# Genuine, Real McCoy, from the Holy Land, Bethlehem Olive Wood...



## Clay3063 (Jul 29, 2017)

Genuine, Real McCoy, from the Holy Land, Bethlehem Olive Wood cutting block that a friend / customer sent me asking me to cut into pen blanks and turn 3 of the Tycoon style Roller Ball pens. I could keep the leftovers. Gee, thanks. LOL. So the cutting board came in the mail on Wednesday and the pen mechanics came in the mail today.
Funny thing about the mechanics. I watch, via tracking , the pens leave PA and arrive in Houston in less than 12 hours after they were picked up by UPS. They sat in Houston for all of about 20 minutes before they were loaded and headed to San Antonio. Wow. The delivery date was for Saturday (today) but at the rate they were going it looked like I might get them thursday at the earliest and Friday at the latest. I mean, shoot, they had already passed within 17 miles of my house once. Surely...
The hangups started in San Antonio. They sat in the warehouse in San Antonio for about 40 hours before they were put on a truck to the distribution center in San Marcos. They sat in San Marcos for almost a day before they were delivered to... wait for it.... wait for it.... wait for it.... the USPS office in Gonzales. WOOHOO!!! They'll be delivered on Friday! NOT! Came in today. Just as promised. LOL.
Anyway, I had plans to work on the saw mill the last three days but ended up building fence for my dad... in 100+ degree weather. And I spent all morning this morning doing minister duties on the phone and then reviewing my notes for tomorrow and then printing my sermon. That put it at around 1:30 pm and way too hot to go outside to do anything.
So I waited until just about an hour ago for the sun to set a little and the temps to drop a little and then I headed out to the shop to cut into this beautiful piece of Genuine, Real McCoy, From the Holy Land, Bethlehem Olive Wood cutting board and got the biggest disappointment of the day.
CRACKS!!! LOTS OF CRACKS!!!
I've never seen this wood before. I wasn't sure what to expect. What I thought were color blemishes turned out to be epoxy filler of some sort that were hiding all kinds of cracks in the wood. Then I checked the moisture content. 13-15% depending on the scale used.
So I have contacted the customer and offered to try and dry the wood in an oven on low until I can get the moisture content down and see if I can get anything usable out of this piece of firewood or order some stabilized Bethlehem blanks with a certificate of authenticity for a few bucks more. Her call. We'll see.
I learned something today. Tourist traps are tourist traps no matter where they are and they prey on the gullible and less then knowledgeable no matter where they are found. A dollar's a dollar and I've got some ocean front property in Arizona just for you. I even got pics to prove it.


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## Lou Currier (Jul 29, 2017)

You get better olive wood at the TJMax cutting board section.

Reactions: Agree 4


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## Clay3063 (Jul 29, 2017)

Lou Currier said:


> You get better olive wood at the TJMax cutting board section.


Ever met one of those people that know everything? If you don't believe them, just ask them? Yeh. This is one of those people. I could tell her about the TJ Max cutting boards but she'd tell me it didn't come from the Holy Land. Or whatever. So... I'll just let her do what she wants and take it as it comes. LOL. It's her money.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## Ray D (Jul 29, 2017)

I ordered some blanks from Bethlehem. Cost was a bit high but they were very nice...and dry. They came with the certificate of authenticity.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 29, 2017)

She got this cutting board from a street vendor. She went to Israel back in the early spring with a group. I have looked at several sources for the wood and if she decided to go that route I will definitely be getting some with a certificate of authenticity.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ray D (Jul 29, 2017)

I ordered some from a reputable pen kit supplier but was not impressed. I was making it for our pastor and I really wanted something special.


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## ripjack13 (Jul 29, 2017)

Have you thought of trying to fill the cracks with something?


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## Clay3063 (Jul 29, 2017)

ripjack13 said:


> Have you thought of trying to fill the cracks with something?


Will have to dry them first I think. Just to make sure they don't crack any more. Then I could probably stabilize them or something or fill with CA. I'm open to suggestions but as you can see in the pic, they are pretty good size cracks.


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## ripjack13 (Jul 29, 2017)

Hmm...maybe something that stands out? Turquoise. Brass shavings/dust. Glow in the dark powder. Sand. Old some old scrap silver jewelry cut up into pieces. 30 pieces should do...

