Can You Burn Olive Tree Wood? The 185 Detailed Answer

The spread of fires may be tied to a longer-term plan that allows farmers to replant their dead groves with Xylella-resistant olive trees and other crops like oranges. In recent months, tens of millions of dollars have flowed in aid to farmers crushed by Xylella.

Xylella fastidiosa is a bacterium native to Central America that has spread dangerously in many parts of the world. Various Xylella strains affect grape and almond trees in California, citrus fruits in Brazil, and olive and almond trees in Europe. The bacterium is believed to have spread through the global trade in exotic plants.

A dead olive grove near Trepuzzi, Italy, where a farmer has left the trunks of the trees killed by Xylella and removed the top branches for firewood. (Courthouse News Photo/Cain Burdeau)

Boscia said more than 500 different plant species could be susceptible to infection by Xylella. For example, he said that in Puglia, the bacterium has almost entirely destroyed Polygala myrtifolia, an ornamental evergreen shrub found in many holiday villas.

In 2013, scientists first identified a Xylella subspecies as the cause of a new disease that was turning olive trees brown around the town of Gallipolli. Gallipolli is a former port city on the Ionian Sea from which huge quantities of olive oil were shipped to Northern Europe for use as lamp oil and in cooking.

Today, Gallipolli and its scenic rocky coves are one of Europe’s most popular holiday destinations and its countryside is dotted with lush villas. The modern transformation of the city into a tourist center probably led to the introduction of Xylella in Salento. Scientists believe that with the widespread planting of exotic species to beautify vacation homes, the bacterium made its way to Gallipolli.

By the time Boscia and other scientists found that olive trees were infected with Xylella, around 8,000 hectares around Gallipolli were diseased. Today, almost eight years later, he said about 800,000 hectares have been affected.

“It’s multiplied almost 100 times,” Boscia said.

Indeed, once the land of olives, the Salento countryside is now a ghostly place dotted with gnarled, dead olive trees haunting the skeletons of their former selves. The daily fires only make this haunted landscape even more unreal and spooky.

Back in town, Mongiò made his way to a now-closed modern olive mill, or “frantoio” in Italian, that his family ran for many years in the Trepuzzi industrial area. But since all the olive trees were dead, the family simply had no other choice: in Trepuzzi hardly anyone produces olive oil anymore and they closed the mill.

“Look how big our Frantoio was,” he said as he stood in front of the closed mill.

In September his family sold the large machinery at the mill used to make oil. The large Frantoio building was bought by a neighboring company that works for ILVA, a huge state-owned steel mill in the city of Taranto. Mongiò and his wife now live in the Frantoio’s former office building.

Mongiò and his brother then moved their olive business back to an old smaller mill their father had built in Trepuzzi.

He is in the midst of radical changes in his home country.

In front of a large Italian olive oil mill that he and his family had to close down due to the Xylella fastidiosa disaster, Salvatore Mongiò points in the direction of where the large modern mill was housed and processes around 100,000 quintals of olives a year. (Courthouse News Photo/Cain Burdeau)

Some farmers have already removed their dead groves and planted new trees. Elsewhere, large agricultural interests are trying to buy up smaller plots and plant large-scale super-intensive groves of Xylella-resistant stock, akin to the mechanized and lucrative olive harvest in Spain.

But Salento is coveted land for other activities too, and many groves may just disappear. Investors consider Salento ideal for large solar panel and windmill parks. The tourism industry is also seeking abandoned farmland for golf courses and resorts.

The fires make Mongiò suspicious of what is going on.

“There are higher interests behind these fires,” he said. “These interests want people to leave the country and then buy gli appezzamenti [small plots of land] at, shall we say, moderate prices.”

Despite all the tragedies, Mongiò does not leave the olive oil business. He said he even feels optimistic.

His family is among the fortunate ones, as around 60% of their 10,000 olive trees were local varieties that have stood up to Xylella and continue to bear fruit. With that crop in hand, they can still sell oil.

Still, he plans to eradicate all 10,000 trees they have and replant them with cultivars known to be fully resistant to Xylella, including a lab-invented hybrid called “la favolosa.”

“In three years these new trees will be producing,” he said. “But do you know what’s the problem with these new trees? In 20, 30 years they have to be removed.”

A newly planted Xylella-resistant olive grove in Trepuzzi, Italy, is adjacent to an old grove killed by Xylella. (Courthouse News Photo/Cain Burdeau)

It’s the beginning of a long renewal process for him that could be repeated across the Mediterranean for decades to come as Xylella continues its slow march north in Italy. The bacterium has reached the province of Bari, some 70 miles north of Gallipolli.

However, its progress appears to have slowed, giving hope that it may not be spreading as quickly as first feared.

“The spread continues; It’s slow, but it’s moving forward,” Boscia said. He cited better land management, improved surveillance of the bacterium and faster responses to outbreaks as reasons for the slower pace of infection.

There is no known cure for Xylella, but biologists have shown success treating infected trees. However, Boscia called these treatments “palliative.” Treatments are costly and only slow a tree’s decline.

“The fact that it’s spreading slowly shouldn’t make anyone feel safe,” Boscia said.

Mongiò is pessimistic that Xylella can be stopped. He fears his plight will become the plight of olive growers across the Mediterranean.

“It’s not just going to northern Italy, Xylella is going beyond that, around the Adriatic, it’s going to hit Albania and Greece. It will hit the entire Mediterranean basin. You can’t stop it.”

When he talks to farmers from elsewhere, they can’t believe they’ll ever get hit. But he heard the same thing from peasants in Salento.

“Until it hits you personally,” he said, “even if you have a neighbor with it, you’re like, ‘Well, he has it, but I don’t.'”

“It’s slowly increasing,” he added, “and it will eventually change the landscape. Everything will change.”

Cain Burdeau, reporter for the Courthouse News, lives in the European Union.

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Be the fire pit champion instead of the host who smokes everyone out and makes them sick. It’s easy – just learn which firewood not to burn.

Whether sharing stories around the fire pit or cozying up indoors on a winter’s night, wood burning fires are the ultimate atmosphere. But using the wrong wood will quickly smother the scene and potentially cause long-term harm to your home, health, and nature. Consider hardwood vs. softwood, maturing time, and potential toxins.

Do not worry about it. We’re not talking about splitting the atom here. Just avoid this kind of firewood and you’ll be the burning superstar on chilly evenings.

driftwood

Sea driftwood has a high salt content and chlorine is a chemical compound of salt. So when you burn driftwood, high doses of dioxins are released.

“If you breathe it in, it’s carcinogenic, and that’s not a good thing,” says naturalist and TV survival teacher Roger Hammer. “It’s also not good to use under your steak. All wood has some dioxins, but driftwood is particularly high.”

green wood

Like a greenhorn, green wood is fresh on the scene. It has just been cut and is full of moisture. This makes it embarrassingly difficult to ignite. And if you’re lucky enough to light it up, it’ll smoke like crazy. Not only is this smoke annoying, but it also adds creosote to your chimney, which can build up and cause a fire.

The solution? Always use properly seasoned or kiln dried wood.

pine wood

Pine, a softwood, is resinous. That means when it’s burned it gives off a lot of soot which adds dangerous creosote to your chimney walls. It also burns faster than hardwood and is therefore less efficient, although it can be used as kindling. If you have a spare pine Christmas tree, it’s best not to burn the wood in your fireplace.

