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Exploring The Benefits And Uses Of Olive Wood Turning Blanks

Dec 2024
Choosing the perfect wood for your wood turning projects is essential to achieve the highest standard of finished product. One popular wood used for wood turning is olive wood. Here, we’ll explore the benefits and uses of this beautiful wood and share some handy tips for turning olive wood.
Exploring the Benefits and Uses of Olive Wood Turning Blanks - Exotic Hardwoods UK

Why Choose Olive Wood Turning Blanks?

Using olive wood turning blanks is an excellent way to create beautiful woodcraft projects, whether you are a seasoned woodturner, or are new to this popular hobby.

Thanks to its small size, olive wood is perfectly suited to wood turning, allowing you to create a range of different designs and achieve impressive results.

The Beauty of Olive Wood

Olive wood has a highly distinctive appearance, making it an eye-catching and attractive choice. The beauty of olive wood lies in its rich, warm colour, which features a tight grain pattern, giving the wood a marbled effect.

As well as being attractive to look at, working with olive wood provides a further sensory experience. As you begin to work the wood, you will notice that it delivers a sweet aroma. This aroma can last for years, long after you’ve finished working on your piece.

Exploring the Benefits and Uses of Olive Wood Turning Blanks - Exotic Hardwoods UK

Tips for Turning Olive Wood

Understanding the unique properties of olive wood will help to make turning it much easier, here are some tips to help you get started:

  • Use sharp tools: As olive wood is a hardwood, with an irregular grain, sharp tools are a must when working it.
  • Rought treatment: You can roughly work the olive and then put the piece along with the shavings (loosely) into a plastic bag. Seal the bag and pierce with a few holes. This allows the wood to dry slowly. The wood can then be worked after a period of time.
  • Work slowly: Olive wood’s density and tendency to crack mean it’s essential to work slowly to avoid the wood splitting. Slow, clean cuts using sharp tools should help you avoid splitting.

Where to Find High-Quality Blanks

Ensuring that you choose high-quality olive wood turning blanks is vital to get the best results from your project. Here at Exotic Hardwoods UK, we are specialists in hardwood and have extensive knowledge of olive wood.

Our part-seasoned olive wood turning blanks are available in a choice of sizes to match your project and are always of the highest quality.

Projects to Try with Olive Wood

Olive wood’s attractive appearance and strength make it ideal for a wide range of wood turning projects, including:

  • Knife and tool handles.
  • Utensils, including spoons and honey drizzles.
  • Letter openers and pens.
  • Decorative objects, such as ornaments and candle holders.
Exploring the Benefits and Uses of Olive Wood Turning Blanks - Exotic Hardwoods UK

"The beauty of olive wood is that it changes colour over time, so you may want to complete a simple finish and let the natural beauty of the wood shine through."

Maintaining Your Olive Wood Creations

After carefully crafting your olive wood creation, it’s vital to maintain it to preserve its beauty and functionality.

  • Keep olive wood items indoors: To preserve your olive wood items, it’s essential to keep them indoors. Olive wood may be strong, but it is susceptible to damage from the elements, temperature variations, and insects.
  • Avoid getting your olive wood items excessively wet: It’s best to avoid soaking your olive wood creations in water. Olive wood can take a long time to dry, resulting in it warping and splitting in the process.
  • Re-oil occasionally: Your olive products will need to be re-oiled occasionally, especially if they are being used in the kitchen. Gently rubbing the olive wood with a food-grade oil and microfibre cloth will restore it to its natural beauty.

Benefits of Using Olive Wood

Olive wood is a popular choice for wood turning projects, and with good reason. Here are some of the benefits of using olive wood turning blanks:

  • Workability: Olive wood is a popular wood for turning and carving, as it is easy to work with, even on detailed projects.
  • Attractiveness: One of olive wood’s biggest benefits is its attractiveness. Its rich colour and intricate grain patterns give olive wood a distinctive beauty.
  • Durability: Olive wood has a dense structure, making it highly durable.
  • Size: The small size of olive wood makes it ideal for working on smaller projects, and enables it to be used to create intricate designs.
  • Antibacterial properties: Olive wood has natural antibacterial properties, making it a popular wood for making kitchen items, such as chopping boards and serving platters.

Exploring Different Finishes for Olive Wood

As olive wood has a high oil content, finishing it correctly is essential to achieve the best results. After sanding, you may opt to seal the wood with shellac to give it a shinier coating. If your olive wood has a high oil content, it may resist water-based finishes. The beauty of olive wood is that it changes colour over time, so you may want to complete a simple finish and let the natural beauty of the wood shine through.

At Exotic Hardwoods UK, we’re proud to offer an extensive choice of hardwoods, including olive wood. Our high-quality olive wood turning blanks are available in a choice of sizes to match the needs of your project, allowing you to bring your creative vision to life with ease.

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