Holly - Split or Saw

[Robert Rozaieski]

I have a piece of holly that has been air drying for probably 2 years now. I'd like to process it down for inlay/veneer/stringing as it's only about 2 feet long by about 4½" in diameter. Not sure if I should saw it or split it. Anyone ever worked with green or air dried holly? Does it split well. My preference would be to split as it is faster and easier for me but I don't want to render it unusable either so if it's better to saw it I'll saw it.

Thoughts?

[Brian Ashton]

I would be attaching a peice of scrap to the side (for a straight edge) and then ripping the log in half on the bandsaw. The run the two halves over the jointer to give you nice flat surfaces to reference against and then start ripping off thin strips. If you don't have access to a drum sander (you'll loose most of it running it through a planer) what you could do is rip off a slice then go back to the jointer and resurface the log halves so every slice has a smooth side that will be your glue side.

Splitting it will mean it most likely will follow the grain which could be: twisted, curved, very irregular. With all of them you will end up with a poor yield of veneer when you try to machine down to a veneer thickness.

[Jeff Willard]

I'd saw it for no better reason than to maximize yield. If you had to buy it, in this area anyway, you'd pay $20/ b.f. I've turned many dozen holly bowls, and when green, it's like turning a hunk of wax-long, continuous shavings. I don't see any particular difficulties in sawing it. In some parts of No.Va. those things grow like weeds. I've seen 'em down here up to 90' tall.

[Jeff Johnson]

Holly doesn't have much of a grain to show off by splitting, so you might as well do as others suggest and saw to maximize the yield.