Which Holly tree is used for cues?

[Trez Hensley]

I have a large holly tree or actually 6 all clumped together. The largest one is about a foot in Dia. 30-40 feet tall. The rest are 6-8" Dia. Anyway, it is getting to close to the house and I am going to remove the two largest trunks. My question is, which Holly trees are used for cue making. I really like the look of holly in a cue but don't want to spend all the time drying, aging and slowly cutting the wood into smaller sizes if the wood I have is not correct for cue making.

Does anyone know which specific holly woods are best? Hollys are a bit like maple in that there are several different types.

I appreciate any help you can give me. I haven't been able to find out any of this info in my searches. The trees we have are not native to our area (Oregon), so they may have been brought in from any one of the settlers that came here on the Oregon trail. Here is a picture of some of the leaves. I'm still searching to find out what kind it is. So far it appears to be a holly tree that grows in England but the spines on the leaves don't seem to be quite as long as the ones I have found in the pictures. Still searching...

Thanks,
Trez

 

[RoryHunt]

I am curious to know this as well, I am also in Oregon and have a gigantic Holly tree I am looking to cut down. I see cue makers using Holly all the time and I wonder if it would be worth it to try and sell this wood at a discounted price. I see that Holly can be very expensive.

 

[Trez Hensley]

I can't think that selling wood from one tree, (except to a few friends) would be worth it after all the work of cutting it to size, setting up a kiln, weeding out the ugly stuff, etc... Although it isn't cheap.

Where do you live in Oregon? We might be able to combine efforts to get it done in a more cost effective manner.

NCWood and the other 2 guys that sell Holly on E-bay,
sell American Holly so I'm assuming that what is used is European Holly or American.

I've looked at a lot of pictures and it is possible that what I have is American but the leaves look a bit different. Then again it is a tree and they don't all look alike even within their own type.

 

[Craig Fales]

Ilex opaca/ American Holly is what is the white wood holly is. Usually it's not too expensive.

 

[Trez Hensley]

I located Holly in Chris Hightower's book and he refers to "Aquifolium" which he states comes from Europe and Western Asia. Which, with the above post confirms that both are used in cues.

Now to figure out the best way to dry it to obtain white/ivory colored wood without any Grey/blue streaking.

Anyone have any ideas about this process?

OH... one last question, which I should have asked first I guess. Is a one foot Dia. Holly tree big enough to get good wood from.

I've never seen a bigger one but it sounds like RoryHunt above has a much bigger one.

Your thoughts???

Thanks in advance. PM if you would prefer.