Storm damaged holly

[JohnDi]

I have seen and read that holly is used for stringing. We just got about a foot of wet snow and our holly tree/bush couldn't take the weight and was uprooted.

the trunk is about 3" thick. Is this the type of holly that is used, and could I save this for stringing?

thanks

[Tom King]

i have never looked at any information about what type of Holly is used for stringing.  I do know that there is a wide variety of types of Holly trees/bushes.   We have several in our own yard, but I only know the type of the American Holly that was growing naturally in our yard when I built the house here.  It's about 40 feet tall, and with branches to the ground, so I don't know how large the trunk is, but I expect it's something over a foot.

We have two other types of Hollies growing close to the house.   I don't remember the varieties.  I do know that one was planted where it is because it was not supposed to grow over ten feet tall, but it is now something over 20 feet.  I expect that has something to do with cross-pollinating with the natural American Holly, but it's just an uneducated guess.

Sorry, not much help, but a 3" trunk is not much to do anything with, in my opinion.  If it has a long trunk, with not many knots from branches, which I doubt, there might be some hope.

This is all speculation on my part, and I could be completely wrong.

[wdwerker]

Seems like all the hollies are closely related. I think a lot of ornamental hollies are bred from American holly.  I've cut down a 4 -5" trunk holly from my yard and used the wood, but I made every mistake possible.  #1 holly is hard as hell. You are going to need a very sharp saw and some perseverance. #2 never cut holly in the summer, winter is best. #3 keep the cuts clean ! Do not allow dirt on any cut surfaces. It picks up a fungus that turns stark white wood into bluish grey.   Remove the bark, wax or paint the ends and weigh each piece. When the weight stabilizes it would still be smart to check with a moisture meter. 7- 10 percent would be ideal, but might not be easy to achieve. Wood from that small of a trunk will likely move a good bit as it dries, mine cupped & twisted. Avoid using the center,  that moved the most & cracked.

If you start with clean cuts and no dirt then stash in the shop or basement you are on the way. I would recommend you read up and do some searching about air drying wood, and holly in particular. It's a slow process.

[wtnhighlander]

You can certainly get some usable material from that bush, but it will be tedious. All the advice above is good, just be prepared to really work at getting clean, long sections for stringing.

Alternatively, shorter pieces might be cut from it to make unique items like pistol grips or knife scales. Maybe turned pulls or ornaments.

[Bombarde16]

I'm processing a bunch of holly from a friend's property right now, so it's a timely topic.  In no particular order:

Yes, it's fine to use your tree for whatever you wish.  If the possibility is interesting to you, who cares what precise variety of holly it is?

Holly is prized for a dead white color in inlay work but this is tough to obtain as the wood tends to discolor and stain if the stars are not perfectly aligned.  Getting the tree in winter time stacks the deck in your favor.  Working quickly helps.  But there's no silver bullet here and this is why pure white holly is so expensive in retail.

A 3" trunk isn't going to yield much beyond small turning blanks.  Pens, coat hooks, bottle stoppers.  You could try cutting it for flat stock to make some stringing, but that's a long shot.

For now, get it off the ground, rip the trunk down the middle to obliterate the pith, paint the ends, and start drying it.  You might get some useful bits, you might have some fancy firewood.  Either way, you'll learn a lot.

[Tom King]

I did a Google search for "drying holly wood", and all sorts of information came up.    I have a Lot of Boxwood that I've been drying for years.   I expect that Holly and Boxwood might be similar.   With Boxwood, you have to slow up the drying process as much as possible, or it gets cracks all through it.   I didn't look up the Janka of Holly, but Boxwood is about 2-1/2 times as hard as Hard Maple, so good to have for a lot of things.   The hardest wood, Lignum Vitae, is also an ornamental.

[Bombarde16]

Bad news:  Holly is a small, knobbly, twisted mess of knots and branches.

Good news:  A twisted mess of knots and branches offers the possibility of curl and compression figure.

One log yielded a stack of six bowl blanks, ballparking in at 8" diameter and 4" high.  Slathered with a coat of latex paint to slow the drying process.  Stacked in a corner to maximize the chances that they'll get in the way and be a tripping hazard for the next year while drying.  Check back in 2019 or so and we'll see if any of these were worth my time.

[Tom King]

I went out and took a couple of pictures of the Holly that was here when we first built our place.   I placed my cap about 6 feet off the ground, for perspective.  I said 40 feet tall earlier.  It might not be 40 feet tall, but definately something over 30.   The trunks are a mass on one root system.  Our place was part of a Plantation first built on the river in 1733, and there were buildings all around where our house and barn are.   Even though there are American Hollies growing all over the woods around here, this one could have been an ornamental, planted some time ago.   The larger of the main trunks is about 10 inches

[wdwerker]

That's a large bush !  There are a couple of American Holly trees in front of an office building I have done work in that are close to 10 stories. They look great year round but once a year a flock of grackles & redwing blackbirds migrate through and they roost in the trees and eat all the berries. That makes parking & sidewalks slippery and disgusting ! The office park got permits to chase them off with bottle rockets. It worked somewhat, they came to roost behind my old shop. So we opened fire with brad nailers ! They went right back to the office park. 

[JohnDi]

Yikes, my holly is a baby compared to those.

didn't think I would yield much even if I'm successful, but this was my wife's favorite and I think that if I can get a small amount of useful wood, I would use it as an accent on small jewelry box for her, and she'll always have a part of "her" tree.

thanks for the replies.