Report on olive

[Sasquatch]

I went to a specialty exotic hardwood supplier, and rooted through his olive for piece that contained a bit of dark heartwood and some nice sapwood, which is the light green/straw color.

I've got two pipes on the go, but will get about a dozen from 50 bucks worth of olive. This wood is FAR easier to work than briar, and would be a much better introductory material for a beginner. It works easily, has very (unbelievably) uniform texture - no flaking, no pores.... it works almost identically in every direction.

Sanding is far easier - olive is a lot softer than briar, so it is much easier to sand for shape and to sand out scratches. It does NOT however, take to a tripoli wheel worth crap. The wood stains up and just doesn't polish.
White tripoli might work, but I'm not happy with my results so far. I think I will be doing a high level sanding on the stummel and wax it from there.

The results are nice, from a woodworking point of view. The grain of olive wood is totally different from briar of course, and the result is anything from a really mottled pipe to a completely clear one. The sapwood I have is dead clear. No pits, and hardly any color variation, so the pipes look almost like seasoned meershaum.

Will post some pix when I've got things polished up.

[Frank]

It does NOT however, take to a tripoli wheel worth crap. The wood stains up and just doesn't polish.
White tripoli might work, but I'm not happy with my results so far. I think I will be doing a high level sanding on the stummel and wax it from there.

That is the reason why I only use coloured compounds for buffing metal. Menzerna compounds are all light in colour, but are available in a few different grits.