{"id":2646,"date":"2019-03-14T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T08:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?p=2646"},"modified":"2020-05-16T20:27:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-17T00:27:29","slug":"american-holly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/","title":{"rendered":"American Holly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Geographic Distribution:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The wood commonly known as American Holly, or just Holly in the Americas, is known to botanists as Ilex opaca<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I. opaca<\/em> is native to the eastern United States in a large area. From the maritime forests of Massachusetts, I. opaca<\/em> is scattered along the coast to Delaware. It grows inland into several Pennsylvania counties and abundantly southward throughout the coastal plain, Piedmont, and Appalachian system. In effect this means that the entire states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, and Alabama are in the range area for I. opaca<\/em>. The vast majority of the states of Virginia and Tennessee are as well. The range extends south to mid-peninsular Florida, west to eastern Texas and southeastern Missouri.  It corresponds roughly to the combined ranges for loblolly and shortleaf pines.<\/p>\n

For the sake of simplicity I will refer to I. opaca<\/em> from here forward simply as American Holly.<\/p>\n

For the curious, I would note that there are two additional species of Ilex<\/em>.  Ilex mitis<\/em> (Cape Holly), native to Africa, and Ilex aquifolium<\/em> (English Holly) native to Europe, Northwest Africa, and Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n

General Characteristics:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ideally, American Holly will have a very uniform pale white color that reveals virtually no grain pattern visible.<\/p>\n

It is important to know that knots are common in American Holly and this will reduce the usable area of the wood.<\/p>\n

American Holly is well known to develop a bluish to gray stain due to fungal growth if the wood is not dried rapidly after cutting.  To help reduce fungal growth and the staining it causes, most American Holly is harvested in the winter and kiln dried shortly after.<\/p>\n

\"Holly

Holly Bowl Sidewall<\/p><\/div>\n

The grain of American Holly will invariably be interlocked and irregular.  This can create difficulties with the workability of American Holly.  American Holly has a medium to to fine uniform texture with a moderate natural luster.<\/p>\n

American Holly is very perishable, not at all resistant to rot and it is also susceptible to insect attack.<\/p>\n

Working Characteristics:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

American Holly can be difficult to work with due to the presence of numerous knots, and even if one can obtain clear pieces, the interlocked grain, mentioned before, can create problems.  Interlocked grain is especially problematic when planing interlocked woods, but this resource<\/a> provides helpful guidance on avoiding tear-out.<\/p>\n

However, American Holly doe glue, stain, and finish well.  Sometimes American Holly is stained black to substitute for the much rarer and more expensive true Ebony.<\/p>\n

Most relevant to our purposes, American Holly turns well on the lathe.<\/p>\n

American Holly has not distinctive scent when being freshly worked.<\/p>\n

Pricing and Availability:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

American Holly is seldom available for commercial sale.  Most American Holly that is sold is sold through small, independent, hobbyist mills.  It is best to seek out American Holly in the winter months.  American Holly is an expensive domestic lumber.  Due to its scarcity, and because it is usually used for small accent pieces, expect to only find American Holly, when and where you can, in small quantities and sizes.<\/p>\n

In this blog, I almost always recommend several vendors with whom I have done considerable business and in whom I have great confidence.  These vendors are: West Penn Hardwoods<\/a>, Bell Forest Products<\/a>, NC Wood<\/a>, Got Wood?<\/a>, WoodTurningz<\/a>, Amazon Exotic Hardwoods<\/a>, Griffin Exotic Wood<\/a>, Exotic Woods USA<\/a>, and Wood Turning Blanks 4U<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of these fine vendors, five are selling Holly at this time.<\/p>\n

NC Wood was the vendor from which I obtained my Holly and they still have some in stock.  A 8” x 8” x 4” bowl blank such as the one I have turned sells for $38.85, which shows the expense of this uncommon wood.<\/p>\n

NC Wood also has spindle sizes ranging in price from $27.80 to $1.50 for pen blanks.<\/p>\n

WoodTurningz sells spindle sizes of 1.5” x 1.5” x 6” for $17.95 with pen blanks selling for $3.00<\/p>\n

