Stabilize Olive wood?

[J. Neilson]

I haven't used wild olive wood yet and I would normally stabilize a wood "first time 'round" but, really oily woods don't take stabilizing well, at least that's what I've been bred to believe. I think olive wood-olive oil...any thoughts here?

 

[Daniel Koster]

What type olive wood?

Mediteranean? Russian? Californian?


Either way....AlphaKnifeSupply offers stabilized olive wood:
http://www.alphaknifesupply.com/wood-stabilized.htm

So, it must have a benefit, or else Chuck wouldn't do it.

 

[Raymond Richard]

Hey J, Had a real beautiful chunk of it but never got around to using it and now its ashes. I'm with you about oily woods. I'd go ahead and use it the way it is if its been seasoned long enough.

BTW looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Olive wood is not a particularly oily wood .Olive oil is made from the fruit,not the wood.It stabilizes well when fully dried.It does work well unstabilized, too. It makes excellent kitchen knife handles.The term "Wild Olive" is used to describe most any olive wood by some sellers.
Stacy

 

[Alpha Knife Supply]

Thank you for the link Daniel.

Olive stabilizes very well and is one of my personal favorite woods. Even after stabilizing the wood still has the wonderful olive smell. When we process olive the shop smells good and I want to have italian food! :thumbup:

The downside of olive is it likes to crack. When we cut olive we can hear the blocks cracking after we cut them to size. If you try to dry olive too fast it will crack. We usually lose at least half of the blocks to severe cracking from the time we cut and dry the blocks until we send them in for stabilizing.

Olive is frustrating but worth the effort.

Here are some pictures of a 750 lb olive burl we are in the process of cutting:

I was impatient and wanted to see the figure so we made a quick cut:

 

[Sean O'Hare]

Interesting pics there Chuck. I'm going to have a knife with an olive burl handle at Blade, the block was one of yours.

I've only ever bought olive wood that was already stabilized, I've got two blocks of wild olive wood that I got last year at Blade that are stabilized. They both seem to have stabilized quite well.

See ya soon!

Sean

 

[Mike Hull]

What Stacy said! I've used it un and stabilized. It's worked well, either way.

Definately not oily, and for some reason known only to Olivewood, very hard to get a high shine on, even stabilized. And I don't care if you took it to 10k grit before buffing.
It also picks up discoloration easily from the buffing wheels, so use white compound and keep the wheels raked clean.

 

[godogs57]

Man, every piece of olive wood I have ever used warped badly on me unless I allowed it to cure/stabilize for a year at the minimum. Beautiful stuff but it will warp...buy it, forget about it for a year or so and then work it up.

my 2 cents.

 

[butcher_block]

that looks like its going to be some nice stuff

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It can take several years for olive to dry.I would say 3 is fast.

 

[Plain ol Bill]

The heck w/ the olive - who's the good lookin chick Chuck? Looks like she oughta find a cowboy in tight Wranglers (grin).

 

[godogs57]

Good Idea for a post Bill...every post some pics of their wives or girlfriends or both!

 

[J. Neilson]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
J.