“I wouldn’t cook meat over it because it’s really juicy,” says Hammer.

Australian pine is the exception because it has much less resin. According to Hammer, it is considered one of the best firewoods in the world.

construction and furniture wood

A bonfire filled with leftover building materials and broken chairs may sound like heaven, but it’s going to be a toxic party.

Most lumber is treated with chemicals to prevent rot. And up until the early 2000s, much pressure-treated wood contained arsenic. Furniture is often made from plywood or chipboard and strong adhesives. Painted wood is definitely not suitable as firewood.

Many wooden pallets are also treated with chemicals and should not be burned in recreational fires.

Non-native wood

Afar firewood is a major vector of invasive insects and diseases. Just a single log can endanger a forest or a species, as happened with the emerald ash borer, goldpoint oak borer, gypsy moth and the sudden oak dieback.

Solution: Buy lumber near your home. Use this map to find out more information about firewood stations in your area.

Poisonous Wood

Burning poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, and poison wood produces smoke containing irritating oils that can cause severe respiratory problems and eye irritation. “If it had the word poison in it, I wouldn’t burn it or eat it or anything else,” says Hammer. “Oleander is another bad one that can get you hospitalized if you breathe it in or use it on hot dog sticks.”

Endangered Wood

Use this US Department of Agriculture chart to ensure that the fuelwood you buy or harvest is not an endangered or threatened species.

habitat wood

Sean Russell/Getty Images

When gathering wood outdoors, check if animals use it. Birds and other animals can nest in dead trees and fallen logs.

“You know there’s an environmental ethic, some of that wood is useful for living beings to live in,” says Hammer. “Sometimes dead trees attract more wildlife than living trees.”

Rotten and moldy wood

Rotten wood is less dense and does not generate as much heat as dried wood. Moldy wood can give off toxic fumes when burned. Both tend to have a higher water content, so they produce a lot of smoke. Solution: Leave it to the bugs and mushrooms.

Products containing cellulose

Burning newspapers, cardboard, wrapping paper and magazines can send long-lasting embers into the air and even up the chimney, where they can set creosote and the roof on fire. One exception: you can use a small piece of tightly twisted newspaper to start a fire.

Not wood

Styrofoam, plastic, empty food containers and boxes, cigarette butts, and all that other junk contains toxins. Many of these toxins are harmful to breathe and can travel widely in the wind. Solution: Don’t burn them.

So you have a new wood stove or outdoor fire pit that you want to get up and running. Or would you like to toast marshmallows on your planned camping trip? However, when building a wood fire it is important to remember that not every piece of wood is a good fuel.

You may already know that you shouldn’t burn junk like coated, painted, or pressure-treated wood. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, this can release toxic or harmful chemicals into the air. But even when choosing between two tree trunks, there are greener (and less green) options. Here are some tips for buying firewood.

Note: None of the advice below applies to netted or plastic wrapped bundles of firewood sold in stores and labeled as kiln dried or heat treated. If you only need a small amount of wood, commercial bagged firewood is often a good and safe choice as the high-quality hardwood burns hot and clean.

green wood

When a living tree is felled, the wood must age or “mature” for at least six to nine months before it can be burned. Freshly cut wood, called greenwood, is loaded with sap (usually water) and has to dry first. It is difficult to light and once it gets going it burns very efficiently and smokes horribly.

If you are unsure if the wood is green, ask the seller when it was cut. You can also check the bark: stuck bark that’s still caked with sap when scored is a bad sign.

Big wood

Jose Manuel Espinola Aguayo / EyeEm/getty

Don’t buy firewood that is too long to easily fit in your fireplace or fire pit. If it is more than 5 inches in diameter, you will need to recut or split it before you can use it. The work is great exercise, but if you just want a quick fire it’s definitely a drag.

Non-native wood

If you live in or are visiting an area currently affected by invasive wood pests, ask the seller where the wood was felled. If it has been cut or stored more than a few miles away, you should leave the firewood where it is and look further.

According to Leigh Greenwood, campaign manager of the Don’t Move Firewood campaign, firewood transported too far is the leading cause of the rapid spread of invasive insects and diseases. These species include the emerald ash borer, the Asiatic longhorn beetle, and the gold-spotted oak borer.

Although the pests are slow to spread on their own, moving an infected log can endanger new forests and undermine conservation efforts. Millions of trees and thousands of hectares of forest have been seriously damaged or even killed by these non-native pests.

New outbreaks almost always originate in or near public campgrounds or are traced back to a homeowner who purchased firewood from an infested area. David Adkins, an inspection supervisor at the Ohio Department of Agriculture, says if you have any suspicions, only buy enough for a single fire and follow the “use all, burn all” rule.

“Don’t leave questionable wood lying around, and certainly don’t take one home from a campground that’s far away,” he says. If you are unsure if your area or nearby areas are affected, contact your state’s Department of Agriculture or visit Don’t Move Firewood to find out.

soft wood

Casarsa Getty Images

Ask the seller what kind of wood it is. Trees like pine, fir, or cypress have “soft” wood that burns quickly, leaves few chars, and produces a lot of smoke that can coat your chimney with soot (not a sure thing in the long run). Seasoned softwood is fine for outdoor fires, but you should avoid it if it’s a fireplace or you want a long-lasting fire or coals for cooking.

driftwood

JTSorrell Getty Images

Burning salt-saturated driftwood is a bad idea because it can release toxic or harmful chemicals when burned, according to the EPA. It’s probably safer to use your beach finds for decoration and mounted planters instead.

poisons

Watch out for wood covered in vines. Burning poison ivy, poison sumac, poison oak, or just about anything else with “poison” in its name, releases the irritating oil urushiol into the smoke. Inhaling it can cause lung irritation and serious allergic breathing problems, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

oleander

Oleander shrubs thrive in frost-free climates, and every part of it is poisonous. Definitely don’t burn it, and don’t even use a twig to toast your marshmallow on it.

Endangered Species

Charlene Sherman-Ragatz / EyeEm/getty

Blue ash, American chestnut, the Kentucky coffee tree: There are more than 20 endangered species of native trees in North America, and due to their rarity, you’re unlikely to find any in a batch of firewood for sale. However, you should double-check this list before hacking anything yourself.

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End grain: ring porous; 5-10 rows of medium-sized to large earlywood pores, exclusively solitary latewood pores in medium-sized to small gradation; tyles sometimes present; medium to broad rays visible without lens, distance wide; Parenchyma generally not visible with a hand lens or diffuse in aggregates (barely visible).

Allergies/Toxicity: No other health reactions have been associated with Russian Olive aside from the usual health hazards associated with any type of wood dust. See the Wood Allergy and Toxicity and Wood Dust Safety articles for more information.

Prices/Availability: The Russian Olive is typically a very small tree with a highly branched shape that is not conducive to tall or straight trunks. Wood is limited to small and craft uses. Since this is a fairly common and fast-growing tree, prices should be moderate.

Sustainability: This species is not listed on the CITES Appendices or the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Comments: Originally brought to the United States in the late 19th century as a windbreak and erosion control (and as an ornamental tree). However, due to the tree’s rapid growth and adaptability to poor soil, it is now considered an invasive species in many areas of the United States.

The Russian olive is not closely related to the wood commonly referred to as olive wood (Olea europaea) and can be distinguished from the true olive by the end grain wood. Olive is diffusely porous while Russian Olive is ring porous.