Reactions: Funny 4


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## Lou Currier (Jul 30, 2017)

Red epoxy 

@Clay3063 if your humidity is anything like ours they won't get to much drier. All my wood stays around 11 - 12%

Reactions: Agree 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

drying it in the oven will more than likely make it worse. and burn the epoxy. the olive i have processed, if left to dry naturally would take about a year in our 10% or less humidity here in order to come down any at all. that being said i boil mine in butcher block preserve. drives out the water. oils the wood and produces workable wood in a very short time. i use a mix of coconut oil/bees wax/mineral oil and actually boil the wood in it at around 400 degrees for about 10 minutes to drive off the moisture. when done straight away after cutting it replaces the water with natural oils and wax lending to very little shrinkage/warpage or cracking. 

can you give an overall picture of the cutting board. from what i see she was sold something other than olive wood. the shrinking and cracking sure looks like olive behavior but the grain is not exactly right?

my brother has tried to stabilize olive using vacuum and cactus juice, to no real positive results. the natural oils in the wood prevent a normal polymer wood stabilization process from working very well

Reactions: Informative 4


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## Nature Man (Jul 30, 2017)

From the limited pics, it doesn't look like Olive wood. Chuck


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## ripjack13 (Jul 30, 2017)

@gvwp just got a ton of olivewood....

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

Ok Gentlemen. I am going to be in and out this afternoon. But I would certainly appreciate you looking at these pictures and giving me the low down on whether this is Olive wood or not. These pics were taken in a hurry on my phone cause that's all I got to take pics with and I am trying to get back out the door to go the Intermediate Sanction Facility and teach a Bible Class to those men. If you need better pics I will try again. 
- Clay


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## Ray D (Jul 30, 2017)

I'll let the experts chime in due to my limited amount of dealings with this wood. The first thing I notice when I cut Olivewood is the distinct smell. The wetter the wood, the more smell I notice.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

Ray D said:


> I'll let the experts chime in due to my limited amount of dealings with this wood. The first thing I notice when I cut Olivewood is the distinct smell. The wetter the wood, the more smell I notice.


It definitely has a different smell. Not sure what it smells like but it's different.


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## Ray D (Jul 30, 2017)

Here's a picture of a few of my Bethlehem Olivewood blanks.


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## ripjack13 (Jul 30, 2017)

@phinds 
Paul may be able to help. 

When you have time later on, sand the end grain to at least 220 and get a nice clear close up of it....

Reactions: Agree 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> Ok Gentlemen. I am going to be in and out this afternoon. But I would certainly appreciate you looking at these pictures and giving me the low down on whether this is Olive wood or not. These pics were taken in a hurry on my phone cause that's all I got to take pics with and I am trying to get back out the door to go the Intermediate Sanction Facility and teach a Bible Class to those men. If you need better pics I will try again.
> - Clay
> View attachment 131788View attachment 131789 View attachment 131790 View attachment 131791 View attachment 131792 View attachment 131793 View attachment 131794 View attachment 131795


 seeing it in whole i would agree it is actually olive. appears to be very well watered and fast growth. maybe new growth olive orchard trimmings


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## gvwp (Jul 30, 2017)

Picture of Olive wood pen blanks I processed this morning. The board in Clay's pictures looks similar to green treated pine but the end grain looks like Olive.

Reactions: Like 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

gvwp said:


> Picture of Olive wood pen blanks I processed this morning. The board in Clay's pictures looks similar to green treated pine but the end grain looks like Olive.
> 
> View attachment 131797


are those fresh green cut wood? if so kiln or bag them cause they goes crazy when drying.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## gvwp (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> are those fresh green cut wood? if so kiln or bag them cause they goes crazy when drying.



I have bowl and turning blanks that are fresh cut but the pen blanks are dry.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

gvwp said:


> Picture of Olive wood pen blanks I processed this morning. The board in Clay's pictures looks similar to green treated pine but the end grain looks like Olive.
> 
> View attachment 131797


Thanks for your input. It's definitely not pine. Or at least none that I have ever seen before. I am leaning more towards Olive wood after looking and comparing it to other pictures I've seen the last day or so. The problem is in the moisture content and the cracking. I am afraid to put this stuff on a nice pen set and then have it crack. That's gonna not set well with me. LOL. And the cracks that were hidden with epoxy kind of through me too. Oh well. I'm gonna sand this thing a little later and send a pic to @phinds to get a definitive answer. Thanks again for your input. I appreciate it more than I can tell you.


