#0826 - wild olive

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 7:22 am

This pipe is crap, there is not enough space here to tell you all that is wrong with it, but I thought somebody out there might find the wild olive interesting.

Källman · Post by **Källman** » Sun Aug 10, 2008 4:11 pm

Might be crap, but you captured a nice swirl around the stummel there! Also i kinda like the creamy look of it.

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 2:55 am

Wild olive is beautiful to work with. It's as hard as rock (bit of a probem when you don't have a bandsaw and have to saw by hand), and by the time you have finished with 220 grit, already smooth as silk.
Hopefully will have something decent made from wild olive to show in the near future.

Källman · Post by **Källman** » Mon Aug 11, 2008 7:33 pm

Harder wood must mean tighter fibers and beautiful grains, should you find the right block. I suppose it would be harder to blast it and do anything besides getting it nicely polished. Bet you can get a real nice shine tho!

Where was the block taken from? Did you cut it yourself?

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 3:51 am

Family friends of ours live on a farm in the Karoo (a sort of semi-arid area in SA) and they send me some blocks. These unfortunately have quite a lot of cracks. And because of the hardness takes A LOT of effort and elbow grease to get into a workable shape. Hopefully Christmas Father will get me a bandsaw this year!

Below are a couple.

Frank · Post by **Frank** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:53 pm

Charl, If they are cutting dead wood off the trees or if the tree is dead when they cut it, chances are it has already started to crack. If they cut the wood while it is still green (alive), you should ask them to immediately coat the cut ends with wax and leave it to dry over a number of months. That should, hopefully, prevent it from cracking.

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 2:58 am

Thanks for the info, Frank. Most of the pieces that I have has been cut from dead wood, so yes, these have A LOT of cracks in. So far I have only been able to get one really small piece that is flawless, out of maybe 4 big blocks.
Also have a thick branch that has been cut green, and which I have been nursing since beginning of the year. I'm spraying it with fine mist every so often and that also seems to help. The prospects seem promising.

pennsyscot · Post by **pennsyscot** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:17 am

ordinary white glue is a good way to seal the end grain.

Olivier · Post by **Olivier** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:20 am

Charl, I would seriously advise you to try and use thicker stumps to work with. It is less prone to cracking and more usable wood with grain instead of the softer pale wood. Olive allways crack from the centre outwards AND from the outside inward. Don't saw the wood into blocks long in advance for making a pipe. Select whatever section of the stump you want to use, cut it and immediately form the pipe at least to a rough shape. Keep it out of the sun and as soon as the bowl is completed apply some Olive oil to the outside of the bowl. I guess you could use other oil too but this is what I use and it seems to work. The inside should oil itself as soon as the pipe gets smoked frequently. Use only the dryest wood you can lay your hands on. I normally apply a few layers of Olive oil spread over a day or two and then seal of the outside of the stummel with Rennaisance wax. I have already made 3 Olive pipes and all of them are in daily use. I dished them out as free "samples" to serious pipe smokers and so far so good. I'm actually using these guys as guinea-pigs to see how the Olive behaves under rough conditions. And believe me, they don't mind at all.

They are good friends of mine and also masters in the art of oral advertising.

Charl · Post by **Charl** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:20 pm

Thanks for the tip, Olivier. Will definitely try the olive oil.
You really hit the nail on the head by saying that it cracks both from the centre outwards as well as from the outside in. Guaranteed frustration!
Regarding the bigger stumps: I will try to get some more. But for me personally I just can't get it over my heart to saw such a beautiful tree down.