Russian Olive Wood Turning

Driving in to work the next day i noticed that a russian olive had blown down in an apartment complex.

Russian olive wood turning.

As the name implies russian olive is not a native wood to the united states. In the us it is an invasive species so use all of it you can. Seeds probably came over in hay from central asia. Russian olivewood burl slab measuring 10 wide at the bottom 6 wide at the top 8 1 2 long and 1 3 4 thick.

Olivewood olea capensis is native to russia. Larger of the two measures 16 diameter x 9 thick not including roots. Smaller burl going into a previous trade deal two whole russian olive burls harvested in montana. I have turned many smaller bowls from it but getting from green rough turning to final turning after a kind of controlled air drying without checks is problematic.

Russian olive is not closely related to the wood that is commonly referred to as olivewood olea europaea and may be distinguished from true olive by the endgrain. I tried to find the owner but finally gave up after several days and took its disposal into my own hands. It was brought in during the dust bowl era and is extremely difficult to eradicate. Russian olive is not an olive.

Most russian olive at most will be 12 inch diameter at 5 feet with all kinds of branching above that. In this second part of the series sam continues to work on the front of the wall hanging. A secret weapon in wood identification. He trues up the front for the final design and prepares for comple.