Olive wood scales has anyone used?

[divewize]

good morning gents.

I was at the lumber yard last week and was checking the exotic hardwood dept and they had some real nice african olive wood that looks like would make a nice grip.

have any of you used olive wood? Its nice and hard, oily and looks pretty but how will it pan out as grip material??

I noticed some factory knives do Olive wood runs from time to time.


Many thanks "John"

 

[Daniel Koster]

I've used it and it's pretty solid - both hidden & full tang. No need to dye it. Takes a decent buff.

Dan

 

[JensJ]

It is a very good wood for handles, as it (usually) doesn't tend to shrink much. I've used it on one knife, and it held up very well.

Jens.

 

[misque]

Olivewood takes a real nice buff and holds it too. It's a great wood to work with and I wish I had some more available in this area.
The wood is not difficult to sand and seems to be fairly tough. I've only used it a few times and am happy with the results. If you get some that has good figure in it, then stock up if possible.

 

[misque]

Here's a quick pic of a little utility type knife with Olive Wood scales. This piece doesn't have spectacular figure to it, but hopefully you can see the kind of high buff it takes even with my greasy fingers smudging the surface of it.

 

[Joss]

I read somewhere that it's very oily too, which should be a good thing.

 

[JensJ]

Here's a picture of mine-shows that there's different varities of olive wood out there I just sanded it to a high grit and then hand polished with a bit of danish oil on a rag...