Spanish olive is best turned green. When seasoned under your Dad's bench for twenty years it gets a bit tough on tools. I was keen to try out a carbide tipped scraper which I had made from an old file and a tip I bought, and this worked beautifully for the hollowing out. There was a slight crack in the outside of the blank which I filled with epoxy resin mixed with mahogany dust. My dust collection system can build up quite a bit of fine dust when sanding, and I collect this in jam jars for use in this way rather than just dumping it in the compost bin.