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> drying it in the oven will more than likely make it worse. and burn the epoxy. the olive i have processed, if left to dry naturally would take about a year in our 10% or less humidity here in order to come down any at all. that being said i boil mine in butcher block preserve. drives out the water. oils the wood and produces workable wood in a very short time. i use a mix of coconut oil/bees wax/mineral oil and actually boil the wood in it at around 400 degrees for about 10 minutes to drive off the moisture. when done straight away after cutting it replaces the water with natural oils and wax lending to very little shrinkage/warpage or cracking.
> 
> can you give an overall picture of the cutting board. from what i see she was sold something other than olive wood. the shrinking and cracking sure looks like olive behavior but the grain is not exactly right?
> 
> my brother has tried to stabilize olive using vacuum and cactus juice, to no real positive results. the natural oils in the wood prevent a normal polymer wood stabilization process from working very well


So how does that treatment respond to finishing? Any problems applying CA to it afterwards? How about when gluing to the brass tubes?


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## barry richardson (Jul 30, 2017)

Olive wood has a distinct olive smell when you sand it...


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## phinds (Jul 30, 2017)

@Clay3063 it looks like olivewood for sure but I'd be more comfortable saying that it IS if I could see a real closeup of the end grain. For this particular one, 220 grit may not be enough since olive has very small pores and is diffuse porous and that combination makes the end grain look a lot like a large number of other woods.

Reactions: Like 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> So how does that treatment respond to finishing? Any problems applying CA to it afterwards? How about when gluing to the brass tubes?


well i believe that once turned or otherwise processed that alcohol, mineral spirits and or a commercially available wax solvent should be able to be used in order to prep a surface for finishing. the natural oil content in olive wood is high enough that such treatment is normally recommended before applying finish anyway

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

gvwp said:


> I have bowl and turning blanks that are fresh cut but the pen blanks are dry.


 i'd be interested in knowing how your bowl blanks look in 6 months if not kilned


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

phinds said:


> @Clay3063 it looks like olivewood for sure but I'd be more comfortable saying that it IS if I could see a real closeup of the end grain. For this particular one, 220 grit may not be enough since olive has very small pores and is diffuse porous and that combination makes the end grain look a lot like a large number of other woods.


I'll see what I can do sir to clean it up down to about 400-600 grit and send you a pic.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

barry richardson said:


> Olive wood has a distinct olive smell when you sand it...


I haven't sanded it yet but it definitely had a different funk to it when I cut it on the table saw.


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> well i believe that once turned or otherwise processed that alcohol, mineral spirits and or a commercially available wax solvent should be able to be used in order to prep a surface for finishing. the natural oil content in olive wood is high enough that such treatment is normally recommended before applying finish anyway


Thank you sir. Learn something new everyday. I appreciate the info.


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> are those fresh green cut wood? if so kiln or bag them cause they goes crazy when drying.


I couldn't tell you anything at all about how fresh it is. I registered 13-15% yesterday when I cut the one piece off it. All I can tell you about it is that it was bought off a street vendor in Bethlehem back in the spring. The lady who bought it was also given a small branch by a friend of theirs that lives in Bethlehem.


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## phinds (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> well i believe that once turned or otherwise processed that alcohol, mineral spirits and or a commercially available wax solvent should be able to be used in order to prep a surface for finishing. the natural oil content in olive wood is high enough that such treatment is normally recommended before applying finish anyway


Or you can just use a base coat of dewaxed shellac

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## phinds (Jul 30, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> I'll see what I can do sir to clean it up down to about 400-600 grit and send you a pic.


good

Reactions: Like 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jul 30, 2017)

Clay3063 said:


> I couldn't tell you anything at all about how fresh it is. I registered 13-15% yesterday when I cut the one piece off it. All I can tell you about it is that it was bought off a street vendor in Bethlehem back in the spring. The lady who bought it was also given a small branch by a friend of theirs that lives in Bethlehem.


