Spalted??

[sycamour]

Hi All,
Whilst out today, I came across a large holly tree that had been recently felled,
and this piece caught my eye. I had my laplander with me and cut of this
section, I assume this is "spalted" has anyone used holly for knife blanks
certainley seems to be dense enough. Should I split it, or make a cut through the
center centre of the marked section? Whats your thoughts?

 

[dwardo]

Good solid wood that polishes like bone. There is a small time frame between spalt and rotten. Get it cut and seasoned for a whole and see how it goes. Could always have it stabilized.

 

[Macaroon]

Holly is one of our really glorious timbers - as dwardo said, polishes up like bone or ivory, is wonderful to carve and immensely strong and stable when seasoned...........prone to splitting and shakes when seasoning though, so get it small as you can use it by splitting, then rack it somewhere dry but without heat and as much airflow as you can manage..........

If you're really lucky some holly that's become infected or poorly can take on a beautiful rose colour - it's rare but wonderful when it happens............................atb mac

 

[sycamour]

Thanks for that , so its good for carving , Im going to get a couple of good size logs and store them up, maybe have a go at a drinking bowl

 

[Albus Culter]

If you're going to store it as logs it may split as it drys. Paint the ends to slow the drying to resist this. Or as said split it down small and it will dry more even. Good luck with it, and show the results

 

[dwardo]

If you can get a lot of it then experiment Always seal the ends of the splits or rounds, moisture tends to escape quicker from the ends.