How to Spot Real Olive Wood (and How It Compares to Bamboo)

Oct 20

4 min read

Close-up of the swirling dark and light grain on a solid olive wood cutting board — Real olive wood grain swirls and runs right through the wood. No two pieces look the same.

With Thanksgiving behind us, holiday gift shopping is about to begin in earnest. Craft markets, online marketplaces and big box stores are already filling up with "olive wood" boards, bowls and spoons, and some of them are not what they claim to be.

Real olive wood is beautiful, dense and built to last for decades. Lookalikes can be stained softwood, glued scraps, or simply another wood with an olive label attached. Knowing the difference means your money goes toward something that will actually be used and treasured.

Every piece we sell is carved from a single piece of olive wood by artisans in Crete and finished only with organic olive oil and beeswax. Here is what we look for, and what you should look for too.

Look at the Grain First

Six olive wood bowls with different grain patterns arranged on a table with holiday gift wrap — Even in a matched set, every real olive wood bowl has its own grain.

The grain is the biggest giveaway. Real olive wood has a wild, swirling grain with dark brown streaks and ribbons running through a lighter cream, honey or golden base. The pattern is irregular and full of movement, a little like marble, and no two pieces look the same.

Signs that a piece may not be genuine:

The grain looks perfectly straight and even. Olive trees grow twisted and gnarled, so their wood rarely does.
Several pieces in a set look identical. Real olive wood varies from piece to piece, even in a matched set like our Bowl Set of 6.
The pattern seems to sit on the surface. A printed or stained pattern stops at the surface; real grain runs right through the wood and continues around the edges.

Check the Weight and Feel

Olive wood is very dense. Pick up a real olive wood board and it feels noticeably heavy for its size, solid in the hand rather than light and hollow.

Run your fingers over it too. A well-finished olive wood piece feels smooth and slightly silky thanks to its natural oils. If a board feels very light, or the wood feels dry and fibrous, there is a good chance it is a softer, cheaper wood.

Look for Glue Lines and Seams

Many low-cost boards are made by gluing strips or blocks of wood together. That is not necessarily a bad thing for other woods, but it is a red flag when a product is sold as handcrafted olive wood.

Look closely at the ends and edges. A genuine one-piece olive wood board shows grain that flows continuously across the whole piece, with no straight glue lines or sudden changes in colour. Pieces with a natural edge, like our Natural Cutting Board, follow the shape of the tree itself, which is very hard to fake. If you have ever wondered about those organic edges, we explain them in our post on why some olive wood boards have bark edges.

Check the Finish

Real olive wood does not need to be hidden. A shiny, plastic-feeling lacquer or a thick coloured stain can be used to disguise a cheaper wood or uneven colour. It can also make a board less pleasant to cut on, because a hard coating chips and wears unevenly.

Genuine olive wood kitchenware is usually finished with food-safe oils and waxes that let the grain show through and the wood breathe. Ours is finished only in olive oil and beeswax, the same finish you will refresh at home as part of regular oiling.

Be Wary of Prices That Seem Too Good

Olive wood is slow-growing, hard to carve, and takes time to dry properly. That shows up in the price. If a large "olive wood" board costs about the same as a basic bamboo board, it is worth asking more questions.

A trustworthy seller should be able to tell you where the wood comes from, how the piece was made, and what it is finished with. We explain exactly what goes into our pricing in our post on how much olive wood cutting boards cost.

Olive Wood vs Bamboo: A Quick Recap

An olive wood cutting board beside a striped bamboo cutting board on a kitchen counter — Bamboo is pressed and glued in strips. Olive wood is carved from one solid piece.

Bamboo is the board you will see everywhere this season, so it is worth a quick comparison.

Material: Bamboo is technically a grass. Bamboo boards are made from many thin strips pressed and glued together. Olive wood boards like ours are carved from one solid piece.
Look: Bamboo has a uniform, striped look with visible joints. Olive wood has a swirling, one-of-a-kind grain.
Knives: Bamboo boards contain a lot of glue and natural silica, which many cooks find harder on knife edges. Dense olive wood is a classic, knife-friendly cutting surface.
Lifespan: A cared-for olive wood board can last for decades and often looks better with age.

For a full side-by-side with maple, walnut, teak and bamboo, read our guide to the best wood for kitchen cutting boards.

Shop Real Olive Wood with Confidence

When you are holiday shopping, trust your hands and eyes: swirling grain that runs through the wood, real weight, no glue lines, a natural oil and wax finish, and a seller who can tell you its story.

Every piece in our handcrafted olive wood collection is carved in Crete, finished in olive oil and beeswax, and shipped from Oshawa across Canada. Explore our olive wood bowls and cutting boards to see the real thing for yourself.