Exotic Wood olive

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OLIVE

Olea europaea
Olea europaea of the family Oleaceae

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).

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.

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 think 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 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

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.

a small piece and end grain closeup, also Corsican olive contributed by Iain Rankin.

veneer --- the pic makes the wood look just a little more rich than is actually the case.

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

planks

plank

bowl blanks

knife handle scales

veneer --- the rightmost 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