Hi All
just a question, i'm wanting to go dig some olives again this year and i remembered reading in one of the posts about olives , that someone mentioned that chainsaw oil is bad for the olive if you flat bottom it with a chainsaw. I was wondering if one used a foodgrade oil for the chain whether that would be better
regards
peterb
Hi Peterb , yes chainsaw oil does have a toxic effect of living plants and is difficult to remove . I have used vegetable oil for flat cutting and carving big trunks . Olive oil tends to smoke and burn very quickly when used on a chainsaw .Flush the oil resevior in the saw when finished as some vegie oils harden to a degree after being heated
Wipe the excess oil off the plant after cutting , even a few dish drops in water and a quick wash is worth the effort .
Hi Alpineart
hey mate i thought it was yourself that had posted something about it but i just couldn't find it .I'm wondering if thats why the first olive i dug up hasn't done so well , i dug it up 2 seasons ago and it's really struggled along . Mate i work in the maint dep for a bakery and we have special lubricants for the machines that are food grade, these are made by inox and i was wondering if they would be ok, if not i'll try the olive oil but it was just a thought
regards
peterb
Hi Peterb, I've never heard chainsaw oil being toxic on trees before. Don't doubt it tho. Have slabbed trees for years tho, and noticed that the oil does stay in the timber for a long time. Have you thought about trying lanolin. I don't think it's food grade, but I don't think it's toxic either. (It's made from sheeps wool). Dont know how it will go as chain oil, but I use it at work on all our machinery, and it's the best oil I've come accross for both the machines and the timber used on them. Just thought I'd throw it out there. It's a very under rated and over looked product. Hopefully someone else knows a little more about it, and can add to this.
Hi Tim
Interesting thought there, I use lanolin on my bonsai tools and I agree with you that it's underrated, wonder how we can go about finding out
regards
peterb