suggestions in milling olive wood

[djcoop]

I have 4ea 7 ft. long 12 - 14 inch diameter olive logs and would like to mill them on our LT70 WoodMizer. Having had no experience with requested demensions in which to mill this wood for selling purposes, I was hoping someone could give me some ideas.

Thanks
djcoop

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum. What ever you saw them at the buyer will want them thicker or wider.  ;D  Just seems that way that's all. I suppose no way to wait until someone is interested? Take a deposit too.

Almost forgot,they will want them kiln dried too.

Than they only want to pay 20 cents a BF too.

[Tom]

You need to get your head in the right plane. It's not the best thing to do, to saw logs into stuff and then find a market.  You need the market first and fill the need or you need to saw something and then create a market.

With plantation pine logs, you can saw for an existing market of 2x4's or 1x6's and stand a chance of selling them.  When it comes to specialty logs, logs that are not commercially available to the average bear, you are better off if you find the market and then saw the log.  Your market might be as small as an individual who wants to build something for his house.  To satisfy him, you saw what he wants, not provide him with a selection of stuff that he might not want. 

Most cabinet woods are sawed in 4/4 thickneses but some woods are so expensive that sawing them is a waste.  These kinds of woods are turned or sliced for veneer.  With a bandsaw, you can simulate veneer if you have that market.  You might cut it one quarter thick or 3/8's thick, in that case.  But it sure is hard to dry and handle. 

Many of these woods that are not commonly sold for furniture are cut into turning blanks.  Here again, you need to know the end user, your market.

Since logs do best when sawed as soon as taken off of the stump, you need to get busy with finding the market a lot quicker than wondering what to saw it into.  It would behoove you to determine the grain orientation that might fit that particular kind of wood too.  Some woods can be quarter-sawed for figure and stability and some gain their value by being flat-sawed.   The Wood Handbook, written about in this forum and linked in the Knowledge Base under forum extras, actually has some charts that recommend grain orientations for various woods.
(note that there are links in the above paragraph)

I don't care how experienced you get and how much you learn, you will never know what your individual customer will want without asking him, in the world of custom sawing. 

[djcoop]

Thanks for the input Tom, as you probably figured, I'm a rookie!! Other than the lentghs I spoke of I also have the base of the trunk. I have them stickered and drying in the Barn and I've been reading that there is something I should be coating it with to keep it from checking and twisting real bad. I've noticed on a couple of the smaller pieces I've been playing with are doing just that.
Thanks again, I do appreciate your time. 

[jim king]

Olive wood sells well as turning blanks.  And good prices.

http://www.exoticwoodgroup.com/order_olivewood.htm

[Tom]

The most popular end coating is called Anchorseal and is made by U-C Coatings.   Some folks have used paint  and some have made their own wax concoctions to varying degrees of success.  It's easiest to paint the ends of the log before you saw it, but painting the ends of boards works too.  Once end-checking starts, it's difficult to stop it.  Usually you have to cut it back to un-checked wood and then seal it.   The idea is keep the water from running out of the end of the board.  The ends drying too fast causes the problems.

On turning blanks you might benefit by sealing the entire blank.

Welcome to the Forum!   I look forward to hearing of your success.