There are at least 3 other olive varieties: African Olivewood (O. capensis), East African Olive (O. hochstetteri) and something called Elgon olive, for which I have seen 5 different botanical names (O. Ferruguinea, Osmanthus welwitschii, Steganthus welwitschii, Linociera welwitschii, Mayepea welwitschii --- so much for the precision and uniqueness of botanical names). NOTE: "Russian olive" is not an olive as is listed on its own page on this site
Also called Mediteranean olive, European olive, Spanish olive, etc, depending on the local of origin, this is a very attractive and expensive wood used primarily for ornamental items because the small size of the tree limits production and also because in Italy and Greece, if you threaten the source of olive oil with a chainsaw, several large men will come and hurt you.
Although I STARTED this page with only European olive, it now contains other varieties, which maybe someday I'll get off onto pages of their own, but unless specifically stated, the woods on this page are European olive.
All of the true olivewoods are, by my own limited experience which agrees with numerous comments I've seen posted on woodworking forums, are a pleasure to turn and work well with hand and power tools, BUT ... they are oily and absorb atmospheric moisture readily once seasoned dispite the initial oiliness, and even worse, they are VERY prone to hairline cracks that often can't even be seen until a finish is applied.
my samples:
A NOTE ABOUT THE FOLLOWING 3 SETS: these 3 small slabs were all obtained in an odd-lot box of cutoffs and are unseasoned. They are very heavy and are full of water and as you can see, they are all flawed by cracks. On each, I have medium-fine sanded several surfaces, including one end (the end that the end grain closeup pic is taken from) and these pics show all 6 surfaces and an end grain closeup for each slab. You can, in each case, see that the end that has been medium-fine sanded appears darker than the other end, which is a typical result of smoothing a surface on most woods (the color appears to deepen because there are fewer light-reflecting edges on a smoother surface).
set 1
set 2
set 3
a small thin plank with a knothole but very nice figure, and the same plank moistened with water.
a set of small planks and one of them moistened with water.
an endgrain slab, a portion of which (at the right rear) has separated off. The larger portion is medium sanded and the smaller piece is untouched
three small planks, medium-sanded surfaces in the first shot and then the other, unsanded side in the next shot. Notice the patina on the unsanded sides.
small plank
side grain closeup and end grain closeup of the piece directly above
some small planks and an end grain shot of the set
end grain closeup of one of the three small planks above
side grain closeup and end grain closeup of another of the small planks above
side grain closeup and end grain closeup of another of the small planks above
plank and stick and end grain of the plank
end grain closeup of the plank directly above
stubby turning stock
end grain closeup of the piece directly above
side grain closeup of the piece directly above
sticks
small chunk, very rough sanded
Corsican olive contributed to the site by Iain Rankin, whom I thank for this and other contributions. This is the same as "Mediteranean" or "Italian" olive. Iain send me the piece and also a pic that he took. Must be that his pic was when it was freshly cut and then it sat around, then he send it to me and I let it sit around, THEN I took my pic and by then it had oxidized considerably. The apparent stretching of his pic relative to mine is because the face is slanted and we used different angles.
a small piece and end grain closeup, also Corsican olive contributed by Iain Rankin.
tropical olive veneer --- the pic makes the wood look just a little more rich than is actually the case. NOTE: I'm not clear that this is actually "olive" as opposed to an unrealted species that has olive in its name.
veneer --- the dark areas actually have a green tint that doesn't show up here; the true color is more like that of the piece directly below.
another veneer sheet from a different lot --- color is very accurate
veneer sheet and closeup
web pics
tree sections and the top of a stump
slab --- I'm not sure if the washed out color is correct or not, but I assume not.
slabs
planks
plank with a pretty unlikely color
flat cut and quartersawn planks
planks listed as Italian olive
plank
bowl blanks
turning stock
turning/carving block
knife handle scales
veneer --- the last 3 pics are from the same lot as my own samples above so I can state definitely that these pics show both the light and dark areas as too green --- they are actually more tan, like my own samples at the top of the page.
veneer --- I asked the vendor whether or not the colors on these pics were accurate or if the wood was in fact green and yellow, and he said it was green and yellow and did not look at all like the pics in terms of color. I'm sure it's just like the green one directly above.
veneer, all from the vendor that has the colors wrong. These sheets are actually green and tan, but at least the pics show the wide variety of grain, including some figured (curly) pieces what I have not seen elsewhere
veneer sheet closeups with both levels of enlargement --- these are all from the vendor that has the colors wrong. These sheets are green and tan
African olive planks
planks listed as African olive / Olea hochstetteri
African olive turning stock
turning stock listed as African olive / Olea hochstetteri
African olive figured turning stock
African olive, waxed
three pics of the same piece of California olive
three pics of the same piece of California olive
California olive
mexican olive
NOTE: this section of "tropical olive" may in fact be an unrelated wood that is not actually an olive variety but just has "olive" in its name. To me it looks much more like paldao than olive, but for now I'm putting it here since it's listed as olive and I don't yet know what else it might be.
tropical olive planks
tropical veneer --- none of this was listed as figured, but some of it obviously is
figured tropical veneer
listed as curly tropical olive veneer and closeup
quartersawn tropical olive veneer
plank listed as European olive / Olea Europaea
European olive turning stock all from the same vendor
European olive turning stock
European olive turning stock end grain
Italian olive plank with wet and dry sections
Italian olive plank, mositened but still dry on the right end
Italian olive plank
Italian olive pen blanks moistened for the pic
mediterranean olive
Spanish olive slab
mediterranean olive turning stock and closeup
veneer listed as Tasmanian olive
crotch
jugs made from olive
bowl and closeup
bowls
vases by Kathy Marshall
wild olive vase
bowls by Steve Earlis
12" diameter Italian olive bowl by Steve Earis and the blank it was turned from. The biggest enlargement on this one is larger than life, so you can REALLY see the grain. My thanks to Steve for this and other contributions to the site.
turned pen by my friend Philip Passintino
flooring --- don't know if the washed out color is an artifact of the pic or if the wood was bleached or otherwise treated.
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