• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Turning for Profit | Woodturning | Lathe |

Helping woodturners make more money

  • Blog
  • Projects
    • Library
      • Turned Bowls
      • Christmas Projects
  • Inspiration
  • Make Money
  • Woodturning Techniques
  • Workshop Expertise
    • Splinters
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • Projects
    • Library
      • Turned Bowls
      • Christmas Projects
  • Inspiration
  • Make Money
  • Woodturning Techniques
  • Workshop Expertise
    • Splinters
  • Shop
You are here: Home / Inspiration / Olive Wood for Your Turning Projects
Olive Wood, honey dipper, pen blanks, and olive platters

Olive Wood for Your Turning Projects

By //  by Robin 2 Comments

divider
This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks.

Olive Wood is a fruit wood with lovely grain patterns. It is a hard wood which requires sharp tools and it will take a great finish as well. There is a fruity odor as you are turning it. Normally you turn smaller projects with olive wood rather than large bowls. It is fun to try different species and it is not too hard to find some olive wood to turn. Olive Wood honey dipper and two platters beautiful grain pattern

Growing up in Canada, Olive wood was not a common or local wood. Over the years I have found it occasionally at craft fairs and other Christmas events. Usually the booth or table had Christmas decorations and Nativities made by people in Israel. I had not thought of turning with olive wood. It is not a tree that grows in Canada. However it is a wood that I am seeing more of in different products and as turning blanks as well.

Olive Wood (Olea Species)

The olive tree grows largely in Mediterranean climates, but successfully grows in some of the warmer regions of the United States. It is a small tree, with bush like tendencies and lots of branching. The older an olive tree gets, the more outer stems fuse to the trunk, leaving wide swaths of unusual grain patterns, burl-like patterns, and annoying knots. The leaves are narrow, oblong and sharply tipped, gray green and grow in pairs. Olives are evergreen, and surprisingly hardy, thriving in zones that are often partially desert.

Olive Wood close up of branches, leaves, and fruit

The wood of the olive tree can be highly figured. The sapwood is a light tone, roughly a creamy yellow, stripped with darker brown and green tones. The heartwood is a darker, nut-brown with similar patterns, though the darkest brown tones trend nearly to black. It is a dense wood that can be a joy to turn or carve. When working with olive wood, one may notice a slight aroma, reminiscent of freshly pressed olive oil or a wine barrel. This scent is due to very high oil content in the natural wood, which means an oil or water based finish may not apply well to your turned olive wood. The wood is very dense, heavy, and strong.

Olive wood is a very clean wood, and is unlikely to have many spores due to the oil content and density of the wood. If you are allergic to olives, you may not want to turn olive wood, but otherwise you should be able to enjoy turning it. Olive Wood, an olive tree in Jerusalem Israel

Turning Precautions

Make sure your blank has been fully dried; use a moisture meter to check. If the blank has not been fully dried, but sealed as still green wood, olive wood has a tendency to crack and check on the surface. As it is a dense wood, larger blanks are more likely to still be damp compared to smaller ones. Due to the oil content, the wood will turn similarly to green wood, even when it has low moisture content.

For decorations, or projects that will not be in contact with food, buffing can bring the natural oil out as a simple finish. If the wood will be in contact with salt, a more impermeable shellac finish may be desired to keep the olive wood’s oil from interacting with the salt.

The oil in the olive wood, as well as any residual moisture, can be drawn out with denatured alcohol. After soaking the wood in denatured alcohol, for about a week, it should be re-dried out very slowly to prevent any additional cracking or checking. Wrap the piece in several layers of newspaper and dry for a month or more, then gradually unwrap and continue to dry very gradually. Once completely dry the wood can be finished as normal.

Due to the higher density of olive wood, using the proper tools can mean that your piece will need very little sanding. The wood turns cleanly, though the oil content can cause some slight clogging when sanding. Again, this is similar to working with green wood.

Olive wood can be unstable, so take precautions when working with it in larger sizes to insure that it is dry and cracks are filled. Due to the wood’s propensity to move, particularly with humidity changes, creating precise work out of olive wood is not recommended.

Finding Olive Wood

The best is if you are in a locale where the olive tree grows. Then you can keep your eyes open during pruning season for suitable branches. When a tree is cut down then you could ask for some turning wood. It is a courtesy to turn something out of the wood for the person who gave you the wood. If you pay for the wood then it is all yours.

