Originally Posted by
John K Jordan
I think I posted this before, but in case you missed it:
From Professor Gene Wengert, forum technical advisor (on another wood forum):
Holly wood is prized for its white color. It loses this color quickly if not dried fast (fungal and chemical stains)....
Holly is cut in cold weather because both the fungal and chemical staining are very slow at wintertime temperatures.
BTW, Dr. Gene Wengert is Professor Emeritus in Wood Processing, Department of Forestry, at the University of Wisconsin (Madison) and president of The Wood Doctor's Rx, LLC, through which he provides educational and consulting services to lumber processing firms. He is a well known and respected wood expert. All I've read from him has been level-headed and made sense.
All I know for certain is my experience. I cut holly once in the cold winter and more than once in the warm summer. I stickered and air dried it outdoors the same way each time. Each time I treated it with nothing except for sealing the end grain with emulsified wax. The holly I cut and dried in the winter stayed white. That I cut in warmer weather (more than once) did not. Any holly I cut in the future will be in the winter unless I don't have a choice or don't care about the color.
An added note: from an experiment I did last year it appears that holly spalts easily in the summer. However, the log I had did not develop any of the black zone lines that we prize and associate with spalting. (The black lines are not spalting but defensive borders between rival fungal colonies.)
JKJ