LIM Pendant

Sometimes making doesn't need to be complicated. Or difficult. Or time-consuming.

Sometimes the material just speaks for itself.

Sometimes it's almost too bad to 'do something' with it.

Sometimes nature itself is the best designer.

Sometimes less is simply a lot more.

When we lived in South France, I spent many hours everywhere.

Many hours at sea, chasing tuna fish by kayak - many times I only crossed dolphins...

Many hours in the mountains, chasing sunrises - many times I also had sunsets...

Many hours in no-mans lands, chasing wooden masterpieces - many times I also met the presumed inexistent land-owners...

I fell in love with olive-wood, in that period. No wonder that my very first instructable was made over there.

Olive-wood is living art. It has a unique, unpredictable, warm and fascinating, wonderful grain, it's extremely dense and heavy and the smell of the fresh cut wood is just overwhelming.

Old, abandoned, dead olive trees became the ultimate treasures during many walks, over there...

In fact, this instructable is a kind of useful sidekick of another instructable - the yo-yo-one.

Since I wanted to make that knife thinner and more beautiful, I decided to give it a shot with a precious piece of left-over-olive from yet another project.

Using a 50mm clock drill it's very easy to cut nice 'carrots' from it.

The smell... Just unbelievable...

Since I wanted to use these carrots to cut slices for the knife-handle, I decided to test to which thickness I could get them before they would break.

That's where the fascinating caracteristics of this wood come into the game. Using a handheld steel-saw I cut a handful of discs of less than 4mm - 3.9mm, to be precise - which I tried to break using medium force aka one hand.

Honestly, this wood is strong. Try this simple action with 10mm beech and it will break immediately. With 8mm oak idem. Same force, 4mm olive - go ahead. Compare it with cracking a walnut. It works, but you have to work for it.

I wanted my knife-handles, I got my knife handles.

But I also got absolutely beautiful wooden discs to use in other projects.

Or in a not-project like this one.

So I enlarged the center hole, rounded the edges and sanded a few discs smooth to 1200 grit.

No more than that. And a tiny drop of walnut oil as finish.

Sometimes less is simply more, I said.

Go find that wonderful piece of wood, reveal its story and open that particular time-window, these few years in a life of a three with no name.

Back to woodworking basics, you know...