Stopping Holly discolouring

[APH]

Turning freshly cuts Holly has been a joy, what hasn't been so nice is it's habit to almost immediately get green and black marks on the surface of the cut wood. These are pretty horrible.

Rough turning and then leaving to dry and returning, looses the fun of it warping as it dries.

I could bleach the finished piece. Either before it dries and warps or maybe post warp ?
Another remedy I've seen mentioned is to soak a rough turned piece in water/vinegar/salt to stop any staining later, but I'd guess you might have to leave it in solution for long time for the solution of migrate into the timber that will be cut.

Anyone got any good answers to this problem ?

[Lazurus]

https://www.awgb.co.uk/awgbforum/index.php?topic=2372.0

Try this link seems to cover it all

[APH]

That's for that. Not sure why Google didn't find that.

An interesting piece, but not entirely conclusive.
I'll have a go at boiling a piece in a dilute vinegar solution in a pressure cooker. That might ensure that everything hits a high enough temperature and take his advice on letting it cool in water thoroughly before slowly drying it.

Anyone else any tips they'd like to pass on ?

[fuzzyturns]

Make sure your piece is free of knots. In my experience they generally are the source of really bad checking, even in pieces where you'd expect warping.
I have in fact had some pieces turned from green wood that have stayed almost completely white. This could be linked to them being quite thin, less than 1/4" and therefore in essence drying while turning/sanding. They still warp after wards, so clearly the moisture level didn't go down all the way, but seemingly enough to prevent the colour change. Would be interesting to learn what chemical reaction causes it.

[seventhdevil]

the faster it dries the whiter it stays...

fuzzy, that is why your thin ones stayed whiter.

in the USA they mill holly when the sap is down and put it straight in the kiln which preserves the whiteness of the wood.

in the UK holly trees don't get big enough to warrant doing this.

[APH]

As a follow up;
The first piece I turned was left a bit too long, but a second bowl was pressured cooked in a (white wine)vinegar solution and that seemed less dis-coloured than the first.
Although, on close inspection, there are stripes round the piece that remain with some staining(?) or possibly caused by a failure to finish well enough.

An 'interesting' bit of wood to turn as the internal void, bark inclusion as seen, was invisible on the log before turning. Exciting stuff, but still got the wall thickness down to 3mm. I really like the way it's dried and warped, the hand carved random feet work nicely too.
Best seen in the 'round' so here's a link to a video as the forum doesn't allow MP4 attachments.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkXiaZ_AyBo/?taken-by=apholman

[John Plater]

Make sure your piece is free of knots. In my experience they generally are the source of really bad checking, even in pieces where you'd expect warping.
I have in fact had some pieces turned from green wood that have stayed almost completely white. This could be linked to them being quite thin, less than 1/4" and therefore in essence drying while turning/sanding. They still warp after wards, so clearly the moisture level didn't go down all the way, but seemingly enough to prevent the colour change. Would be interesting to learn what chemical reaction causes it.

The turning and sanding will remove the free water from the grain. Drying over time will remove the water combined in the cell structure, hence the distortion afterwards. It is always a joy when mother nature takes the shape back for herself !
ATB John