All wood burns, but not all wood burns the same way. Some burn hotter, slower, and cleaner than others. Some smoke a lot and others have a lot of sap or pitch that will quickly clog your chimney. The best types of fuel for a wood stove or fireplace burn hot and relatively evenly, produce more heat, and typically burn more completely. These woods tend to be hardwoods like hickory or ash rather than softwoods like pine and cedar.

hardwood firewood

Hardwoods such as maple, oak, ash, birch and most fruit trees are the best burning woods, giving you a hotter and longer burn. These woods have the least resin and sap and are generally cleaner to handle. However, hardwoods are generally more expensive than softwoods and are more prone to leaving clinker, a hard and rocky residue, in the leftover ash.

When you burn birch firewood, look out for the thick inner brown bark called the phloem. This bark retains a lot of moisture and can prevent the wood from drying evenly. Therefore, it’s best to blend birch with another hardwood species for a cleaner burn and less smoke. Smoke leads to a build-up of creosote, a by-product of wood burning that consists primarily of tar, which often causes chimney fires.

softwood firewood

Softwood is the cheapest type of wood you can buy. Fir is your best choice, but other softwoods include pine, balsam, spruce, cedar, tamarack, alder, and poplar. Softwoods tend to burn faster and leave finer ash than hardwoods. They can also be messy to deal with, especially pine, spruce and balsam, as they cause creosote to build up in your chimney faster.

Comparison of firewood by thermal energy

Different firewoods can be categorized by the amount of thermal energy they produce per log of wood. The best firewoods provide the thermal energy equivalent of 200 to 250 gallons of heating oil. These include the following:

Apple

beech (american)

Birch (Yellow)

Hickory (Shagbark)

ironwood

maple sugar)

red oak

white ash

white oak

The next category of thermal energy is the equivalent of 150 to 200 gallons of fuel per string of firewood. These woods include:

Birch (White)

Cherry (Black)

douglas fir

Elm (American)

Maple (Red and Silver)

Tamarack

In the lowest thermal energy category, each string of wood produces about the same heat as 100 to 150 gallons of heating oil:

Alder (Red)

aspen

cedar (red)

poplar

hemlock

Pine (Lodgepole and White)

redwood

Spruce (Sitka)

Make sure your wood is dry

You should never burn “green” or under-dried wood, as it produces less heat and more smoke (and ultimately creosote) than properly dried or seasoned wood. For proper storage, stack your wood for efficient air circulation, cover only the top, and ensure it is thoroughly dry before burning. A good rule of thumb is to rotate your firewood, as with burning the older dryer wood first, to avoid wood rot and waste.

Wood should have a moisture content of less than 20 percent for burning. Above 20 percent humidity, wood is difficult to start and burns poorly and inefficiently, creating excess water vapor, smoke and unhealthy air.

to avoid forests

Salvaging firewood or other scraps can save you a lot of money when it comes to heating your home with wood. But there are certain wood products and other items that you should avoid for health and safety reasons. Many of these produce hazardous fumes indoors as well as stack emissions that would pose an environmental problem. Some also pose additional risks to your furnace metals or can cause a dangerous buildup of creosote in your chimney.

For your own safety, you should always avoid burns:

Painted or lacquered wood, moldings or other wood by-products

Boiler pressure treated wood

driftwood

Technical sheet goods such as plywood, chipboard and MDF

Cardboard or other compressed paper products

Some types of wood, especially aromatic cedar, should also be used with caution by allergy sufferers.

Wood burning safety tips

Use care and common sense when loading your wood stove. Although you’ll need some paper to light your stove, only use enough to get the fire going. Excessive use of starter paper only contributes to creosote formation.

Safety is of course a major concern when operating a wood stove. Always keep all recommended distances and protect the floor covering with a fire-resistant floor mat. Make sure you have an active carbon monoxide detector nearby and that your home is equipped with working smoke detectors.

Olive wood – properties, uses and benefits

Grown from the trees of Olea europaea, olive wood is a hard and colorful wood prized around the world for its appearance, density, straight grain and fine texture. Olive trees, originally found on the east coast of the Mediterranean, have managed to spread outside of Europe, not thanks to the need for timber exploitation, but for the growth of their delicious olive fruit, which requires very little care and attention during seasonal growth. The latest reports claim that olive trees are currently grown commercially for their fruit in over 20 countries, with 60% of all trees standing on the territory of the European Union (with five leading countries being Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece and Syria).

Olive wood is very strong, but it is very sensitive to external elements and insect infestation. Because of this, it is most commonly found only in interior furniture and smaller wooden objects. Visually, olive wood is known around the world for its consistent texture, grain and a very distinct and fruity scent when worked.

As it has lower durability and resistance to elements and therefore is not used for mass production of flooring, cladding and construction and has spread all over the world being planted wherever it can grow in hot and dry environments, Olive wood is currently not heavily used for lumber in the world market. This helped it stay off the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

What is olive wood

Olive wood is wood harvested from Olea europaea and O. capensis, two species of olive trees native to southern and eastern Mediterranean countries in Europe and East Africa. Although olive trees live exceptionally long lives and can grow up to 40 meters (130 ft) tall, such occurrences are rare and the vast majority of trees manage to reach 10 meters (33 ft) with a trunk of 1 to 1.5 metres to grow diameter.

While olive trees are praised for their fruit all over the world, their lumber has also managed to catch the attention of the global woodworking community, who have managed to find great uses for this hard, heavy, dense and very strong species of wood.

Olives usually grow very twisted and irregular, with a large number of side branches twisting the trunk in many directions, making it difficult to pull out large and straight pieces of wood. The vast majority of wood obtained from mature olive trees is cut into smaller pieces and used to make smaller interior objects, the largest usually being table tops or structural objects in furniture.

Visually, olive wood has a strikingly rich and colorful appearance that makes it perfect for use in decorative objects. Its textural features are contrasting brown lines and yellow streaks of sapwood, and more importantly, olive wood’s surface can be easily polished to a high degree. While it can be a bit uncooperative when cutting, olive wood is easy to glue. Has a distinct, pleasant, sweet odor when cut, and this odor typically lingers in the finished product for several years.

The negative points of this wood are that it lacks necessary natural oils that repel insects and rot. In order to achieve greater durability, olive wood furniture must be treated so that it remains unaffected by external influences for years. In addition, raw olive wood is difficult to dry, and during this process the pieces of wood can warp. To prevent this, olive wood must be dried very slowly in the kiln drying process over low heat.

origin

Olive trees are closely linked to the earliest records of our history, with records and finds confirming that this tree was grown commercially in the areas of Crete and ancient Syria more than five thousand years ago. And even before commercial cultivation, olives were used in the diet of our ancestors on the territories of Egypt, Crete, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Spain and other countries. The oldest surviving records of olive leaves were found on the Greek island of Santorini, which has been dated at 60,000 years.

With such a rich history, olive trees, fruits and olive oil have become more integral parts of many surviving ancient texts, artworks and artifacts. Olive branches were found in the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in ancient Israel, where olive oil, branches and wood were mentioned numerous times in the Bible, often as symbols of peace, wisdom, glory, fertility, strength and purity. Ancient Greece had a close association with olive trees and oil, while in Ancient Rome, olive fruit was an important part of the Roman diet. Olive tree and oil have also been mentioned several times in the Qur’an.

