Olive wood is an excellent choice! I have considered getting a rosary made of wood b/c my only one is made of roses and too fragile for daily use.

When I was doing my deep dive, I found a few other links. This woman started a website https://paternoster-row.medievalscotland.org/ and I believe she published in an SCA journal. I tried tracking it down but hit a dead end but it makes sense that SCA would figure this out. I didn't know they published research but this will be a road I go down eventually. There's a deadlink on her about page. I believe I still have borrowing privileges at the university where I did graduate work and was going to look into this but, realistically, it will take me a while to get to it. If you go down the path - let me know!

My rose beads were a nice first try but a miss. Too lumpy. I was hoping the long boil method would break things down more since blenders are not historical. Turns out I need a more abrasive mortar and pestle as a first step pre-boil, since my little one was too smooth and couldn't break down dry petals. My best modern guess is one of those mexican guacamole mortars and I'll work on getting one of those next.