Amazon Exotic Hardwoods sells a range of spindle sizes ranging in price from $9.95 to $48.00.  They are also the only vendor I found that offers dimensional lumber sizes ranging in price from $33.50 to $68.90.<\/p>\n

Exotic Woods USA sells two grades of pen blanks for $2.90 and $3.60.<\/p>\n

Finally, Griffin Exotic Wood sells American Holly pen blanks for $1.50 (with staining) and $4.00 clear.  They also sell four additional spindle sizes ranging in price from $7.00 to $12.00.<\/p>\n

Woodfinder<\/a> is an excellent website that is dedicated to advertising wood dealers.  In your search for American Holly, this can be an invaluable resource provided you use multiple search terms to capture all the possible listings.  I can’t speak to the quality of any of the listed dealers, but Woodfinder does have the advantage of allowing searches to be performed based on location which might allow an interested buyer to visit a listed wood dealer in person to hand pick pieces at a comfortable price.<\/p>\n

A significant problem with using Woodfinder is that many vendors are listed for woods that, upon further investigation, they do not offer.  I don’t know if perhaps once they did and they didn’t update their listings or if some vendors use a standardized list of woods that include most everything conceivable with the idea that once you land on their page you will find something you want to buy even if you didn’t know it beforehand.  It happens to me all the time!<\/p>\n

Uses:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

As an expensive wood of limited availability, American Holly has only a few specialized uses including: Inlays, furniture, piano keys (dyed black), broom and brush handles, turned objects, and other small novelty items.<\/p>\n

Sustainability:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

American Holly is not listed as being in any way threatened or endangered by the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices<\/a> nor does it appear on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.<\/a><\/p>\n

To the best of my knowledge, American Holly is not subject to any special restrictions by any United States government agency.<\/p>\n

I realize that inherent in working with wood is the killing of a part of the natural world that may be slow to return and if I become deeply concerned about this fact, I will have to find a new hobby.  I hope that such a time does not come to pass or at least not any time soon.  In part because I am concerned about legally and responsibly obtained wood, I am reluctant to buy from sellers outside of well-established and known vendors.  I am highly unlikely, for example, to purchase any wood from auction sites, such as Ebay, because of uncertain sourcing and documentation, as well as the potential, even likelihood, of material being misidentified in order to achieve a higher selling price.<\/p>\n

However, due to the commercial scarcity of some woods, resorting to auction sites such as Ebay or Etsy may be the only way to obtain some desirable domestic, or in some cases exotic imported, species that are not routinely commercially harvested.  The potential risks of buying in these marketplaces have to be balanced against the desire to work with a specific species of wood.  That is inherently an individual decision.<\/p>\n

\"Holly

Holly Bowl Interior<\/p><\/div>\n

I also realize that many, if not most, wood workers do not have endangered species lists memorized, therefore I think it worthwhile and important to do even a small amount of research before purchasing any lumber, domestic as well as imported, to be certain of the potential impact you are having, even in a small way, on threatened or endangered populations.  This information is easy to come by and takes only minutes to locate through any Internet search engine, including those you can access on your phone as you are standing in the lumber yard or store.  Unfortunately, you simply cannot count on a vendor to tell you a product they are selling is endangered.<\/p>\n

Health Hazards:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Besides the standard health risks associated with any type of wood dust, no further health reactions have been associated with American Holly.<\/p>\n

It is important to remember that although many people may, or may not, be sensitive to any given wood, the only experience that truly counts is your own, so use reported side effects as guidance but not as a substitute for cautious and safe practices.<\/p>\n

Appropriate protective equipment is therefore always recommended when working with this, or any other, wood, exotic or domestic, unless you have worked with the species before and are certain you are not sensitive to it.<\/p>\n

Complete information about health hazards<\/a> associated with a wide variety of exotic hardwoods is available from The Wood Database<\/a>.  Additional information about how to best use a dust collection system and personal protective equipment, such as respirators, can also be found through this excellent and comprehensive resource<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I experienced no negative side effects when working with American Holly.<\/p>\n