The oldest surviving olive tree is controversial, with several candidates found throughout the Mediterranean and other areas around the world. The olive tree on the island of Brijuni (Brioni), Istria in Croatia, has confirmed the age of around 1600 years, a tree from western Athens is 2400 years old until it was uprooted in a road accident in 1975. A Crete tree is estimated to be over 2,000 years old, and some trees in Italy and Lebanon are said to be over 3,000 years old.

The oldest certified olive tree is 2000 years old. It is in Greece and is still bearing fruit. The average lifespan of an olive tree is between 300 and 600 years.

Characteristics

Tree size – 25-50 feet (8-15 m) tall

Trunk diameter – 3-5 feet (1.0-1.5 m)

Janka hardness – 2,700 lbf (12,010 N)

Average Dry Weight – 62 lbs/ft3 (990 kg/m3)

Specific Gravity (Base, 12% MC) – 0.72, 0.99

Compressive Strength – 77.1 MPa (11,180 lbf/in2)

Modulus of Rupture – 22,530 lbf/in2 (155.4 MPa)

Modulus of Elasticity – 2,577,000 lbf/in2 (17.77 GPa)

Shrinkage – radial: 5.4%, tangential: 8.8%, volumetric: 14.4%, T/N ratio: 1.6

Odor – Fruity, distinct and strong odor while working. Persistent odor for several years during polishing.

Workability – Light to mild, with interlocking grain leading to possible tearing during finishing. Sometimes wood can have poor stability. Can be glued and processed well.

Texture – Even and fine texture with some moderate natural sheen.

Grain – Wild, straight or interlocking grain.

Sustainability – Not listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Required Growth Density – No special requirements. Olive trees require very little maintenance, but they are slow to reach their full size.

Drying – Slow and hard. It may wrap when drying quickly.

Durability – Medium. It can live to a good age indoors, especially if treated with preservative oils. Untreated olive wood is susceptible to insect and rot infestation.

Maintenance – Low

Price – Higher than most types of wood

Used

Olive wood is versatile and easy to work with, but while hard and strong, it is not used for outdoor applications as it cannot survive long outdoors. It is very rarely available in the lumber form factor.

However, it is excellent for indoor use, so it is easy to find in the following objects:

Indoor furniture (especially high-end)

rotated objects

veneer

Various small special wood items

High quality knife or tool handles

art objects

Small decorative items

carvings

Flooring and cladding (in rare cases)

types

Olea europaea – Traditional olive tree native to the eastern Mediterranean, Syria, parts of Asia Minor, the southern end of the Caspian Sea and northern Iran. It is best known for its versatile wood and flavorful olive fruit, which can be made into a popular variety of oil. Its branches are celebrated as a symbol of peace.

Olea capensis – African tree of the olive family, known by the names black ironwood, ironwood and East African olive and Elgon olive. It grows throughout sub-Saharan Africa and has three subspecies (Macrocarpa, Capensis and Enervis).

advantages

The benefits of the olive tree are numerous. First of all, its fruits have been in great demand for several millennia, both for direct consumption and for the production of a popular variety of oil. Direct consumption of olive fruit is rare. Most only eat it after it has been processed, which reduces the bitterness of the fruit.

The olive is also known for its medicinal uses. Many home remedies use olives as a means to calm the user, improve sleep, boost the immune system, and lower blood cholesterol levels. Olive oil is also touted as being good for regulating the circulation of fat in the body and promoting cardiovascular health.

The olive wood is considered high-end and is therefore predominantly used to make smaller, more stylish wooden objects or to make expensive furniture.

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Olive wood is a by-product of the highly prized fruit of the same tree. It comes from the trunk of very old trees that no longer bear fruit. Small pieces of wood can also be used from pruned branches of fruit trees. The processing of olive wood into household items is thus a sustainable use of the supposed waste material of the olive grove. Nevertheless, we had to ask ourselves: How sustainable is it to buy products made from olive wood?

Olive wood is sustainable thanks to the carbon sequestration of long-lived olive trees. Indoor products made from olive wood also last longer than most other woods, increasing carbon storage. Olive wood is more sustainable as a by-product – an added benefit of using land for olive groves.

In this article we will guide you through the life cycle of olive wood used as kitchenware or other small decorative items. Then we evaluate its sustainability, potential and deficits. And at the end we show you tips for buying sustainable olive wood.

Olive wood is so sustainable

Olive wood is a hard and richly colored wood favorable for decorative household items, especially kitchenware. The supply of olive wood is rather limited as the main source is trimmed branches and trimmings. Every few hundred years or more, when an olive tree stops bearing fruit, the entire tree can be cut down for lumber.

Olive wood is a rare (and therefore expensive) material. However, it is a very environmentally friendly wood, mainly due to its nature as a by-product of the olive fruit.

“Sustainable: The ability to be maintained at a specified level or level | Avoiding the depletion of natural resources to maintain an ecological balance” Oxford Dictionary

To understand the sustainability of olive wood, we assess the life cycle of olive wood in household items like a bowl or an earring. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method of assessing the environmental impact of each stage in a product’s life cycle, from manufacture to recycling. Over the years, companies have strategically used LCA to research and develop more sustainable products.

In this article, we use the cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment and examine the five stages of the olive wood life cycle.

The Life Cycle Stages of Olive Wood The Sustainability of Each State Growing Olive Wood The cultivation of olive trees in their native lands is sustainably the same due to the potential for carbon sequestration (i.e. carbon capture and storage) and because two products (fruit and wood) are harvested Tree. Olive Wood Production The production of olive wood products can have a relatively low carbon footprint. That’s because wood waste is used to make by-products or biomass pellets to offset CO2 emissions during harvesting and processing. A significant reduction in CO2 emissions can also be achieved by using fossil-free energy. Transporting Olive Wood Transport is a carbon-intensive phase in the life cycle of olive wood furniture due to the emissions associated with the operation of the transport vehicles that bring the wood to the sawmills and factories and then the furniture to the stores. The closer it is from the grove to the market, the lower the carbon footprint of this phase would be. Use of Olive Wood Olive wood is more durable than most other woods when used in interior products. The use of olive wood items can be sustainable thanks to carbon capture during the product lifetime. End of life of olive wood The end of life of olive wood furniture is sustainable when the wood is reused or burned as bioenergy.

Overall, olive wood is sustainable. However, the actual environmental impact of a particular product, such as a cutting board or bowl, depends on many factors, most notably distance and mode of transport. Let’s dive deeper into each phase and find out how it can be more sustainable.

How sustainable is the cultivation of olive wood?

Growing olive trees in their native lands is sustainable because of the carbon sequestration potential (i.e. carbon capture and storage) and because two products (fruit and wood) are harvested from the same tree.

What type of wood is olive wood and what does that mean for sustainability?

Olive wood comes from two species of trees: Olea euro paea and Olea capensis. These are evergreen flowering hardwood species native to Europe and Africa.

Olive trees grow very slowly, with height gains of less than 12 inches per year. That’s half or less the average growth rate of hardwood species like soft maple or black cherry. These faster growing local species can also be used for kitchenware projects.

As olive trees reach maturity and bear fruit, timber harvesting is limited to branches that are pruned to encourage new growth. Olive trees are not felled for wood until they bear fruit, which can take centuries.

How sustainable does olive wood grow?

The sustainability of olive wood lies in the carbon e-storage and storage, starting with the long-lived trees and ending with long-lived olive wood products. This wood is harvested as a by-product of the olive harvest, making it even more environmentally friendly.

