Drying holly

[Bombarde16]

Anyone have any experience with it? I read somewhere that careless drying (whatever that means?) can have deleterious effects on the final color. A friend had some logs outdoors waiting to be processed into firewood. You can see it's already spalting from sitting on the ground. Just curious to see if there's anything special I should do when I put this aside to dry. Overall, feels quite soft and soggy. Fibers appear to tear badly (both with a gouge and with a scraper) in the wet. I'll be curious to see what it does when dry. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AceHoleInOne]

I have used the plastic bag with dry sawdust method on a bowl ( controls the dry) . But Im no expert on this turning "stuff," seems to me though, as the wood dries color will change, right????

-Ace- 

Nice hunk of wood! 

I think what your reading is to keep the holly white as possible? I know that is why they harvest some woods in the fall and winter time.

 

Edited November 19, 2015 by AceHoleInOne

[Eric.]

Yeah I've heard the same as Ace.  I believe holly (allegedly) can turn a bluish color if it's harvested at the wrong time.  I don't think it has anything to do with the drying process.  Rather, the amount of sap in the wood due to the time of year it was cut down.  Or something like that.

Anyway, your pieces are already cut...and spalted...I'd go ahead and do what you're gonna do.  Looks pretty cool actually.  No good for stringing but it'll make a neat bowl.

[wdwerker]

I read that holly should be harvested in the winter and kept clean, don't let it touch the dirt to get clean white wood.

I cut a huge holly bush down in the spring and left the trunk laying on the ground. When I decided to try drying some pieces they were Spalted and had a gray tint to them.

[wtnhighlander]

I seem to recall Shannon Rogers chiming in on this very topic some time ago, lemme look ....

 

Must have been on WTO, I can't find it here.

[JerrySats]

According my wood guy, Holly is best cut in the winter and needs to go in the kiln ASAP after its cut to keep that white look it's loved for.   Kiln dried holly is a dream to turn , just the opposite your experiencing .  Let it dry like you normally would  when turning a bowl and see what happens . 

[wtnhighlander]

Another source of dense, white(-ish) wood is from Texas Privet, a common hedge shrub in the southern US. Very tight grain, and looks like antique ivory. Naturally, it is a shrub, so large, single trunks are hard to come by. Left un-pruned, it will grow pretty large, but I've never seen a branch more than 4"-5" in diameter.

[Bombarde16]

(Just because I know you all have been on pins and needles wondering how the experiment turned out.)

Turned them to a rough thickness of 1"~1.5".  Stored the blanks in paper bags, took them out and put them on a scale about once a month.  It was relatively dry in my apartment over the winter, despite running a room humidifier.  Mass has stabilized after a mere four months.  Indeed, two months probably would have been ample.  No cracking at all and very little distortion.  (My red oak blanks, OTOH, have distorted into wild ovals.)  Overall, a very well-behaved chunk of wood.  Wish I had taken more before my friend split the whole lot into firewood.

Now I have a matched pair of spalted holly blanks just waiting to be turned into something pretty.

[AceHoleInOne]

Thank god....I've been waiting on this report.  That is wonderful news on the holly. Congratulations and can't wait to see what you do with it. 

Have you ever tried a microwave oven to dry a blank? I tried it on wood scraps once and it really works. The moisture just comes right out of the wood. I wonder on a blank and the thickness, if the wood could crack?

Now, I wonder how deep the sharpie marker got pulled into the blank? I will be waiting on pins and needles for that one...hehehehe.

 

-Ace-