 
sorry @Clay3063 i was actually referring to the blanks posted by @gvwp

the cutting board has done all the splitting it's gonna do, but the fresh cut turning blocks that gvwp posted will probably shrink, warp and crack tremendously even with the end grain being coated in sealer, olive wood looses tremendous volume from all grain areas, including inside voids created by shrinking wood buried inches deep within the wood

fresh cut olive in my experience is about 28 to 32% moisture when fresh cut, by the time it reaches a metered 12- 15% it's pretty much done with it's movement and shrinkage. 

i think some of the metered moisture content in the end is related to the oil content naturally in the wood, but that is a speculation on my part

Reactions: Like 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 30, 2017)

vegas urban lumber said:


> sorry @Clay3063 i was actually referring to the blanks posted by @gvwp
> 
> the cutting board has done all the splitting it's gonna do, but the fresh cut turning blocks that gvwp posted will probably shrink, warp and crack tremendously even with the end grain being coated in sealer, olive wood looses tremendous volume from all grain areas, including inside voids created by shrinking wood buried inches deep within the wood
> 
> ...


Thanks for the infor Trev. Good to know this stuff.


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## rocky1 (Jul 31, 2017)

Sawing, sanding, whatever, yeah it smells like virgin olive oil. 

Haven't seen any cutting boards in my local TJ Maxx lately, not sure if the manager found me talking about sawing them up on the net, or what's going on. Of the 3-4 I purchased in there, and promptly sawed up into pen blanks, all of them were dripping oil/water, when I cut them. I mean seriously wet! They may have had a bunch of them returned if they dried and split. 

Turned one that I tried to finish, while still wet, and that one gave me a little grief on finish, but not bad. The initial layer of CA just sorta crumbled and fell apart about 3-4 layers into it. Sanded it out, cleaned it up, wiped it down with DNA as best I recall, and it finished fine. Allowing the others to dry, I haven't had any issues finishing them when used, and haven't had any walk or check, although they were all plenty wet. 

While the picture does appear to be Olive, it lacks a lot of the unique figure common to olive, and almost looks like it has maybe tried to spalt in the middle.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Jul 31, 2017)

rocky1 said:


> Sawing, sanding, whatever, yeah it smells like virgin olive oil.
> 
> Haven't seen any cutting boards in my local TJ Maxx lately, not sure if the manager found me talking about sawing them up on the net, or what's going on. Of the 3-4 I purchased in there, and promptly sawed up into pen blanks, all of them were dripping oil/water, when I cut them. I mean seriously wet! They may have had a bunch of them returned if they dried and split.
> 
> ...



Good info Rocky, thanks. LOL. I actually looked onlline at TJ Maxx and didn't find a single one listed online. They may have figured you out. LOL.


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## Clay3063 (Aug 1, 2017)

Well I bit the bullet this afternoon and cut further into the Olive wood cutting board. (@phinds , I also sanded down to 600 on one end of a piece. I'll still post a picture for you to look at. I just forgot to take my phone with me out to the shop. The smell reminds me of olive oil so there's that....) I need to get these pens done so I went ahead and cut some blanks, glued them up and let em set for a bit and then went out a while ago and turned the first one. I am pleased with it. I turned it down and them soaked a paper towel in DNA and wiped both pieces down real good and let them dry then did it again. Then I applied 5 coats of CA and polished it down then applied my usual finish to it. Pen's done. I like it. I've got the second one on the lathe and will turn it tomorrow afternoon. Thank you all for your info and help.

Reactions: Like 3 | EyeCandy! 2


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## phinds (Aug 1, 2017)

Nice pen. Definitely looks like olive

Reactions: Agree 1


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## ripjack13 (Aug 1, 2017)

Very nice. Looks great. And if it's anywhere as good as the one you sent me, she will certainly love it.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Clay3063 (Aug 1, 2017)

ripjack13 said:


> Very nice. Looks great. And if it's anywhere as good as the one you sent me, she will certainly love it.


Thank you Marc. As far as the quality of the finish and getting the wood down to the mechanics with no lips, etc I think it is comparable to yours. In my opinion however, the wood yours was made from is in a different class all together. I much prefer it to this.


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