Several woodturning supply outlets carry olive wood turning blanks. These range from pen blanks to larger spindles (3 x 3 x 12) to bowl blanks (3 x 6 x 6). You can also find olive wood at discount home centers. The small cheese board below is olive wood. The board is 3/4″ thick, the same as a standard pen blank. You can cut three pen blanks at least out of this wood. This board cost me less than 3 olive wood pen blanks from Lee Valley Tools. So keep your eyes open and you may find there is more olive wood around than you realize.

Olive Wood, honey dipper, pen blanks, and olive platters

Projects for olive wood

Olive wood pen blanks would be suitable for the following projects:

  • Honey Dipper
  • Wooden Icicles
  • Needle Case
  • Sett Gauge
  • Shawl Pins (the pin portion)
  • Small Garden Dibbler
  • Small turning kits (key chains, bottle openers, seam rippers, etc.)

If you managed to find a flat piece of olive wood then you could turn:

  • Jar Lid
  • Shawl Pin (the round portion)

Enjoy exploring the possibilities of turning with olive wood. Remember to keep track of your inventory and the species that you turned the project from. There is something special about olive wood no matter where it grows. I guess that we have a connection with the tree because of its fruit. Customers often show greater appreciation for items turned from fruit wood than any other type of wood. Apple, pear, cherry, plum, and olive, are all fruit wood, have interesting grain patterns, and have selling appeal as a result.

I hope you enjoyed learning about olive wood. It was fun turning the honey dipper including the captive ring. I am going to make a jar lid and a fountain pen out of the cheese board that I found. Please share if you have turned a project out of olive wood.

If you enjoy stories like this or different turning projects please sign up for my weekly newsletter. (The sign up box is a little lower on the page.) Thanks for reading this far and remember to always turn safely.

Filed Under: Inspiration, Technique Tagged With: inspiration, olive wood, small turnings, wood turning

Related Posts:

You may also be interested in these posts:
Christmas Projects Title

Christmas Ornaments: Build Your Inventory Fast

Turning Blanks: How to cut dimensional lumber on your table saw to make turning blanks

Turning Blanks from your Table Saw

Shop notes are a great aid in your woodturning projects

Woodturning Shop Notes

Woodturner Shop Safety

9 Shop Safety Tips for Woodturners

Before you start teaching woodturning to children ask yourself 3 important questions

Teaching woodturning to children – 3 preliminary questions

Parting tool is versatile

Parting Tool – More versatile than you thought

Previous Post: « Health - Are you turning at the right height for you? Is Your Woodturning Affecting Your Health?
Next Post: Product Combinations that Sell at Craft Fairs Product Combinations like bowls and garden turnings »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Forest Decor

    April 29, 2022 at 8:38 pm

    Excellent points explained here.
    Yes you are right, Olive wood is versatile and easy to work with, but even though it is hard and strong, it is not used for outdoors applications since it lacks the ability to survive in the open for long.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Mini Decorations - A Woodturning Project | Turning for Profit says:
    February 27, 2018 at 1:00 pm

    […] put an olive wood pen blank between centers on my […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CAPTCHA
Refresh

*

Primary Sidebar

Welcome

About me:

Welcome to the Turning For Profit Community! I'm Robin. Turning for Profit is about helping you find hope and joy in your woodturning hobby. It's about projects that fill your inventory and inspire your creativity. It's business help to get you set up and making a profit quickly. If you've always wanted to work from home playing with wood, let me help you realize your dream of Turning for Profit. Read More…

Help for Beginner Woodturners

Learn to use 5 different wood turning tools, with confidence, while you turn 7 projects, building your wood turning skills sequentially.  Includes tips and ideas for marketing your wood turning, when you are ready to move forward.


Footer

Inspiration:

You don’t have to be good to start.  You just have to START to be good. — Joe Sabah

Handmade with Care Stamp

7 Gifts for Men Made on the Lathe

7 Gifts for Men Made on the Lathe
Christmas Projects Title

Christmas Ornaments: Build Your Inventory Fast

Christmas Ornaments: Build Your Inventory Fast
Finished Niddy Noddy with yarn.

Niddy Noddy – A Woodturning Project

Niddy Noddy – A Woodturning Project
  • Start Here
  • About me
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Disclosure

Site Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2023 · Mai Lifestyle Pro On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in