Privet is best known and most often seen as a garden hedge. Like Ash, it is a member of the Olive family. In addition to being cultivated to create ornamental hedges, privet is also widely used in horticulture and flower arrangements Because the bark is uninteresting, it is almost always peeled in stick-making. When fully stripped, the exposed wood is white but responds well to linseed oil giving a lovely golden yellow hue. If the underbark is retained, the shank displays a rich brown hue. It is an ideal wood for stickmaking as it grows relatively straight and is extremely tough when properly seasoned.
