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How best to handle holly?

Lou Jacobs

Lou Jacobs

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I came into several pieces of holly yesterday through an arborist who I’ve befriended. (As an aside, my wife tells me she didn’t expect me to make so many social connections through turning!). I was able to get out about 12 blanks between 8” and 11” in diameter. I’ve not worked with holly before and wonder how best to keep the white color. I’ve done a bit of a search in the archives and see mention of blue stain if it’s not turned right away. I wonder if anyone has good advice if I’m not ready to rough turn it all in the next few days.
 
Lou Jacobs said:
I came into several pieces of holly yesterday through an arborist who I’ve befriended. (As an aside, my wife tells me she didn’t expect me to make so many social connections through turning!). I was able to get out about 12 blanks between 8” and 11” in diameter. I’ve not worked with holly before and wonder how best to keep the white color. I’ve done a bit of a search in the archives and see mention of blue stain if it’s not turned right away. I wonder if anyone has good advice if I’m not ready to rough turn it all in the next few days.
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Lou, thank you this question. I recently came to 'own' a piece of holly that is 14 inches long and 8 inches in diameter. I am looking forward to answers and suggestions to your post.
 
if it was me, I'd split it , taking out the pith immediately and then anchorseal or PVA glue the ends and then wrap the halves in kraft paper or something (trying to minimize moisture loss) to let it dry as slowly as possible until I could utilize it. I have no idea what might cause the blue stains , though I suspect metal oxidation , so maybe wash the blanks in dish soap & water before sealing and wrapping? Just my 2 cents - Holly's hard to come by around here, AFAIK, and I love using it in flatwork for contrast with black walnut (Think segmenting) so preserving as much of it as humanly possible would be my main goal...
 
Holly is one of the smoothest turning woods I have worked with.
I always turned or roughed it out as soon as possible To keep the white.

wood bleach doesn’t take out the blue stain so I just tried to not let it sit.
I also dried 3” diameter limb pieces witk a fair amount of success sealed the end dried for a year - terrific ornament balls.

nice hollow forms. Will spalt too.
 
Break it down into usable sizes and boil in distilled water. This will speed up drying without starting splits and also go a long way toward preventing unwanted color shifts. Seal end grain afterward and put away for the rest of the drying process
 
I was gifted a few good sized (about 5 x12” no pith) Holly rounds a couple years ago - two were turned green to finish and stayed nice and white through the process and drying. Two others were wrapped in plastic and set in the bottom of a freezer. Thanks for reminding me - probably time to let it thaw…
 
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Russ Braun said:
The best way to handle Holly is to send it my way; I will treat it well (segment the heck out of it)!!
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Thanks Russ, but I was thinking a bit more hands on solution (my hands, not yours!).
Seriously, thanks all for the suggestions. I’ve got two pieces that have this defect, so couldn’t resist turning a once-turned bowl this morning. I agree Al. It turned wonderfully smoothly. I’ll rough turn the rest and try a few of your ideas, all except the freezer - just no room!
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I was gifted an 8" diameter trunk several months back. I green turned one bowl immediately, snowy white. I cut several blanks down the pith, sealed the ends and let sit - six out of 8 split badly enough that they ended up spindle turning blanks (holly makes awesome snowmen ornaments, by the way). The bark also popped off of most of the dried sections, if that's of concern.

How does boiling affect drying? Does it reduce checking?
 
I’ve used a stainless stock pot on the stove top. The boiling drives out lot of moisture without creating an imbalance between the inside and outside of the blank. It also seems to head off whatever it is that causes untreated holly to turn a grayish green. The wood will still need some additional drying time afterward to reach equilibrium, but not nearly as much. A few weeks or months, depending on thickness.
 
So if I were to try the boiling route, how long would you boil a 9x3” disc? I’m intrigued and will give it a try. Thanks!
 
Boil for one hour per inch of thickness. Allow to come back to air temperature in the water. There are two types of water in wood when we harvest it. Free water is what splashes all over every thing when we spin the wood. Bound water is the stuff on the cellular level. The boiling ruptures the cell walls and makes it easier for that water to escape. For sure, use stainless steel. I haven't turned much holly. I was gifted some pieces from a '100 year old' tree once. It had lovely green coloring all through it. Harvested some when building my new shop. Don't want it on the property because it drops those spiky leaves all year round.... It will turn a dull grey color if you just air dry it, though a few pieces did keep their white color. Just because I guess!

robo hippy
 
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