Carbon Sequestration: As olive trees grow, they absorb CO 2 from the atmosphere and release oxygen. They act as a carbon sink during their long lifespan as many trees are between 1000 and 2000 years old. This means that they remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and thus help to contain the climate crisis.

Carbon is stored in the root system and in the tree. An average olive tree can reach a height of 50 feet and a trunk diameter of 5 feet, with exceptional trees reaching 130 feet tall.

Land Use: The use of land as olive groves produces two economically beneficial products: olive fruit and olive wood. The fruit is the main crop. The wood is the by-product. Once olive trees stop bearing fruit, they can be felled for wood. Before that, a small amount of wood can be harvested from pruned branches and trimmings.

Using olive wood to make household items is much more environmentally friendly than letting it rot and thus releasing carbon into the atmosphere much sooner. It also reduces the risk of orchards burning wood as waste on site and releasing carbon immediately after branches are cut.

Where is olive wood usually grown?

Olive trees grow naturally throughout the Mediterranean and in some regions of Africa and Asia. These tree species grow in light soil, even well-drained loam, but they thrive in calcareous soil. Limestone slopes and coastal climate are the best growing conditions for olive trees.

Olive trees have been cultivated in the Mediterranean for centuries, growing in orchards with a relatively stable ecosystem.

The centuries-old olive trees have many cavities in the trunks that provide shelter for vertebrates and invertebrates. The flowers of the olive trees attract more than a hundred species of insects, which in turn attract many birds. At least 31 bird species have been identified in olive groves. Mammals have also been found in relatively large numbers in olive groves.

Olive groves often merge into a wilder landscape with semi-natural areas, shrubby hedges and strips of forest. This means that more birds and animals can move in and out of the acreage, increasing the biodiversity of such olive groves.

Undoubtedly, cutting down olive trees would disturb these wild animals. However, olive trees would only be felled at the end of their fruiting life, when they are centuries or even a millennium old. Therefore, such displacement of animals does not occur as frequently, compared to the felling of trees every few decades.

Illegal logging of olive trees occurs in different parts of the world, like Palestine, Syria or the Greek islands. Loggers often illegally cut down entire groves of old trees. Even though these trees don’t produce much fruit, they have other benefits. Farmers can sell the timber for additional income, or wildlife can live and thrive in the olive groves.

The only way for you, as a consumer, to address the problems caused by illegal logging is to source sustainable timber. We’ll point you in the right direction with olive wood at the end of this article.

Overall, logging of forest products from plantations accounts for 26% of forest loss, a combination of deforestation and forest degradation. However, in tropical climates, loss in species-rich forests is more significant (and sometimes less accurately recorded) than in temperate, well-managed deforestation forests.

Our world in data: Decadal losses in the global forest over the past three centuries

How sustainable is the production of olive wood?

Manufacturing olive wood products can have a relatively low carbon footprint. That’s because wood waste is used to make by-products or biomass pellets to offset CO2 emissions during harvesting and processing. A significant reduction in CO2 emissions can also be achieved by using fossil-free energy.

The first step in making olive wood furniture is to cut down branches and/or trees and process them into lumber at a sawmill. Sawing is a power consuming step.

The next step is to dry the wood and turn it into household items. If a piece of wood can be air dried to the desired moisture content, no additional energy is required for this step. However, if an oven is used, this requires additional energy, which can lead to higher CO2 emissions.

It is difficult to dry olive wood as it is oily and dense. For example, if a high-temperature oven is used to speed up the drying process, the risk of cracks, fissures and honeycombing increases. Cuts from branches are also more prone to warping.

The kiln drying of olive wood must be done very slowly. If fossil fuels are used to power the kiln, it would increase the overall carbon emissions significantly. However, burning wood waste (biomass) produces energy to replace fossil fuels. Fortunately, at least 90% of all thermal energy used for kiln drying in the US hardwood sector comes from biomass (instead of fossil fuels).

Manufacturers can also air dry olive wood to reduce damage. However, the process takes years. For example, African wild olive wood takes four to ten years to dry naturally.

How sustainable is the transport of olive wood?

Transportation is a carbon-intensive phase in the life cycle of olive wood products due to the emissions associated with the operation of the transportation vehicles that bring the wood to the sawmills and factories and then the furniture to the stores.

The closer it is from the grove to the market, the lower the carbon footprint of this phase would be.

Although originally from the Mediterranean region, olive trees are now grown in many corners of the world, including the United States. The carbon footprint of transportation would be significantly lower for items sold in the US if the wood was sourced from North American olive groves.

Conversely, olive wood from southern Europe, for example, would have a higher CO2 footprint during transport than regionally available wood such as cherry or black walnut.

The actual emission during transport depends on the type of vehicles used, the fuel required and the distance the wood travels. Calculations by the Norwegian Forest and Landscape Institute showed that smaller timber trucks emit more CO 2 per cubic meter of wood transported: 1.25 times more than larger timber trucks, 1.3 times more than seagoing vessels and six times more than freight trains. Therefore, the sustainable transport option would be rail or big trucks running on biofuel. You can check with your lumber suppliers about how their products are shipped to and within the United States and go with the more sustainable option.

How sustainable is the use of olive wood?

The use of olive wood items can be sustainable thanks to carbon capture during the product lifetime.

Olive wood lacks the necessary natural oils to repel insects and rot. As such, products made from this material are susceptible to damage when exposed to outdoor elements.

However, thanks to its density and hardness, olive wood is more durable than most other woods when used for interior products. With proper care, olive wood products will last a lifetime.

When olive wood rots, either naturally in the forest or due to damage from domestic use, the carbon stored in the wood is released back into the atmosphere. Therefore, durable furniture can be seen as a good way to keep carbon out of the atmosphere. If the wood is then reclaimed to make another piece of furniture, its positive impact on the environment through carbon storage is even greater.

How sustainable is the end of life of olive wood?

The end-of-life stage for olive wood furniture is sustainable when the wood is reused or burned as bioenergy.

There are a few scenarios for olive wood products – like decorative serving spoons or jewelry – at the end of their life:

They can end up in landfills and will not decompose. In this case, it retains its role as a carbon store.

Wood products can also be recycled and reused, expanding their role as carbon sinks and reducing fossil CO 2 emissions fourfold when comparing, for example, a reclaimed hardwood floor to a new one. New wood products often travel much further to their markets compared to reclaimed wood products. The latter is typically manufactured in urban centers and sold locally, reducing the environmental impact of transportation.

In another end-of-life scenario, products such as an olive wood cutting board can be burned for biomass energy, replacing coal or natural gas in electricity generation.

Olive wood is rare and most likely comes from pruned branches and trimmings. It is often used for small household items such as kitchen utensils. In this case the offset is not as high as there is much less waste to burn. However, since olive wood is a by-product of the fruit of the tree, the wood used to make household items could have been considered waste and sometimes burned elsewhere.

How can you buy olive wood more sustainably?

The key to buying wood sustainably is checking the relevant environmental and original certifications. Reliable certifications for sustainable woods are:

An FSC certification ensures that the olive wood comes from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.

PEFC’s approaches to sustainable forest management are consistent with protecting forests globally and locally and making the certificate usable for all. Obtaining a PEFC certification is rigorous enough to ensure that the sustainable management of a forest is socially just, ecologically sound and economically viable, but is achievable not only by large but also small forest owners.

Why is it important to buy more sustainable wood?

