Olive from an old abandoned orchard
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jbostian
Member
Beautiful pen.
Jamie
Jamie
Brooks803
Member
Awesome looking pen! I love the grain pattern!
robutacion
Member
Oh yeah, that's what I'am talking about (well, I did, many times...!:wink
, a true piece of proper olive wood...!:biggrin:
From my experience with olive wood/trees, those small pieces are the 5% or less of all pen blanks a "full" tree can produce, with the added fact that only trees that have aged between 80 to 100 years old will produce the "black sap" - black lines or areas within the wood. The tree has to be that mature (old) to be able for this phenomenon to happen, the problem in most cases is that the only place were these black colours are found are where the tree has been damaged internally. This "damage" can be caused my many things but the most common is the cell separation/torn within the tree trunk and structural branches (the main branches developing from the trunk), by strong winds that "crack" the tree structure, either in the wood itself but normally or should I say more easily damaged, the joints/forks points.
As the tree gets "damaged" the AGED tree produces a chemical reaction between the tree resins/sap and the natural oils only found in this tree species, and "sends" it to the surrounding area of the damage, pretty much the same way as humans produce the "antibodies" that attack and defend the affected areas, such as cuts, etc, etc. This reaction is the tree attempt to heal itself and stop the cell/wood from drying/dying pass that point!
Younger olive trees react the same way but the colour of that chemical reaction is medium brown, getting darker as the tree ages.
So in fact, these areas are the "gems" of an very old olive tree, the 5% I have mention is very generous indeed, many full aged olive trees I've process, barely get enough for a half a dozen pen blanks, the worse part of it all, is the difficulty to get pen blanks cut from these "areas" that have no flaws or cracks of some nature, in fact, they are only there because of those flaws and cracks so, is like, playing in the rain and not get wet...!:redface::laugh:
So in resume, Olive wood with rare characteristics, without cracks or flaws, is not Olive wood...! 95% of the blanks removed/cut from these black vein areas will need some sort of repair (some minor some major) in average, the more you have to repair on these blanks, the more black colour the bank will have, making the pen finish with such a blank, a truly and amazing piece of nature and natural beauty!
PS: The Olive tree species that your blank come from, will be the same tree species planted originally by our Settlers, at the aged you mention that tree is believed to be, it was certainly planted within the second wave of Settlers into Australia from Italy in the 1920's. I'm lucky to have found and managed to seal a contract for the removal of a number of (condemned) Olive trees that were planted from the very first wave of Italian Settlers in this area in the 1840's. "condemned" in this case means that the trees owner has decided to remove these trees for extension of his major earner, the vineyards! If I didn't found out (5 year ago) that he had this planned, those trees would be simply bulldozed out, pilled and burnt, roots included! The expense to have those trees totally remove (including the roots, some the size of a small car) and totally cleared from his property, as he needs it to (a few, every year depending of where they are, in within his clearing needs), as I was saying, that work and expense is all my responsibility, plus and "agreed" amount to be paid per tree as a "royalty"!
Thanks mate, for showing your such a piece...!:wink:
I hope that you don't mind me giving a little extra information about the amazing product you used to make that pen with!:wink:
Cheers
George
, a true piece of proper olive wood...!:biggrin:From my experience with olive wood/trees, those small pieces are the 5% or less of all pen blanks a "full" tree can produce, with the added fact that only trees that have aged between 80 to 100 years old will produce the "black sap" - black lines or areas within the wood. The tree has to be that mature (old) to be able for this phenomenon to happen, the problem in most cases is that the only place were these black colours are found are where the tree has been damaged internally. This "damage" can be caused my many things but the most common is the cell separation/torn within the tree trunk and structural branches (the main branches developing from the trunk), by strong winds that "crack" the tree structure, either in the wood itself but normally or should I say more easily damaged, the joints/forks points.
As the tree gets "damaged" the AGED tree produces a chemical reaction between the tree resins/sap and the natural oils only found in this tree species, and "sends" it to the surrounding area of the damage, pretty much the same way as humans produce the "antibodies" that attack and defend the affected areas, such as cuts, etc, etc. This reaction is the tree attempt to heal itself and stop the cell/wood from drying/dying pass that point!
Younger olive trees react the same way but the colour of that chemical reaction is medium brown, getting darker as the tree ages.
So in fact, these areas are the "gems" of an very old olive tree, the 5% I have mention is very generous indeed, many full aged olive trees I've process, barely get enough for a half a dozen pen blanks, the worse part of it all, is the difficulty to get pen blanks cut from these "areas" that have no flaws or cracks of some nature, in fact, they are only there because of those flaws and cracks so, is like, playing in the rain and not get wet...!
:redface::laugh:So in resume, Olive wood with rare characteristics, without cracks or flaws, is not Olive wood...! 95% of the blanks removed/cut from these black vein areas will need some sort of repair (some minor some major) in average, the more you have to repair on these blanks, the more black colour the bank will have, making the pen finish with such a blank, a truly and amazing piece of nature and natural beauty!
PS: The Olive tree species that your blank come from, will be the same tree species planted originally by our Settlers, at the aged you mention that tree is believed to be, it was certainly planted within the second wave of Settlers into Australia from Italy in the 1920's. I'm lucky to have found and managed to seal a contract for the removal of a number of (condemned) Olive trees that were planted from the very first wave of Italian Settlers in this area in the 1840's. "condemned" in this case means that the trees owner has decided to remove these trees for extension of his major earner, the vineyards! If I didn't found out (5 year ago) that he had this planned, those trees would be simply bulldozed out, pilled and burnt, roots included! The expense to have those trees totally remove (including the roots, some the size of a small car) and totally cleared from his property, as he needs it to (a few, every year depending of where they are, in within his clearing needs), as I was saying, that work and expense is all my responsibility, plus and "agreed" amount to be paid per tree as a "royalty"!
Thanks mate, for showing your such a piece...!:wink:
I hope that you don't mind me giving a little extra information about the amazing product you used to make that pen with!:wink:
Cheers
George
Last edited:
rjwolfe3
Member
Very nice!
keithkarl2007
Member
sweet looking pen, nice work
mickr
Member
that wood would make any pen look fantastic
dkarcher
Member
Beautiful pen!
Karin Voorhis
Member
Wow I really love the markings in this. SWEETNESS!
Bree
Member
Good wood... great pen!
:wink::wink::wink:
:wink::wink::wink: