Olive wood or Orange wood?

[woodburner807]

I was given some wood that is either olive or orange...according to the person who gave it to me. Here are pictures of what they said was olive wood. Online research didn't help me, so figure maybe someone here can ID it.

[Brian T]

You won't. I'm not prepared to guess. Under a microscope, woods have anatomy like finger prints.
Give me 5 minutes and I could tell you exactly what it is. Mind, you, I have fewer than 300 species in my wood collection so I could be wrong.

[woodburner807]

Thanks Brian, and suspect you are right. I was hoping someone might have an olive tree or orange tree and could rule it in or out.

[Randy]

Bill in the first picture it looks like there mabe a thorn and the patterns of bumps leads me to guess it is osage orange but it is a guess.

[woodburner807]

Thanks Randy and there aren't any thorns, but it is about 9 years old. Sure a lot of branches on it though. Just looking at the bark, light gray, and the bumps made me think Orange but have no idea. I have seen some olive trees in Nevada and the bark isn't like this.

A woman and her husband planted olive and orange trees about 9 years ago, and they were killed in that 2021 Texas storm, Maybe toss a coin.

[pallin]

Branches from any trees may not be good material for carving due to the differing stresses of the upper vs lower sides.
Brian !?!

[DiLeon]

It looks just like the bark on a citrus tree and citrus has lots of branches,...although it could be lime or lemon some have thorns. The fruit trees have a thicker base at the attachment to the base branch or tree. Looks almost like my juice orange tree. I got one lime and tangerine that has devil thorns. I have all of them...they have that smooth and grey coloring bark. I have all kinds of citrus nine different trees but never tried to carve the wood. But I have seen it made into small objects. Good luck carving it, I would go for it...should be a fun experiment.

[woodburner807]

Thanks, Di and very helpful information. I thought it was Orange and that is what the woman's husband said, and he is the one who cut the damaged trees down. However she thought it was olive. The conflict is what caused the post.

[woodburner807]

I carve wood spirits in the limbs and they don't need a lot of detail, Pallin. But, yes they can be a problem.

[DiLeon]

Thanks, Di and very helpful information. I thought it was Orange and that is what the woman's husband said, and he is the one who cut the damaged trees down. However she thought it was olive. The conflict is what caused the post.

I went out on inspection all my citrus....to see if anything looked like your pic, the orange match the pattern and bark. If he cut it, I am sure he would remember. I remember all the fruit trees I cut down because you want them too much to behave and grow right which many do not. I had awesome tasting red juicy grapefruit I had to cut a few years ago...darn thing got diseased, kicked over in one year. That was a sad moment. I have not carved fruit trees, darn powder bugs love them, and also termites... to find a good piece is rare.

[woodburner807]

I did notice some borers in the wood and some frass, but acceptable. I used to work with a lot of mesquite and often the borers were severe and the wood worthless. The bugs are winning.