Thanks, folks! I’m surprised that folks think Russian olive is lighter. All of it I’ve seen has been pretty dark heartwood, though the sapwood is light.
FYI, here are four boards I processed this morning. Three of them will need some sort of work (likely a masking tape and epoxy fill) before they’re usable in a box due to cracks in the wood. This log had two nasty ring-shakes all down the length of it. The next log from the tree also had a twist of about 50 degrees through a two-foot length, which made splitting it so I could process it into bowl blanks interesting.
It’s pretty wood though, and I hope it will be worth all the headaches.