Buying sustainable wood also means preventing illegal or unsustainable logging, which damages forest biosystems and accelerates climate change.

Logging of forest products from plantations accounts for 26% of forest loss. Cutting down trees for wood has less of an impact on carbon storage than digging up all of the forest floor and turning it into farms or mines. However, if logging is not managed sustainably, it can cause severe damage to wildlife.

When logging occurs in tropical forests—our planet’s bio-hotspots—the loss of biodiversity can be far more damaging. Subtropical and tropical forests are teeming with unique wildlife – endemic mammals, birds and amphibians. Displacement of such wildlife during poorly managed deforestation would be a major contributor to global biodiversity loss.

Sustainable forest management also means that trees are only felled for timber when they are fully grown. These trees will then be able to regrow and eventually replace canopy loss, absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and reducing the effects of climate change.

Our World in Data: Drivers of Tropical Forest Destruction

Final Thoughts

You can buy sustainable olive wood products as long as the material comes from verified sources that follow sustainable management practices. Go for the wood that travels the shortest distance using the most environmentally friendly mode of transport. And to make it even more sustainable, use all olive items for as long as possible, recycle the material to extend its useful life and ensure that it is fully recycled.

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Sources

Brief summary There are many different types of wood that can be used for knife shells. Ultimately, hardwoods are best for knife scales because they are very durable. Common hardwoods used for knife shells include walnut, oak, African blackwood, koa, desert ironwood, rosewood, olivewood, ebony, amboyna, bloodwood, bocote, and cocobolo.

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If you make knives, you know that the type of material you use for the scales is almost as important as the steel you choose for the blade. The right one complements the finished knife and adds to its beauty and function.

Wooden knife scales are a mainstay of knife making because they have an excellent, textured handle and look great. Other advantages are:

Wide Variety: Wood is a material that comes in a variety of colors and grains. You have several options to choose from, whether you’re making a simple table knife or an intricate artisan blade.

Sustainability: Wood is an environmentally friendly raw material. It is biodegradable and renewable, making it the scale material of choice for environmentally conscious knifemakers.

Resilience: While some wood species are not compatible with water, hardwoods and stabilized woods do not break down in wet conditions. They even handle heat well, although you should fix any visual flaws.

A high-quality knife handle is easy on the eye, feels good in the hand and lasts longer with regular care. Using wood can often save you money as it is a natural resource that is sometimes readily available without special processing or treatment.

When considering making knives with wooden shells, it can be difficult to decide which type of wood is best for your knives. The abrasives experts at Red Label Abrasives have taken the most common types of wood for knife shells and detailed the pros and cons of each type of wood below.

What types of wood are commonly used for knife scales?

Hardwoods are the best choice for knife scales because they are durable. You can maintain thin sections and subtle curves like ridges and finger grooves without chipping, chipping, or cracking. When choosing a wood, look for fine-grained options that resist stains and contamination.

walnut

Walnut is used in practically everything: furniture, kitchen fixtures, pistol grips, and more. However, if you intend to use it for knife scales, it’s a better choice for unique display items that see little use. While walnut wood looks elegant, it’s not as strong as other woods, so it’s not the best option for a knife you plan to use regularly.

Oak

Oak is a very popular choice for knife shells, and it’s easy to see why. It’s affordable and results in a beautiful, durable and strong handle. Because oak is so effortless to work with, artisan knifemakers often add inscriptions or designs to the finished handle to enhance its aesthetic value. Its unique combination of affordable price and durable composition makes it an ideal choice for useful projects such as kitchen or hunting knives.

rosewood

Like oak, rosewood is an inexpensive material for knife scales. It varies in hue from golden brown to a deep purple hue, darkening with age giving it a deep and luxurious look when buffed. Rosewood has a robust composition that makes it suitable for the most demanding applications. Many knife makers prefer Indian rosewood for its rich coloring and resistance to all manner of contaminants – even termites!

olive wood

Olive wood, native to Europe and East Africa, is a yellowish wood with darker brown or black streaks. Like rosewood, the color deepens with age. The most common applications are veneer production, turned objects and special wood pieces. Although olive wood is prone to insect infestation, you can prevent this problem by regularly maintaining your knife.

ebony

Ebony is a beautiful, luxurious wood with a rich darkness that makes it sought after for everything from luxury furniture to fine knives. It’s consequently quite expensive, but the elegant results and resilient performance make it well worth the price, especially if you want to make a knife that collectors will happily buy.

Amboyna

Amboyna is one of the most expensive woods to use for a knife handle, but you’ll definitely get your money’s worth when it comes to beauty and functionality. It is strong, stable and resistant to oxidation. Although strong enough to be used for everyday knives, the price makes Amboyna a better choice for craft knives that experience little wear and tear.

bloodwood

Bloodwood has it all: gorgeous red color, silky feel and hardwearing. When you’re looking for an exotic alternative to traditional oak, walnut or rosewood, Bloodwood delivers inspiring results. You can use it for kitchen knives, hunting knives and showpieces, but be sure to keep the color vibrant with regular cleaning and oiling.

Bocote

Bocote is an exotic yellowish color with a distinctive black stripe, making it an impressive knife handle. Bocote is also wear-resistant and versatile. However, it’s as expensive as it is stylish, making it a better choice for custom or decorative knives.

Cocobolo

If you’re looking for a super durable blade, you can’t go wrong with Central American cocobolo. It has historically been used to make fine furniture, musical instruments, and other specialty items, and it remains in relatively high demand around the world.

As a knife handle, cocobolo performs well in both wet and dry conditions and resists almost anything, including insects, so the finished knife will last no matter how often you use it. Cocobolo also comes in a variety of colors including yellow, red, purple and black, allowing you to achieve different visual results.

African blackwood

As the name suggests, African Blackwood is a black colored wood that can often be completely black (with no discernible grain). African blackwood can also sometimes have a purple or dark brown hue.

African Blackwood is extremely dense and durable. It has a reputation for being metal-like because woodworkers often have to work the wood with metalworking equipment. African Blackwood is great for carving intricate details into the knife handles as its density holds those details well.

desert ironwood

Desert ironwood is one of the hardest and most stable woods known to man. The color usually ranges from an orange-yellow to a darker red or brown. Desert Ironwood is heavy and can provide a good counterbalance for longer blades. The stability of desert ironwood makes it relatively easy to work with.

koa wood

Koa is a very expensive and highly sought after wood because of its beautiful appearance and the fact that it only grows in Hawaii. Koa can be found in shades of yellow, gold, red, pink, and brown. Not many woods possess the range of colors or hues that koa does. Koa is relatively easy to work with. It is a hard and durable wood that is well suited for knife handles.

Stabilized laminates

Some knife makers use stabilized laminates, which are birch plywood products. This material is made by injecting dye and polymer or phenolic resin into the wood under high vacuum pressure before it is pressed into blocks of plywood. The result is a strong, durable wood product that is virtually waterproof.

Stabilized woods

Stabilized woods have been treated to overcome issues such as weakness and porosity. The treatment process is similar to stabilized laminates, and the resulting wood is durable, long-lasting, and uniquely colored. If you want to use a wood that is not inherently self-sealing or resinous, stabilizing it can make it suitable for wet applications such as kitchens or marine environments.

Grinding and finishing knife scales

When it comes to shaping and finishing your knife shells, you should use abrasives that are best suited for the task. Choosing the right abrasive will give better results and increase the life of the abrasive itself.

