Hi Bob
The wood looks from the "plantation" olive trees and if so, they never grow much heartwood because they are created to don't produce much wood, stay fairly low to the ground, grow lots of fruit and the more "elastic" to allow mechanic harvesting, those machines shake the hell out of the trees, old type Olive trees wouldn't do too well with all that shaking...!
Still, the wood does offer good characteristics for turnings that are elongated such as those vases, and the price of the wood was good so, a win, win situation...!
Cheers
George
Hi George,
They would have bought the plants at a Nursery, so I guess you are correct. A couple of the trunk pieces are about 12 - 14 inches in diameter, and I think I can see a bit more colour in that wood. Here's hoping.
Bob.:biggrin:
It also depends on the type terrain that Olive grove was planted on, the oldest plantation Olive tree I ever cut was a 40 year old tree, in fact, I didn't cut it as such, the whole grove (about 600 trees) were bulldozed out after 40 years, according to the owner, they started producing less fruit after 30 years, he decided that the cost of maintaining the grove was no longer worth it and so, they were ripped out.
I was told of the piles of olive wood trees ready for burning, I took my trailer and chainsaw to collect the biggest pieces I could reach, average of 15" to 20" diameter on their short trunks, I was allowed to take as much as I wanted but, I have had bad experiences with these plantation Olive trees and the lack of heartwood so, I was sceptical but willing to give it a go, not because I was/I'm short of Olive wood but from the simple fact that, I hate to see trees being wasted/burnt particularly Olive trees.
I selected some of the bigger trunks I could see and made the cut just above the root, 2 in every 3 trees had less than 1" heartwood, I kept cutting until the dirt/soil blunted the chain (didn't take long), I had maybe 1 dozen of cuts made, put the chainsaw in the back of the vehicle and left empty handed, was no point...!
Now, not all Olive plantation trees are the same (species) so far, I failed to score any of these trees with worthwhile heartwood so, I wish you the best of luck and if you get frustrated with it, I have plenty of logs that are 2/3 or more heartwood, and pieces that are 100% heartwood...!:wink::biggrin:
Cheers
George
