Thread: Not Hollywood - Holly Wood !!!!

Good score ! No firsthand experience but I've read of big problems with fungal staining after cutting, I think kiln drying was recommended. Phil

Thanks Phil, so the implication being that it will be best to leave as large logs to minimise fracturing?

If you leave the trunks they will turn a horrible blue stain. You should cut them ASAP, treat for blue stain and bugs, and then have them kiln dried if possible to ensure they keep the desirable white timber.

Thanks Sensei, I would have been devastated to find out I'd ruined such a rare find. However I have to confess that I have no idea how to treat for the blue stain/bugs. Your advice very much appreciated. Phil

Phil the general rule of thumb is cut,mill and kiln dry asap. But given the number of trees you have this going to be difficult, some have had good success with vacuum drying.
If you able rough turn as many as you can and soak them in meths asap for at least a day then dry them in a cardboard box covered with sawdust etc. The general view is the blue stain is very hard to stop, but bleaching with a diluted bleach on the rough out should bring it back to white. Even with out the blue stain it does tend to go greyish with age. Another idea is to rough out as many as you can and drop them in a freezer this should prevent the blue stain from developing allow you to finish them all one at a time.

If it were me I would drop all the blanks in water with bleach in the water, no dilution and fully submerge them till your ready. The rough turn to near finish size, then soak it in meths or DNA for at least 48 hours and dry in a cardboard box.


Holly is not common and not cheap, so maybe its worth all the effort
http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...sive_Wood.html

http://www.wood-database.com/lumber-...ds/cape-holly/

But some of the staining looks a bit like spalting
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-blue-staining

Holly Dooly Hughie, I'll need a tanker load of meths and bleach for this amount of timber. I'll be lucky to access a kiln at such short notice as well. I'm starting to like the look of that blue stain more and more

If you want some of the timber I'll drop you a line when the trees are coming out (around 2 weeks) - see if you can nip up here?

Cheers
Phil

Originally Posted by Phily

Holly Dooly Hughie, I'll need a tanker load of meths and bleach for this amount of timber. I'll be lucky to access a kiln at such short notice as well. I'm starting to like the look of that blue stain more and more

If you want some of the timber I'll drop you a line when the trees are coming out (around 2 weeks) - see if you can nip up here?

Cheers
Phil

OK sounds good, how did you go with the big Camphor Laurel? Any colour?
Still if you do manage to get a good quantity dried and white it might be salable to the in-layers as its not that common

Originally Posted by Phily

Thanks Sensei, I would have been devastated to find out I'd ruined such a rare find. However I have to confess that I have no idea how to treat for the blue stain/bugs. Your advice very much appreciated. Phil

Phil the best way of treating for bugs is using soluble Boron mixed in warm water, not Borax as you don't want any yellow staining, available from your local farm suppliers (ie that sell insecticides). It is a natural product and will not harm the timber nor put any nasties in the timber. Whilst there, get some fungicide (a clear or milky one) to treat the blue stain, it can be mixed with the boron and applied with a sprayer at the same time. These should be applied within 24 hours of felling (and milling) the trees for a white timber like this.

Since you are going to turn some of this stuff, cut some into cube turning blanks (can be cut into smaller sections later), then treat with plain Boron only. Then place the green timber on some mouldy wet concrete end grain down and with the tree growing direction upwards. If possible, also try and get some of that bright orange fungus growing on some dead wood around, then crush it up and mix with water and green sawdust and place under the piece. This way you might get some black/blue and orange spalting. You will end up with a piece with a black base but hopefully amazing inside.

All the best.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

Phil the best way of treating for bugs is using soluble Boron mixed in warm water, not Borax as you don't want any yellow staining, available from your local farm suppliers (ie that sell insecticides). It is a natural product and will not harm the timber nor put any nasties in the timber. Whilst there, get some fungicide (a clear or milky one) to treat the blue stain, it can be mixed with the boron and applied with a sprayer at the same time. These should be applied within 24 hours of felling (and milling) the trees for a white timber like this.

Since you are going to turn some of this stuff, cut some into cube turning blanks (can be cut into smaller sections later), then treat with plain Boron only. Then place the green timber on some mouldy wet concrete end grain down and with the tree growing direction upwards. If possible, also try and get some of that bright orange fungus growing on some dead wood around, then crush it up and mix with water and green sawdust and place under the piece. This way you might get some black/blue and orange spalting. You will end up with a piece with a black base but hopefully amazing inside.

All the best.

Great advice, thanks Neil, I'll let you know how I go