Alumina abrasives are commonly used for woodworking and can be used to shape knife shells. When sanding hardwood, it’s safe to use a ceramic or zirconia abrasive for durability. Just watch your speed to avoid getting burned. Most knife makers like to use J-Weight grinding belts when shaping scales because they are great for getting into tight spaces and conforming to curves. J. Neilson loves our J-Flex Cotton Finishing Belts for grips and we also offer a serrated version if you’re working in very tight spaces. Our abrasives specialists can help you decide which abrasive is best for your application if you need assistance.

High-quality abrasives are essential for a beautiful transition from the knife bowl to the knife handle. at

Red Label Abrasives

, we sell comprehensively

Knifemaker Kits

with the grinding materials you need for excellent results. If you would like to place an order or speak to a grinding technician, please call 844-824-1956 or

fill out our contact form

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As a woodworker, there is a wide range of woods available that can be used to create so many different products, artistic endeavors, and practical pieces of furniture. One of the types of wood that can craft unique items is Olive Wood. Why is this wood so unique, how can you use it and what are some of the best care tips?

What is olive wood?

In the Mediterranean, olive trees are an important part of culture and economy. These trees are mainly harvested for their olives and the products made from these olives. Given the importance of these trees, few are harvested for their wood. That said, if you’re working with olive wood, it’s likely to come from prunings, olive trees destroyed in storms, those suffering from disease, and branches collected or pruned from these unique trees.

Olive trees grow between 25 and 50 feet tall and between 3 and 5 feet in diameter. It is a large tree with a creamy yellowish tan hue. The grain has a curly or wavy shape, but can also be interlocked, wild or straight.

The beautiful olive wood can create some beautiful artistic pieces and is easy for people to work with to make their projects come true. Because this wood is so valuable, it also has some religious ties, particularly in the Middle East. Having pieces of olive wood in that sense

The Best Uses of Olive Wood

Olive wood is a great wood to work with, but you may find that it cracks when working with many different grain patterns. There is also a fruity smell that is part of the distinct scent associated with olive wood.

Because so little of it is harvested, olive wood is often used to make high quality furniture, kitchen utensils, carving spoons, fruit bowls and even chess sets.

How to care for your olive wood

With its dramatic colors and beautiful grain, this hard, dense wood is stain and odor resistant. How can you take care of everything you have made from olive wood? If you have olive oil bowls or utensils, the first thing you should do is season them with mineral oil. Do not leave them in standing water as this can cause cracks and splits in the olive wood.

Using lemon juice and salt to scrub your olive wood items can keep them clean and eliminate any access to food or other dirt and grime. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used to disinfect olive wood utensils if you haven’t used them in a while. If you don’t have olive wood kitchenware, you may simply need to use mineral oil to protect your olive wood pieces by creating a protective barrier on the wood.

No matter what you create with olive wood, it can be a beautiful and useful piece in your home.

The beauty of exotic wood

Olive wood is a beautiful wood that will add an attractive flair to any piece of furniture or kitchenware. The wood works beautifully and will not weigh down your woodworking and cutting tools. However, care should be taken when planing toothed olive wood, as it can tear out.

Although waxy to the touch, this wood can be sanded and lends itself well to various woodworking projects. You may still have questions about whether olive wood is right for your next woodworking project. Our team can answer many questions and help you find the right wood for your needs. Contact us today and we will select the right wood for your requirements.

Global Wood Source is a family owned and operated timber stock and sawmill specializing in exotic timbers from around the world and rare native timbers. We personally source and inspect every piece of wood sourced from forests and jungles around the world.

Olive is a small tree that grows mainly in Greece, Italy and Spain and is pruned for its fruit and prized for its oil. It is also used for fine furniture and objects of religious importance.

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Some Mediterranean olive trees (Olea Europaea) have existed since the time of Christ, but have a trunk of only 2 to 3 feet and, when pruned, only reach a height of 25 to 30 feet. Olive trees (Olea hochstetteri) also grow in East Africa and South Africa and have even been introduced to Southern California. Trees left to grow in the wild can reach 90 to 100 feet. However, wherever the olive tree grows, it is dense, gnarled and twisted. So why is olive a popular, albeit novel, wood?

“Olive is just a nice cream color on the outside that fades into a mottled appealing brown and black striped spider web in the middle of the board,” says Rick Hearne, owner of Hearne Hardwoods in Oxford, PA. “It’s a beautiful oily color wood; it has a pleasant aroma as you work with it, and when you’ve sanded and scraped it all feels so amazingly soft. But it is a very dense wood.

“It has tremendous biblical significance, and it actually looks beautiful when it’s finished,” says Myles Gilmer, owner of Gilmer Wood Co. in Portland, Oregon. “We get calls from people wanting furniture from it; they often want paneling or office furniture, usually because of their biblical significance. But it’s a species that has all kinds of flaws. So when I buy logs from a mill I always tell them I want them to be less than 24″ in diameter because after that they start to ripple and then you get all these weird inclusions and stuff.

“It’s quite a phenomenal blade. It’s very dense, and the other thing is that it seems to be very acidic, because if you take a piece of green olive wood and leave it on a piece of steel, it will gut it in a day.” . It rusts it almost immediately.”

The wood was used for posts and doors in the Temple of Jerusalem. In modern times it has been made into sticks and brushes. Rosaries were made from the seeds. And the fruit is rich in oil, which is not only used to make olive oil for cooking, but is also used as a lubricant in soap and perfumes. The fruit is pickled and stuffed with allspice, creating the common olives we eat today. The oil and the fruit are valuable markets for southern Europe. Spain alone produces about 250 million pounds of oil a year, yielding about 700 gallons per acre.

Buying olive wood usually requires the guidance of a trusted lumber broker.

“The boards look pretty good, but you always have to tell people up front that it’s not a perfectly milled board,” says Fabs Corte of Cormark International in Weaverville, NC. “With the olive, as it grows, you can find some fairly large trees, but the problem is that the middle of the tree tends to get rot inside, so when you cut into the tree, there’s always a gap in it the middle. This gap can be quite big or quite small. Because of this, you will always get some kind of flaw in the wood when you cut it.

As long as Olive is properly dried (it tends to crack), it’s a pleasant wood to work with, although it can be a bit difficult to cut across the grain. Olive is a popular wood for carvers and turners.

“It is used, for example, for knife handles, pistol grips, letter openers, furnishings, turned boxes, crucifixes or rosaries,” says Gilmer. “You get that Pippy Olive, which is almost like stocky stuff, or forks, which are really spectacular. I buy logs and saw them through and through. I’ve had things that are 40 to 50 inches wide and these days the widest is about 2′; lengths are probably 4′ to 9′ long and you can expect them to have quite a few flaws for a log run board.”

Olive is not cheap. Prices start at around $35/bf; material pictured has sold for up to $140/bf. The price reflects the wholesalers’ risk when buying olive wood.

“I’ve told people in the past that when you cut down a red oak you might get a nice yield ranging from an FAS to good box quality, but you get a good yield that you can sell to different people and industries,” says Corte, “On the other hand, with olives, your yield won’t be as good. It’s either fine with a certain amount of flaws, or it’s totally unusable because it’s totally cracked, twisted, or has too many cavities.”

This article originally appeared in the July 2010 issue.

Trees for Mediterranean Landscaping Olive Tree Landscaping Ideas by Sarah Hutchinson

Huettl Landscaping in Walnut Creek, CA.

