Holly again, but about drying

[sorcerertd]

A friend of mine gave me some fresh cut holly today. Funny thing about that... he used to be a field technician for the cable company and had to fight his way through holly bushes around people's houses for years, so he cut this tree down with a vengeance. When he shared his victory on facebook (or, as I like to call it, farcebook), I gladly offered to remove some of it from his property. I got a few logs about 18" x 3" diameter and know it has to be dried quickly to preserve the color (or lack of). So, what is quickly? A couple months is typically pretty quick for drying wood. Is this even possible with air drying in a climate controlled environment? Also, not sure if I should seal it or not. Anybody familiar with this process and had success with it?

 

[PatrickR]

No expert on drying wood but I do know that it will dry twice as fast if stood on end.


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[leehljp]

In winter, you will have a little less trouble as a tree will have less sap in it, but once spring hits, the sap begins flowing more. I am not the expert on holly even though it is one of my two favorite woods. The only success that I have had with holly not turning gray was putting a 3 inch thick limb in the freezer for about 3 months. Upon taking it out (in the winter time) it did not turn gray from the sap. From my reading, the faster one can dry it, the better - from it turning gray.

 

[philipff]

Holly needs to be processed to a dry state very quickly after being cut down. IF YOU CAN, get it dried professionally at a kiln. If not cut it thru the pith and seal it all over. You should not try to turn it green unless you have a kiln. I have had a bowl split in half on the lathe while I ate lunch. Whatever you do, seal it up and get as much moisture out before using for any purpose. Pure white is hard to come buy so you could end up with a nice treasure. P.

 

[sorcerertd]

I am not the expert on holly even though it is one of my two favorite woods. The only success that I have had with holly not turning gray was putting a 3 inch thick limb in the freezer for about 3 months.

Hmm, freeze dried Holly. That is an interesting thought as it would certainly get the moisture out.
So Hank, since you mentioned this and piqued my curiosity, what is the other of your two favorite woods?

Drying standing on end should be faster in theory, like pouring water out of a vessel rather than waiting for it to just evaporate. Gravity will eventually win every battle. I'm thinking that alone won't speed things up enough to properly preserve it.

There is a guy locally that dries in his own kiln and sells lumber. They are local woods, but are beautiful and much cheaper than the garbage at Lowes or Home Depot. In any case, he is only open two days a week for 4 hrs each day, on the days I work. Maybe I'll check in with him anyway. Never know.

I have 3 pieces. Maybe I'll dry each one differently and see what works. It's been a cold spring here in NC, but I'm not sure if the tree was still "hibernating" or not. Hopefully, it will work out. If nothing else, I'll learn something from it. Guess I'd better weight it first.

 

[dogcatcher]

Seal the ends, and lay it on the floor in front of your refrigerator. The warm air flow from the fridge will speed up the drying process. The bad, speeding the drying process up can cause the wood to split or check. But I have had good luck using this method, I seal up the ends dipped in wax about 3/4 inch up the blank.

 

[Pierre---]

Holly is found of cracking, and quickly. Before anything else, split the logs in two or more. If you don't, they will split where they want, usually a little bit everywhere, like here, and it will be unusable.

 

[sorcerertd]

Holly is found of cracking, and quickly. Before anything else, split the logs in two or more. If you don't, they will split where they want, usually a little bit everywhere, like here, and it will be unusable.
View attachment 301163

So, maybe cut some into slightly oversized blanks, seal the ends well, then put them somewhere there is warm, dry air flowing.

I need to get a couple more logs and start experimenting.

 

[Pierre---]

So, maybe cut some into slightly oversized blanks, seal the ends well, then put them somewhere there is warm, dry air flowing.

Yep, the smaller the better. But avoid warm and dry air, the drying will be too quick -> craaack! I dry my difficult woods as slowly as possible, in my cellar, near my wine bottles.

 

[howsitwork]

Halve it to remove the pith . expect end checking and seal ends with PVA. or wax emulsion as soon as possible. Do NOT use coloured hard wood to sticker it or the colour of the hard wood stick will contaminate it.
I have got away with MDF sticks with minimal surface discolouration. Standing on its end to dry is ideal .

 

[sorcerertd]

Seal the ends, and lay it on the floor in front of your refrigerator. The warm air flow from the fridge will speed up the drying process. The bad, speeding the drying process up can cause the wood to split or check. But I have had good luck using this method, I seal up the ends dipped in wax about 3/4 inch up the blank.

That's the cat's spot. She'd probably push it out of the way faster than my wife.

 

[leehljp]

Hmm, freeze dried Holly. That is an interesting thought as it would certainly get the moisture out.
So Hank, since you mentioned this and piqued my curiosity, what is the other of your two favorite woods?

Besides holly, I enjoy the colors of blood wood, old blood wood. Bloodwood today seems to be an almost generic name. Some "Satine" is sold as blood wood and has a very slight burnt orange tint to it. I have some bloodwood that is almost maroon-ish in color, - I purchased nearly 15 years ago and kept it in a dark place except when I need to cut off a piece. Bloodwood and pure white holly are beautiful together.

30 Pieces of Silver

Elegant Beauty TI Gold Bloodwood, BOW, Holly core solder CA finish

www.penturners.org

Solder glued in

Solder tapped in and glued to the 30 pieces of silver blank

www.penturners.org

 

[sorcerertd]

Besides holly, I enjoy the colors of blood wood, old blood wood. Bloodwood today seems to be an almost generic name. Some "Satine" is sold as blood wood and has a very slight burnt orange tint to it. I have some bloodwood that is almost maroon-ish in color, - I purchased nearly 15 years ago and kept it in a dark place except when I need to cut off a piece. Bloodwood and pure white holly are beautiful together.

30 Pieces of Silver

Elegant Beauty TI Gold Bloodwood, BOW, Holly core solder CA finish

www.penturners.org

Solder glued in

Solder tapped in and glued to the 30 pieces of silver blank

www.penturners.org

Ah, I have seen that beauty before. Using solder is a brilliant idea. I do have some bloodwood that is a very dark rich color such as that, but the place I purchased it does say it is also called satine. In any case, it is a beautiful wood and also one of my favorites, though I don't know how it compares to what you have stashed away. It almost seems a little speckled along opposite sides (Not sure what you call that feature of the wood, but on most woods it reminds me of parenthesis running down opposite sides of the finished grain.) Thanks for sharing that!

 

[sorcerertd]

I picked up a suggestion about drying in a toaster oven in another post. My wife bought a nice one with a convection fan to use for poly clay and this seemed like the easiest thing to try first. I wanted to test out the new bandsaw blade anyway, so I cut up one of the three pieces and gave it a go. Here are the results after about 1.5 hrs in a convection toaster oven at 225. The lighting wasn't that good, but the pics show the results pretty well. It's definitely whiter than it looks in the pictures.

The blank laying across the top (second pic) was purchased, and is a little lighter and clearer, but the newly dried ones do have a pretty nice creamy tone overall. It did check a little on the ends. Obviously, I don't know what it looks like inside. They will be sitting for a while before I get around to testing them out to finish adjusting to ambient moisture.

This is what I started with. They are 16-18 in long.

Cut and dried 1.5 hrs at 225 F in a convection toaster oven.

Some checking/splitting on the end grain.

 

[leehljp]

Beautiful white holly color!