Olivewood?

[Doc Jones]

Just wondering why nobody is making flutes out of olive wood. I recently saw some amazing whistles made of the stuff. I once heard from a baroque flute maker that olive was great for flutes.

So makers (or others in the know) is there a reason olive wood isn't used more for tooters?

Doc

[Denny]

Hey Doc,

Casey had a post about it once.

Odd the things ya remember, eh?

[JS]

Pretty one here, first flute in the gallery section:

http://users.skynet.be/fluiten/gallery.html

[Unseen122]

I was talking to someone at a session last week who said they used to have an Olivewood by Casey Burns. I think it was Tamadden. The story was he had a friend whos house he used to play at, and the cat at the friends house wouldn't leave the Flute alone. He said it smelled just like Olive Oil.

Windward Flutes makes Olivewood Flutes, I found that link on Brad's site. No idea what they are like.

[Congratulations]

Mr. Seery has Olivewood listed on his site as an available wood.

[Jonathan]

There's also a picture of one on the Seery site.
Olive isn't quite as tough as blackwood, but it sure
is purdy. Specific gravity is around 0.89. May be
similar to boxwood? Correct me if I'm wrong..

[Jon C.]

There's also a picture of one on the Seery site.
Olive isn't quite as tough as blackwood, but it sure
is purdy. Specific gravity is around 0.89. May be
similar to boxwood? Correct me if I'm wrong..

European Boxwood (Buxus sempervirens)
Origin: Pyrenees and England.
Boxwood is a dense, heavy wood with a density of 0,95-1,1 gm/ccm.
Boxwood is a little denser. It would be close to the boxwood that is grown in the US and South America.

[Jonathan]

Thanks m8!

[Tamadden]

[quote="Unseen122"]I was talking to someone at a session last week who said they used to have an Olivewood by Casey Burns. I think it was Tamadden. The story was he had a friend whos house he used to play at, and the cat at the friends house wouldn't leave the Flute alone. He said it smelled just like Olive Oil.quote]

Yup that was me. I had a lovely Olivewood flute by Casey - don't remember who I sold it to.

Anyway, Lesl Harker's cat was nuts about that flute! And I don't blame him. The flute smelled just like a bowl of spanish olives, with perhaps the slightest overtone of pimento.

All the best,

Tom

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[chas]

I think one reason it's not used much is the difficulty (and expense) of obtaining blanks large enough for flutes. I checked a few different places and have yet to find turning squares big enough for flutes. No logs either.

[lesl]

Yes it was our cat Tasha (r.i.p.) who was very fond of green olives and used to sneak a lick of any plate that had "olive juice" on it. On the night under discussion, I had put Tom's flute down on the couch and she went over to it sniffing, then licked the tone holes, then up to the blow hole and tried to bite it - at which point I snatched it out of her lioness jaws..

[Dralore]

A good thing about Olive wood is that it doesn't tend to crack as much as black wood although it is not a hard. It makes a very nice tone especially in whistles as well as flutes. Finding a source that has the blanks large enough to make a flute is a challenge. Seery does offer flutes in Olive. If you have any questions about obtaining one, or any other Seery instruments, Please let me know.

[tin tin]

There's a beautiful olivewood flute with blackwood rings here:
http://www.windwardflutes.com/windwardflutes.html
(Click on "gallery"--it's the second flute.)

[Dana]

There's a beautiful olivewood flute with blackwood rings here:
http://www.windwardflutes.com/windwardflutes.html
(Click on "gallery"--it's the second flute.)

Now, did you have to do that to me!!!

[DCrom]

There's a beautiful olivewood flute with blackwood rings here:
http://www.windwardflutes.com/windwardflutes.html
(Click on "gallery"--it's the second flute.)

Now, did you have to do that to me!!!

Are we resurrecting the "Flute lichen" thread?