My Personal Experiences :                       <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Personally, I found American Holly to be a bit difficult to work with.  I started with green wood bowl blanks and as is generally true with rough turning bowls it was pretty easy since I wasn’t at all concerned with a final smooth finish.  Once the rough bowls were dry the challenges began.<\/p>\n

American Holly has a fairly high rate of movement when drying, with a ratio tangential to radial of 2:1.  In practice this meant that my rough bowls were fairly warped and were out of round by almost 0.5”, which is quite a bit to try to bring back down to round.<\/p>\n

The exterior was fairly easy to re-round using the Easy Wood Tools<\/a> Rougher.  It wasn’t much more complicated that rounding any rough cut blank.  The interior was a bit more of a challenge but using the Easy Wood Tools Finisher with a negative rake cutter I was able to, slowly and carefully, bring it back into round, albeit with a very thin edge wall due to the degree of warp that had to be cut out.<\/p>\n

I used a standard Nova Chuck<\/a> and the Cole Jaws attachment in the process.<\/p>\n

Achieving a nice final sanded finish was very difficult on the cross grain areas where the interlocked grain really presented issues.  Finally I had to lock the lathe spindle down and focus sand on the end grain areas.  The other areas cut very smooth and didn’t require the aggressive sanding the end grain areas did.  I used Green and Yellow Wave sanding discs from Packard Woodworking.<\/a><\/p>\n

For a finish I chose to use clear gloss polyurethane which is very different from the finish I normally use.  I chose this because I thought it was the best option to preserve the uniquely pale white color of the American Holly wood.  I feared that a shellac based product would discolor the wood.  Polyurethane is rated for outdoor use so it is also a very sturdy and protective finish as well.  I used a Minwax Wipe On Clear Gloss Polyurethane.<\/a><\/p>\n

Given the cost of American Holly and how difficult it is to source, I don’t think I will be in a hurry to experiment with it again.  It is unique in appearance but some of the difficulties in working, coupled with price and availability, make me feel that I would rather spend my turning time with other more accessible, both in terms of availability, price, and working characteristics, woods.<\/p>\n

As always, I wish all my readers a great experience in whatever their wood working interests happen to be and to those who like working with lathes especially, do a good turn today!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For a finish I chose to use clear gloss polyurethane which is very different from the finish I normally use. I chose this because I thought it was the best option to preserve the uniquely pale white color of the American Holly wood. I feared that a shellac based product would discolor the wood. Polyurethane is rated for outdoor use so it is also a very sturdy and protective finish as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,141,128,137,129,138,139,130],"tags":[154,168,171,181,183,195,200,210,214,217,239,240,241,259,246],"yoast_head":"\nAmerican Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"American Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wood Turning Pens ..\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-03-14T08:00:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-17T00:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2019-03-08-19.03.37-Large-e1552101138860.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"989\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"986\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Wood_Pens\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Wood_Pens\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/\",\"name\":\"American Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-03-14T08:00:09+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-17T00:27:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47069a73b7e6a2ceecce4976634520fe\"},\"description\":\"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"American Holly\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/\",\"name\":\"Wood Turning Pens ..\",\"description\":\"Wood Turned into Art\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47069a73b7e6a2ceecce4976634520fe\",\"name\":\"Wood_Pens\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/author\/wood_pens\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"American Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..","description":"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"American Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..","og_description":"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/","og_site_name":"Wood Turning Pens ..","article_published_time":"2019-03-14T08:00:09+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-17T00:27:29+00:00","og_image":[{"width":989,"height":986,"url":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/2019-03-08-19.03.37-Large-e1552101138860.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Wood_Pens","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Wood_Pens","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/","url":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/","name":"American Holly - Wood Turning Pens ..","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-03-14T08:00:09+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-17T00:27:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47069a73b7e6a2ceecce4976634520fe"},"description":"American Holly is a fairly rare wood that is uniquely pale white in color although it is commonly found with fungal staining. It is an interesting wood.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/american-holly\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"American Holly"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/","name":"Wood Turning Pens ..","description":"Wood Turned into Art","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/#\/schema\/person\/47069a73b7e6a2ceecce4976634520fe","name":"Wood_Pens","url":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/author\/wood_pens\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woodturningpens.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}