I have to admit that I am curious how big the branches are to be able to to 'trimmed' and yield a significant number of solid blanks.
There's no need to go to Israel to answer this question. Nowdays, you can just go to youtube and see how most anything is done.
Here is a video that shows the pruning process for olive trees. You will note that the trimmings are pretty large.
I respect your opinion and the fact that, you don't believe my claims are very convincing, everyone is allowed to have their own thoughts of whatever the issue, this one is no exception however, you stated that you read my other thread about the issue, and I wonder which one but I hope you are referring to the heated "argument" I had with some IAP members about this same issue, a couple, of years ago or so, of which I would like to ask to the IAP administration what happened to that "long" thread that I worked very hard on to provided evidence of my claims. It was done by showing copies of emails exchanged between the biggest Olive supplier in Italy and many pics of my own work with these tree species, as I have worked with them since a young kid, with some years of living in areas of Australia where they don't exist but I'm now back to the Olive wood paradise of South Australia Fleureau Peninsula.
If you have read and looked carefully at my pics and explanations, you wouldn't have to look for a YouTube clip with some Olive pruning from Spain. There are many types of pruning/trimming that Olive trees require periodically, Olive trees in Israel now are fairly new (50 years and under) the old stuff was targeted pretty bad as political and religious wars for far too long, doesn't take a specialist in the subject to see the difference of the trees age in that clip compared with those in Israel, that I already knew for a long time that, no one can cut Olive trees now as they are protected.
There is no comparison of the rich soils of Spain and the poor soils of Israel, the same tree planted at the same time on both locations (well identical juvenile trees) the Spain tree would triple the size of the Israel one in 10 years, this mean that the amount of new growth and wood available for trimming at equal times would also triple however, as this is an area that I done lots of exemplifications and illustrations on that complex thread about this issue, where I demonstrated that the trimmings in the Israeli Olive trees, are a lot smaller due to the slow growth from poor soils, the wood reduction pruning that is normally done once every 5 to 10 years (like the one in the clip you suggested) depending of tree growth speed and while, the Olive trees is Israel rarely suffer from accelerated water shoot growth if any at all, compared withy trees that are planted in rich soils where every year, the trees have to be cleaned of that useless wood/branches/stuff.
How do I know, I have been doing it for a long long time, in fact I've just done 200 trees last week with another 200 to complete that job, where next door I had 600 to deal with last year, as I do the smallest to the large pruning a Olive trees needs, including the very most important pruning a Olive tree will have in its entire life and that some call the " young tree shaping" or "training" where the young tree is left to grow wild until it reaches a certain volume, canopy and trunk mass, normally around the 3 to 4 years of age, where only a few people have the experience and knowledge to do it right, the centre of the tree is cut off (all branches) which we call the "light opening", only certain branches of the outside are left and that is what shapes the tree for fruit production and easy picking heights.
The tree is then "dressed" every year with a "hair cut" where that shape and formation in maintained in sync with its natural growth. The annual prunings rarely produce anything bigger than 1" diameter (mostly water shoots). On major trimmings rarely go over 4" diameter, that is normally the growth of 5 to 10 years however and it was clearly visible on that clip, those larger cuts produce little or no heartwood so, I get about 1 pen blank of heartwood for every 5" long log piece, if am lucky.
The slower growth trees such as the ones in Israel, do have a little more heartwood in those 4" logs but and due to the overall tree size and wood volume, those size pieces will take a lot longer to grow (reason to more heartwood than the faster growing Olive trees) so, trying to convince me that all the olive heartwood sold to the world from the Holy land comes from prunings/trimmings, doesn't stick I know better.
I don't need to look into any Youtube videos about how and what is done to Olive trees, remember, I have been working with them for most of my life, on and off and since in South Australia (8 years) I have been asked to help with thousands of Olives trees that are planted in this area by Italians and Greeks that wouldn't just allow anyone to touch their trees, they are everything to them but, they grow fairly fast around here and very quickly they become unable to do it all by themselves, I have been honored to be accepted to work on their trees but not without a lot of "proving to them that I could do it" , as soon as one family trusts you with their Olive trees, the word spread like wildfire and all of a certain, I'm offered more work that I can poke a stick at but, 20 years ago it would be OK not now, those 2 places and about 1,000 trees in between them is all I and the wife can manage, as our backs are shot to the $#!t house...!
They are friends and I get a lot of other wood species from their properties, that's the only reason why I keep pushing but, ain't going to last much longer I can feel it...!
Since in South Australia, I have cut 9 old Olive trees @ 150 years old, 7 at about 100 years old and about 10 at about 50 to 60 years of age not counting a few of these largest olive tree roots that were the size of a small car, 9 of them transported to my storage paddock nearly 2 years ago.
As I said, I don't need videos or pics of others working on Olive trees, I have plenty of my own, these are from the 15 & 16 of this month (April) 2013
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These are from October 2011, on the 600 Olive trees grove,
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There are far too many, from this 600 tree pruning, all I took home was a 6x4 trailer full of wood, 70% firewood (all sapwood) and the rest pieces where I took 2 blank for every 5" length of branch, how many blanks...?? bugger all...!:frown:
Yes, I'm passionate about my woods with Olive wood in a very high spot in my books, I talk from experience and not from watching videos, I should know a little about the issue by now, I reckon...!
Cheers
George
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