Holly is regarded as one of the finest woods for making stick shanks. The wood is very dense and has a fairly uniform light cream colour.

There are one or two snags however. Firstly, the bark is just downright plumb-ugly; after seasoning it is a dark, almost black, colour and covered in a coarse network of light greyish raised ridges, making the surface rough and uneven. In any case, patches of bark almost always come loose during seasoning, so there is rarely a chance to try for a "bark-on" shank even if we wanted to.

Secondly, it is difficult to find really straight stems or branches. There are often definite kinks and dog-legs, and the taper from end to end tends to be excessive. The profuse side shoots are quite substantial, leaving large knots or knobbles where they have been cut off. In addition, the cross-section is rarely nice and round, tending to grow in an oval shape.

This all means that we have to adopt very different techniques when selecting and working a holly shank. We can either cut a much thicker piece to start with and work it down to the required diameter, or we can take a thinner piece, straighten it as far as possible, remove the bark and accept the kinks, knobbles and oval cross-section as natural features. Because of the high strength and stiffness of the wood, we can often use much thinner pieces than would be practicable with, say, hazel. This makes holly ideal for making sticks for small ladies and children.