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Jim Koepke
09-02-2017, 9:22 PM
At least it holds for one of my neighbors. About eight years ago he had an apple tree come down in a storm. By happenstance of being at the right place at the right time instead of it getting burned he was thrilled to have me take it away.

A month or two ago I happened to see him when he was out in his yard and I was collecting my mail. He mentioned he was going to have a nusance tree removed and would I be interested in any of his holly tree. Yesterday and today we cut it up and loaded most of it into my truck. The stump end had to be split because it was too heavy for us to lift or move. That was moved today. The good part about it just like last time it was him thanking me as I thanked him. The tree service was going to charge him to haul it away. As it is they chipped up the small limbs and another neighbor saved him some of the cost by taking the chips.

I got a good cardio workout with my neighbor today as we moved these two pieces:

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That is the stump in two pieces. It was actually two separate parts of the plant that grew together. It was a pretty good workout driving a few wedges through that. Then we loaded into his truck and took it to my shop.

These are the longer pieces we cut and loaded yesterday. We moved them in to the woodshed today:

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There are actually four pieces standing on end, one is behind the one on the left.

If nothing else maybe I can make some string inlay. I have always wanted to try that. :)

jtk

Bill Houghton
09-02-2017, 9:57 PM
Sounds good. Now you get to learn how to dry holly!

Jim Koepke
09-02-2017, 10:09 PM
Sounds good. Now you get to learn how to dry holly!

Oh oh, you mean there is something special about holly?

Guess a visit to Dr. Google is in order.

jtk

David Ragan
09-03-2017, 6:08 AM
Dang, Jim-what a great deal!

No surprise that the Holly would be so hard to split.

Hopefully, you'll get some good runs out of it-no knots and super white.

What little I have done w stringing-once you get a system, the hardest part for me was getting the strings through the thicknesser..............YMMV (couldn't resist).

Jim Koepke
09-03-2017, 11:25 AM
After Bill mentioned drying I Googled it and it seems holly needs to be dried fast to keep it pure white.

I may be out of luck, but time will tell.

jtk

Jim Koepke
09-03-2017, 11:26 AM
No surprise that the Holly would be so hard to split.

Maybe it will be good for mallets.

jtk

Bill Jobe
09-04-2017, 12:28 AM
Those 2 stump pieces look crowded. I could PM my shipping address......

Steve Beadle
09-04-2017, 3:01 PM
Hey, Jim! I learned a while back (if I remember correctly) that the wood of a Holly tree is also known as IBEX. I thought that was interesting. I made a rustic cane out of a small holly trunk.
Steve