# How stable is Russian Olive?



## barry richardson (Feb 13, 2016)

I just got a nice slab of green russian olive from @justallan. I have never worked with it before so I know nothing about it other than I like the look of it. I plan to carve a shallow bowl out of it and was wondering how careful I need to be with drying it. Anybody have any advice?


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## DKMD (Feb 13, 2016)

I reminds me of walnut... Sort of like walnut coloring with ash like grain. The little that I've gotten around here has dried pretty quickly and easily.

Reactions: Thank You! 1


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## Kevin (Feb 14, 2016)

I just recently stabilized a test piece of ROB I got from norm van dyke. The colors are super. It dried defect free and it stabilized very well. Just curious is your slab burl or non burl?


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## barry richardson (Feb 14, 2016)

Kevin said:


> I just recently stabilized a test piece of ROB I got from norm van dyke. The colors are super. It dried defect free and it stabilized very well. Just curious is your slab burl or non burl?


Thanks for the info Kevin, the piece is straight grained..

Reactions: Like 1


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## JohnF (Mar 7, 2016)

The farmers in MN and ND planted lots of windbreaks with those Russian olives back in the 30's through the 50s. I had several logs milled into lumber and it pretty much always dried nicely. No severe warpage or anything like that. It made beautiful lumber with a gold color and plenty of character, as it was usually open grown and had lots of pin knots and grain swirl. It wasn't a hard sell to move it down the road. I did make some door panels for furniture from some and it behaved nicely.


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