Drying Olivewood

[Kev]

Hi All

A friend of mine has a small Olive tree orchard. Three of his trees died and has given them to me. These are not large trees (biggest one is about 100mm at the trunk) but big enough to turn a few bits out and hard to turn down such a novel wood (not many olive orchards in UK). Anyway need to cut them into suitable lengths to store was wondering if it should be treated the same as other wood. I.e. seal the ends and leave to dry. Guessing this is the case but as it is an oily wood so to speak wanted to make sure this was the right thing to do. Has a MC or 20-24% at the moment.

any ideas?

Thanks

Kev

 

[Trainee neophyte]

It does crack and check if you don't seal the ends. I use whatever comes to hand, but usually pva glue. I also just raid the firewood pile, and cut off any dubious cracks which tend not to go too far into the wood. Sunlight seems to be a bigger cause of damage than just drying, as the wood on the top of the pile is always unusable, but inside will do better. This may just be because 35°C plus direct sunlight is just too much heat all at once.

 

[Orraloon]

The general wood drying wood rules are seal the end grain and dry in a shaded well ventilated position. Faster it dries the more likely it will crack.
Splitting the log and removing the pith is usually best but as they are small then I would take a chance just sealing the ends. Its likely some may crack however.
Drying Wood at Home | The Wood Database
Regards
John

 

[Adam Pinson]

My main turning wood is Olive, I don't use any sealer, just keep it out of direct sunlight, it's pretty stable wood.