Olive Tree Landscaping Time / 1:26 See how this modern landscape includes several mature olive trees.

I love everything about the Mediterranean – the climate, the people, the history and most of all the landscapes. One of the iconic Mediterranean plants that I absolutely love is the olive tree. There is something magical about the gnarled trunk and silvery green leaves that draws me in. It must have a similar effect on others, because the olive branch has been a symbol of abundance, glory and peace for many generations. However, apart from liking their looks and understanding the symbolism, I know very little about olive trees. So I decided to learn everything about them and share my findings with you.

Olive trees are particularly successful in coastal California because the climate is so similar to that of the native Mediterranean. They are evergreen trees that can grow up to 25 feet tall and 25 feet wide. Olive trees grow well on slopes, provide a significant amount of shade when fully grown, and look great lining a driveway. If you’re planning on using olive trees as part of your landscaping, you’ll probably want a fruitless variety like Majestic Beauty, Swan Hill, or Wilsonii. Once mature, olive trees are drought, disease and fire resistant. They are also quite water efficient – a monthly deep watering is sufficient. Because they are so hardy, many olive trees live to be hundreds or even thousands of years old. Because of their unique root system, even the oldest olive trees can be successfully transplanted into your garden.

Olive trees are available in different sizes and degrees of maturity. Young olive trees are sold in 15-inch boxes and cost about $85. However, olive trees mature slowly, so it will take many years for a young tree to reach its full size. You can also buy olive trees in 24 inches. 36″, 48″ and 60″ boxes. The 60-inch size is a full-grown olive tree, so it costs a lot more – expect to pay around $1,800.

There are a variety of companies that grow, sell and supply olive trees. Delivery can be restricted due to their size – delivering mature olive trees requires heavy machinery, sometimes even a crane, and can often be costly. Check with one of these companies for details:

The Olive Tree Farm in Sonoma, CA – offers fruiting and fruitless

Ancient Olive Trees in Tiburon, California – specializes in mature fruiting trees

Read more about how to grow and care for olive trees.

See more landscaping plants

Information on olive wood

Olive wood is a very dense and heavily grained hardwood. It has a dramatic light and dark grain pattern. It has long been a top choice for premium indoor furniture, salad bowls, chopping boards and kitchen utensils. It has an extremely tight grain, making it more stain and odor resistant than most other woods. It is well suited to a kitchen environment. With proper care and maintenance, your olive wood product will last a lifetime.

frequently asked Questions

Why is olive wood used for cutting boards?

Olive wood is slow growing and is extremely dense with a tight grain making it very durable and smooth making it ideal for cutting boards, serving boards, salad bowls and utensils etc. Wood Kraft cutting boards are handcrafted from carefully selected olive wood.

How do I care for olive wood?

Keep it well oiled with olive oil! With regular use, this is good to use as the oil doesn’t get a chance to oxidize and smell old. If this happens, simply wipe clean with soapy water and reapply fresh olive oil.

The best oil for seasoning the wood is food grade mineral oil. It is odorless and transparent and resistant to oxidation, but if this is difficult to achieve, use olive oil.

Are the products ready to use?

Yes, and all our olive wood products are carefully inspected for quality before they leave our workshop and then again seasoned with mineral oil to ensure they reach you in perfect condition. Once you see the wood getting dull it’s time to give it some oil and bring it back to life. This ensures a long and stable product life.

Can I put it in the dishwasher?

Do not put in the dishwasher, just wipe with a cloth soaked in water with a little washing-up liquid. Then dry immediately. Avoid soaking in water as this can damage the wood.

How do I clean up after cutting raw meat?

After slicing raw meat, poultry or seafood on your cutting board, simply wipe clean with a microfiber cloth soaked in hot, soapy water and dry immediately.

Occasionally you can disinfect the wood with some table salt and rub the salt into the board with half a lemon, then wipe and apply oil. This is the best way to naturally disinfect the surface, avoiding strong-smelling chemicals like bleach and some antibacterial sprays.

Is olive wood antibacterial?

Olive wood is antibacterial and its dense and finely grained surface resists stains and odors. The dense, smooth grain on the cut surface not only brings out the beauty of the wood, but also makes it stain resistant and much easier to sanitize.

PTO shaft

Will olive wood be harder for knives?

Olive wood is hard, but not too hard and overall gentle on the knife. There are also woods that can be too hard and contain silica like teak that will abrade your knife edges.

Bamboo, especially the tubers, is also very hard on knives. The bamboo manufacturing process also requires large amounts of hard-curing resins to put all the pieces together, which is much more difficult for knives.

Plastic cutting boards are gentle on knives, but ideally should be replaced often if the surface has a lot of cuts. Wooden cutting boards resist bacteria better than plastic because they are kept oiled. Unlike wood, plastics are not biodegradable.

Tempered glass cutting boards are probably the most hygienic, but they’re terribly bad for knives, and they’re also non-biodegradable and much more fragile. Do not tenderize meat on a glass surface.

Remember that sharp knives are much safer than blunt ones as they require little effort when cutting. Therefore, choosing the right cutting board is an important factor to consider in order to prolong the sharpness and lifespan of your knives.

Is olive wood water resistant?

It’s already one of the most water resistant woods in the world due to its tight, smooth, dense grain, but avoid soaking and dry immediately after washing.

Why is olive wood expensive compared to other woods?

Olive wood tends to be more expensive than many other woods because olive wood grows very irregularly, giving it its distinctive grain. However, the irregularities make machining very difficult and expensive. It also takes a long time to dry as it must be done very slowly over three to four years to avoid warping unless it is slowly kiln dried at very low temperatures. The advantage of olive wood is a highly decorative and desirable piece of wood that is more durable and less porous than many other woods. A feast for the eyes, especially when serving good food with friends.

What does olive wood symbolize?

The history of the olive tree goes back thousands of years and it is a symbol of peace, wisdom, fertility, prosperity, health, happiness, victory, stability and tranquility. In addition, the olive tree symbolizes the eternal connection between man and earth.

Are olive trees sustainable?

Some countries like to protect it, but thanks to the large production of olives and olive oil, it is not an endangered species. The wood used for furniture and other smaller objects comes from pruning the huge branches needed for easy production. Olive wood is not used for building and construction because it is not suitable. Farmers plant hundreds of thousands of trees every year across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Disclaimer for natural products

All olive wood products are natural and unique, especially the characteristics of the rustic products that leave part of the bark behind. Grain differences also vary widely across the range and we cannot guarantee consistency from one piece to the next. On rare occasions there may be products that develop a loose piece of bark or a slightly rough edge or a small crack somewhere. These are easy to fix. Fill with epoxy for small cracks, let cure and sand with 120 grit paper, then apply some oil and it’s good as new. Likewise if the outer bark comes off somewhere. It is easy to attach with some epoxy glue. Just pry it apart, apply glue and stick until tight. These are natural products and will last a lifetime with proper care. Keep them well oiled to bring out the beauty of the wood.

Russian olive trees generally have fairly short trunks and many gnarled branches. They don’t produce as many large chunks of firewood as larger tree species, but the branches make good kindling.

When green, Russian olive wood develops an unpleasant smell. It also does not burn and produces excessive smoke. Don’t burn it until it’s aged for at least a year. Russian olive wood burns very slowly. Fires made only with this wood are difficult to start. Use a combination of woods instead.

Why is that happend?

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