# thinking olive



## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

Just found the base wood dump today, got the tip off from the tree trimmers. Found a few logs that looked like olive but I've never turned it before and only have alittle of it. Any ideas?


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

It looks sort of olive-y to me but I'm not very experienced with it. I have turned 2 pepper mills with it but it was olive burl. If you have a bark pic that will tell one way or the other - any bark on the flip-side?


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## Mike1950 (Dec 18, 2014)

Cut it- you cannot mistake the smell.

Reactions: Agree 3


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## manbuckwal (Dec 18, 2014)

Looks kind of like Olive . Bark on the edge looks a lil thick tho. Among other things its, heavy, dense, and It has a very distinct scent .

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

I didn't think of that because my sniffer hasn't been working very well lately - for the first time in my life I have a winter allergy. But  and the Roadrunner are keyrect cut some of it you'll know for sure because it smells sort of like an olive pizza without the pizza smell.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

It has a very distinctive smell, maybe olive but i can't tell for sure. Here's the bark and end grain. Already sealed it so the end grain may not be the best to see


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## barry richardson (Dec 18, 2014)

Looked like olive for sure, till I saw the bark, def not olive, besides, there's not enough cracks in it. Looks very cool whatever it is, give it a spin!

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

Josh are yoou in Texas or Ohio?


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

I'm in Texas right now. Found that in the El paso area here on fort bliss.


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

I'm assuming that's the only thing you have of the tree . . . . . 


(You need to change your location)


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

I'll change it. I'll look around and see if I can find the tree it came from


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

I know for almost certain I have dropped one of those.


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

Kevin said:


> I know for almost certain I have dropped one of those.


You mean a tree with bark and grain like that?


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## Mike1950 (Dec 18, 2014)

Looks a bit like Russian olive bark. are the leaves silvery green in color


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

I'll look around the neighborhood where i think they were cut when I get off work and get some pictures of the leaves. There was alot of mulberry there too, some nice crotch sections. Do guys usually like that to turn?


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> You mean a tree with bark and grain like that?



Yes. I'm gonna take a walk through my log piles it might even still be here . . . . .


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> Do guys usually like that to turn?



What mulberry? if so then yes mulberry is liked by many turners.

@Mike1950 I'm pretty sure it's not any kind of olive tree. The bark is not olive-like bark that I ever saw and the end grain doesn't look like olive to me either.


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## Mike1950 (Dec 18, 2014)

Googled it(russian olive)- I do not think it really is an olive- grows here.


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## Kevin (Dec 18, 2014)

Could be an anomaly sure wouldn't be the first time, and i am sure no expert on olive. unless it's in a martini then I'm fairly educated on that part.


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## Mike1950 (Dec 18, 2014)

Kevin said:


> Could be an anomaly sure wouldn't be the first time, and i am sure no expert on olive. unless it's in a martini then I'm fairly educated on that part.



If Josh had some leaves we could be sure. Invasive species. lot of them west of here. Have spikes on them that resemble 16D nails. I think @wyowoodwrker messes with it.


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## kazuma78 (Dec 18, 2014)

Kevin said:


> What mulberry? if so then yes mulberry is liked by many turners.


There's a bunch of crotch sections of mulberry over there. I might get some and offer them up here if people like it.


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## wyowoodwrker (Dec 18, 2014)

I have turned a fair amount of Russian olive. It's not a true olive it's called that because of the seeds that look like small olives. The bark does look somewhat like what I have seen but the wood is completely different. Russian olive to me smells similar to DIW when cutting/turning sort of a wet dog fowl smell.

Reactions: Thank You! 1 | Agree 1


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## phinds (Dec 19, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> Just found the base wood dump today, got the tip off from the tree trimmers. Found a few logs that looked like olive but I've never turned it before and only have alittle of it. Any ideas?
> View attachment 66551


This end grain definitely looks like either olive or olive ash and not like Russian olive. I do NOT, however, know squat about bark so if the guys that do say it can't be olive based on the bark, I have to believe that.


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## kazuma78 (Dec 19, 2014)

I got off work too late last night and it was dark. I'm gonna pick some more of it up today after work and I'll look for leaves then.


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## manbuckwal (Dec 19, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> I got off work too late last night and it was dark. I'm gonna pick some more of it up today after work and I'll look for leaves then.



Here's what Olive bark on the trunk looks like around here. Very tight and not very thick.


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## DKMD (Dec 19, 2014)

It's definitely not russian olive... RO looks more like walnut than olive. I've seen ash with similar heartwood markings, but I don't know nothin' 'bout bark.


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## kazuma78 (Dec 19, 2014)

What do you guys think about yellow cedar? That's what one of the workers said it was


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## manbuckwal (Dec 19, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> What do you guys think about yellow cedar? That's what one of the workers said it was



Could be . Only experience I have is YCB and it smells kinda like turpentine to me ?


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## kazuma78 (Dec 19, 2014)

This kinda smelled alittle like alcohol almost


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## manbuckwal (Dec 19, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> This kinda smelled alittle like alcohol almost



Whiskey ? Tequila ?


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## kazuma78 (Dec 19, 2014)

Let me go smell it again

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Kevin (Dec 19, 2014)

I'm looking at it off and on all day and wondering if it's elm. It's not yellow cedar. YC smells almost exactly like turpentine you cannot mistake it. But YC doesn't look like that either. I'm thinking elm. Elm can smell like scata. I don't know what kind of elm it might be, if it is even elm.


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## phinds (Dec 19, 2014)

kazuma78 said:


> What do you guys think about yellow cedar? That's what one of the workers said it was


My opinion ... no way. Ash can look like olive, but I've never seen any cedar that does unless this is some kind of weird swirly stump stuff and even then I'm doubtful.

It should be easy to tell. Olive is an angiosperm (hardwood ... has pores) and cedar is cedar is a gymnosperm (softwood ... no pores). It can be a bit hard to tell on olive because it is diffuse porous with tiny pores so they can be hard to see, but they are there.

See if you can clean up an end grain section and compare it to pics on my site.


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## kazuma78 (Dec 19, 2014)

The guy couldn't even tell me where on post he cut it from. I don't think he knew what he was talking about. He said a piece of cedar was mesquite and said mulberry was almo (he's hispanic) so I'm thinking he meant elm. I picked up some cedar there but that white wood and a darker grained wood there I can't identify. I'm stumped... ill try and get some end grain shots that aren't sealed


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