Anyone familiar with Russian Olive ?

[KeithO]

I have had a couple of very old long dead trees scattered around my property. They have been dead so long that there is not any bark left on them. The wood seems very rot resistant, with the only sign of penetration being tunneling bugs. The color of the wood is very light yellow, with the smaller branches seeming denser and darker. The grain of the wood, particularly on the outside seems twisted, like a giant had twisted the trunk round and around. If there are any tiny cracks, they run around the trunk like a helix, instead of the generally straight pattern one sees with most hardwood.

For all of its looks and color, this stuff is almost impossible to split. The shear/peel strength of the wood is phenomenal. I hit one piece about 8" diameter with all the force I could muster with my Fiskars splitting axe (the biggest one they carry) and the edge penetrated about 3/4 inch and was then actually bounced straight back up. I thought I might be on candid camera, it was so unexpected. For those of you who are not familiar, the Fiskars splitting axe actually has a fairly sharp edge and the sides are hollow ground so that the axe becomes progressively wider toward the back. There is also some sort of anti friction coating on the faces, since it doesn't appear to bind as bad as some cheaper mauls I have tried. I have tried splitting with a wedge, but the V of the wedge is too steep to even be able to penetrate to the point that it will stay in place so that I can use both hands on my 10lb hammer. I have tried re-sharpening my wedge to a narrower V but it is slow going with the toughened steel, so it is not right yet.

When the wood does split, it is not a clean break at all. The break is very uneven, with material torn out both sides up to 1/2" deep. I split about 6 rounds a few nights ago from about 14" to 10" diameter and it was brutal. Each split took at least 8-10 hits with the 10lb hammer and then still a lot of fighting to free the wedge / splitting axe. I had to slplit each round from into 4-6 pieces to get an acceptable size split. Someone I know, who is into wood working said it looked like Russian Olive. Does it sound familiar in any way ? I will post a picture tomorrow if I get home before dark...

Just found this website that seems to confirm the suspicions: http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/olive.htm

Apparently Russian Oive is an invasive species. It is banned in Colorado but still sold by nursaries elsewhere.

 

[Mike Wilson]

I have Russian Olive in the front of my property. I had about 8 mature ones, but I took two out this year with the chain saw, and will be splitting them for next year's use once. We use them up here by the water as an ornamental plant. They are resistant to almost anything, except for their own weight. They will eventually splay out so far, about 20-25 feet wide, that the wind will twist a branch and crack it off. The rest of the tree will be fine. Oh, and they live forever. One remnant of the plant left in the ground will re-root itself and start again. I think they are considered invasive because they drop copious amounts of seeds, and i find little Russian Olive seedlings popping up every year... they are removed. Oh, and the plant is extremely cold and salt water tolerant.

Anyways, I have burned plenty of it. Some of the smaller rounds go in without being split, the larger ones I split and dry, using a 25 ton Honda splitter. I am going to try splitting it with my new 5 ton DR splitter this weekend. Anyways, it burns well, not as good as locust, but not bad.

-- Mike