teak substitute?

[larry merlau]

i have boat step to make and they wanted teak, looked at the cost of teak and thought i would see if there are any alternatives that would work as well, for less money.17bf for teak::eek:

[Doug Shepard]

Ipe?. Hard on tools but it holds up to water really well (at least fresh water). I've had an outdoor cathouse sitting on Ipe runners to keep it off the ground for about 4-5 years now. There's no finish them and still no sign of any deterioration from rainwater, snow, etc.

[Jay Knoll]

Larry

Does the boat have other teak near where you are going to install the step? In my opinion, as a former sailboat owner, you want the wood to look as close to the "orginal" wood that is already on the boat. Not that Ipe isn't a good substitute, but your customer may want things to "match" as closely as possible.

[tim rowledge]

You *could* try Iroko but it tends in my experience to be not quite the right colour and grain. You might find http://www.worldpanel.com/teakinfo.htm interesting.

One suggestion is to try to find some recycled teak from a decommisioned boat.

[Howard Acheson]

>> Ipe?. Hard on tools

Not as hard on tools as teak. Teak contains a silica that dulls tools quickly.

[larry merlau]

>> Ipe?. Hard on tools

Not as hard on tools as teak. Teak contains a silica that dulls tools quickly.
can someone give me link where i can see IPE sample?

[Ian Barley]

If you are careful about grain matching then Iroko is very similar to Teak in appearance and , over here at least, about 1/6th of the cost of Teak.

[larry merlau]

If you are careful about grain matching then Iroko is very similar to Teak in appearance and , over here at least, about 1/6th of the cost of Teak.


thanks for the info folks found link that showed me the grain and color:) looks like Ipe' will work.

[Doug Shepard]

If you're going to check out Ipe, around me it's not sold like hardwood (4/4, 6/4, 8/4, etc) but as dimensioned lumber (2x4, 2x6, 4x4, etc) as it's primarily sold to deck installers. Not sure where Delton is or if someone in your area has it, but Public Lumber in Detroit (7-Mile & I-75) usually has it.

[Jim Becker]

And then there is white oak...

[Bob Aquino]

You could try Jatoba or Brazilian Cherry. I'm not sure if its as impervious to the elements as Teak, but the cost is much more reasonable and it will finish close to Teak. Its grain can be very similar. I have some used in my boat, its not directly exposed to the elements but seems to be holding up well so far.

Honduras Mahogany is very pretty and traditional. Whalers used to use Phillipine Mahogany but that seems a bit tough to come by. I used Honduras on my 13' refurb job:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-11/1100992/whaler_wood1.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-11/1100992/sideconsole.JPG
The seats are original and the rest of the wood is Honduras. I didnt stain anything and while the new wood was a few shades lighter it darkened up within a week to match the old wood.

Ipe would be a good choice for durability, but it will finish much darker than teak. Ipe is sold in alot of places that sell lumber for decking and is probably the cheapest hardwood you will find that suits your purposes.

[Ken Consaul]

Just for general information, here's a good link on the properties of various woods:

http://woodworkerssource.net/onlinewoods/

You might look at African Mahogany as well, lighter but a similar grain pattern.

[Jim O'Dell]

The Ipe I bought for my shop door threshold doesn' look anything like the woods in the boat picture above. It is a dark mousy brown, and no real grain that pops out at you. Durable yes. I understand it is hard to get a finish to adhere to it, so I left mine natural. Ipe has a lot of silica in it, too, IIRC. Very heavy and does not float. I bought 1 10" 1X6 for the threshold. Ripped a small piece off an edge to use as the door stop. Jim.

[jeremy levine]

I read that Ipe is often used as a name for any one of a number of tropical hardwoods, hence color and grain issues.

[Jamie Buxton]

In the hardwood dealers around here, there's two kinds of teak. Long boards are indeed $17 per bdft or so. I think they come from forest trees. I can also buy short boards (about 5 ft) for $6 per bdft or so. I think they come from plantation-grown trees. The plantations haven't been in existence long enough to grow old trees which make long boards.

[Matthew Poeller]

Cypress.

I always though that Cypress contained the same properties as teak of is there a real grain matching problem between the two?

[larry merlau]

i will check on the shorts like jamie suggested and the clint doesnbt like oak jim even though its weatherabilty is very good. ken c thanks for the link wil come in handy in the future. and for you doug , delton is halfway between kazo and grand rapids on m43. so if your in the neighborhood stop in. there is a good group of wwkrs near you in
ann arbor///www.marsh-monster.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1652 others on this forum belong to it. so drop in for a visit they have monthly meetings and are very friendly folks..

[tod evans]

Cypress.

I always though that Cypress contained the same properties as teak of is there a real grain matching problem between the two?

matthew, cypress is soft enough that you can dent it easly with your thumbnail, and colored very close to pine, kinda yellowish/whitish...a good finisher might could match color very closely but on stair treads a fellow would never get the wear of teak out of cypress.....02 tod

[skip coyne]

http://www.teakdecking.com/ (http://www.teakdecking.com/)

is in the area , they have a store out front http://www.teakdecking.com/teakhut.htm
so I stopped in a few weeks ago , the store is full of odd size pieces when I asked if it was scrap they where selling he corrected me and said with teak there is no such thing as scrap .

anyway Im going to be working up that way next week and if you want to let me know the sizes you need I could stop by and see what the price would be or you could contact them direct .

[Reg Mitchell]

If the customer wants teak then it would be the thing to price it to him and let him make the decission. Teak is hard and will need carbide tools to cut and form it. It's also used on salt water boats too for the main reason it's just almost impervious to rotting. It is hard to get a finish to stick on it because of the oil in the wood. It needs to be sanded and laquor thinner cleaned and then coated with a finish.
Reg :)