I did some basic chain saw work on it on Saturday and by Sunday it was cracking already. Typically, I rough turn green bowls and I tried that with this one but did NOT apply any anchor seal. I turned it into a hollow form yesterday that will make sealing the inside difficultl. But I'll go seal the outside especially where I can see the end grain.

Thanks for the guidance and I'll send any horror stories that come from this.

Jerry