Dark stains on holly

[kevin nee]

I bought some holly and when I opened the package there was quite a bit
of stain in the wood. This piece is 1 1/2 X 8 about 6 ft long. I bought it for
contrast wood, box lids, and finials. I turned a small bowl tonight and am
not happy with the color. It has been kilm dried. It is still on the lathe with
a glue block and faceplate. My question is can I do anything with this to get
even color. It turns and sands quite nice. I am thinkig of using black gesso
on this one. Does anyone dye or bleach holly.
Thanks in advance, Kevin

[John Keeton]

Kevin, holly is a wonderful wood to turn. It is prone to blue stain, and is very difficult to dry without developing the stain. It dyes black very well, but other, more translucent colors with holly do not look good IMO.

[Jim Burr]

To add to JK's post...I just band sawed a half log...2 chunks...both 4x4. It has some great color, blues and greens. Now I may be biased on holly, but these are some great HF or small bowl blocks. On the other hand, although it turns like butter, the color can be totally absent on occasion. Holly has a few distinct purposes and they don't always include being left to stand on it's own.