Olive wood for gunstocks?
At church today a person from Bethlehem was selling items made from olive wood from there. Amazing grain! So I was wondering if it's ever used for gunstocks. Anyone know?
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The reason that walnut and some hardwoods are the standards for wood stocks is availability and consistancy for both commercial and military use. One of a kind custom stocks can and have been made of many stunning woods and if you can find a chunk of Olive that is of good grain configuration and moisture content then there is no reason that you shouldn't give it a try. Just remember that stockmakers may well charge extra to shape and fit and finish it because of the unknown factor of limited use wood. Also the resale value of such a piece is often less because it is a aquired taste for that style of wood, kinda like a pink cadilac. But, that is why we have custom rifles so knock yourself out if it works for you..... 0 -
Any person from Bethlehem is a Palastinian. You have Palastinain's selling trinkets to Christians in your church? Or do you have secretive missionaries there?
Anyway, olive wood has a very dark heartwood and a lighter surrounding wood. With many flaws in bigger pieces of wood, like knotty pine. Not ideal for longer stocks. The trees don't get that long straight growth, they twist and bend a lot.
Which makes it only good for making small trinkets to sell to Christian tourists.[;)]
Thor0 -
I've seen kitchen spoons made out of them. I've also seen them in pistol stocks. Since some places use trash wood for stocks I don't see why not.
I'm kind a waiting on Bamboo. All those strips pressed then laminated together. I'd call it "Waribasi" (as in disposable chopsticks [:D]).0 -
Cut it when it's green and peel the bark off. The sapwood will dry, and color age like ivory. Makes pretty pistol grips, but I wouldn't use it for a stock. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by thorhammer
Any person from Bethlehem is a Palastinian. You have Palastinain's selling trinkets to Christians in your church? Or do you have secretive missionaries there?
Yes, Bethlehem is on the West Bank, and therefore part of the so-called occupied territories.
I've actually been there before the first Intifada when Yassir Arafat was still running things EDIT: Unrelated bit about social/political circumstances in West Bank removed here, but there are still a few Christians in Bethlehem, for what that's worth.
Anyway, to answer the question, olive trees tend to be gnarly and full of knots and other defects. For crop reasons, the trees are pruned down often, and so most trees aren't very tall. Consequently, its hard to get good long boards of the stuff, let alone thick solid boards with straight grain that aren't prone to splitting.
So, while its certainly *possible* to build a gunstock out of the stuff and it probably would look very nice, I think you'd probably have a hard time locating a suitably sized, aged, dried piece without defects to build it from.
Note that olives are grown in warm climates all over the world, including right here in the USA. Even though I personally wouldn't buy jack-poo from the West Bank EDIT: reasoning deleted in practice, I don't think you're likely to be able find a piece of wood of the quality you'd want to make a stock from there anyway.
If you're really serious about pursuing this, I'd start by taking a look at old-growth Italian olive wood. That's probably your best chance of finding a dense piece with the right consistency for the project.
quote:Which makes it only good for making small trinkets to sell to Christian tourists.[;)]
Well, Jerusalem and Bethlehem do have cottage industries selling little olive wood crosses, and pens and so forth to tourists, but lots more does get built out of olive wood: Bowls, serving spoons, pool cues(!), cutting boards, even nice (though usually small) furniture.
Again, while the Palestinian/Israeli olive *oil* is amongst the best in the world, for *lumber* purposes, the best olive wood is probably found outside the Holy land.
Here are a few examples of what CAN be done with olive wood:
Italian:
Edit (responding to below):
You're welcome.
If you're looking to build something like this, probably the best part of the tree is the part just above the roots as most dense and likely knot-free. If you can actually find a standard gunstock blank out of olive wood from a reputable dealer that would be your best bet, but for the reasons listed above I suspect that's going to be fairly tough. (If you DO find a source, please post it here, I'd be curious to know!).
I think more likely you'd have to adapt some sort of lumber intended for furniture for a rifle stock, and even there you may have to dig a bit. Note that olive wood is highly prone to warping, and before you try to build something like a gunstock out of it, you have to make sure the wood has been well-seasoned. Kiln-dried may not be good enough.
Yes, at about 60 lbs/cubic foot olive wood is heavy and tough to carve, roughly double the weight of ordinary walnut, or about 1/3 more than maple. But its also roughly the same weight as ebony or mesquite, and people DO make gunstocks out of those.
Whether or not another another (say) 1-3 lbs of wood weight in a rifle stock is a deal breaker is going to depend on what kind of gun you want to stick it on, and how much wood the stock requires.
Ultimately, I think you're probably going to have a much easier time making pistol grips instead of rifle ones. How cool would it be to have an Israeli "Jericho" pistol with grips made from wood from the actual city of Jericho? (Which, by the way is on the West Bank, just a short hop away from Bethlehem).
1911 Pistol with Bethlehem olive wood grips:0 -
Many thanks BEANTOWNSHOOTAH!! Your answer was again the best (you answered another question for me many months ago).
The man selling the items (too large, complicated, and beautiful to be "trinkets" THORHAMMER!)is definitly Christian. Our pastor met him in the Holy Land and he sells the items to help continue Christian causes as Christians have shrunk from 20% a few years ago to just
1 1/2% now.
I googled olivewood gunstocks and it's been done before and spoken of very highly. It's harder than maple. Blanks are available. Just has to be very dry and sealed well.
Hardly "trash" wood YOSHMYSTER.....0 -
I have olive wood stocks on one of my Walther PP pistols:
I am also going to remind everyone gently that the politics of the situation in the West Bank as well as any subjects dealing with religion (which are supposed to be totally banned on the Gun Broker site) or not among those that we discuss here in Ask The Experts.0 -
Gunstock wood is a compromise between durability and weight!
There are other (furniture grade-quite beautiful) woods out there, dark stained cherry and oak comes to mind, that would be too heavy to use in an item to be hefted about.
Check carefully* on just what weight olivewood would impart on the total heft of a fully-stocked rifle. You may find it not to your liking in that aspect. Best, Joe
*olivewood blanks-furniture manufacturing0 -
Your point about OLIVE WOOD weight is a good one and well taken GIVETTE. It is heavier than maple. Could be just the thing though for a heavy varminter or benchrest gun. Many thanks for your input. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by mark christian
I have olive wood stocks on one of my Walther PP pistols:
I am also going to remind everyone gently that the politics of the situation in the West Bank as well as any subjects dealing with religion (which are supposed to be totally banned on the Gun Broker site) or not among those that we discuss here in Ask The Experts.
Nice to find out what I have too - on an Interarms PPK/S, had no idea of the wood type.0
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