Teak Wood - Dumb Question

[Bob Moyer]

Sorry for the dumb question, but where would one buy teak wood; I am replacing the wood on an old bench.

Thank you!

[Byron Trantham]

Bob,
I'd look in the yellow pages under lumber. If you do find a source, hang on to your wallet, it's expensive. Also, teak is murder on tools. It's very dense and has a bit of silica in it that acts like abrasive. Good luck.

[Brett Baldwin]

You don't list where you live so we can't give you specific places but in general you will want to look for a hardwood dealer. Woodfinder(.)com lists dealers in your area. Rockler and Woodcraft have stock sometimes though they aren't the cheapest places to get it. You might also check with any places that deal with sailboats. They would probably have some idea since it used to be popular for rails.

[Ray Moser]

You might try a boat repair shop. I found a 2"X8"X9' teak plank at a cabinet shop that had formerly done boat repair. I called in the Fall and found they had teak and said I be there to get some in the Spring. They said they didn't have much on hand and what they did have was $16/bf and when they reordered they expected the price to go to $32/bf. I was there the next day to pick up what I needed to repair a boat swim deck.

[patrick anderson]

unless you really need teak I'd look at iroko which is very similar in properties but cheaper

[Pat Germain]

I remember hearing recently that teak is more widely available of late due to the maturation of tree farms in Central America. I may have heard this from Norm on NYW.

Teak is still used on boats in lots of places. As mentioned, larger marine suppliers should have it or at least know where to get it.

OT: I spent some time aboard the battleship Iowa during my Navy days. All the weather decks on those battleships were covered in teak! I can't imagine what it cost to do that. Just before we got underway, I saw some contractors replacing a section near the quarterdeck. I was able to see the pieces before installation and I'm pretty that stuff was 8/4. They used a small bandsaw to cut it. The teak on Iowa's decks was raw. At least one battleship, possibly Wisconsin, had finished decks which looked like a mirror. That ship must have had one hardnose Chief Bos'n! I'm going to try to find a picture of that deck. It's something I'm sure any woodworker could appreciate.

[Matt Campbell]

I have 90 BF of Brazilian teak (AKA cumaru), only $5 per BF. Ave. length-6', ave. width-6". Shipping is readily available for any amount you'd like. You only have to promise pictures when you're done with the project. :D

[Brook Duerr]

Global Teak has some decent mail order prices. They also have any thickness you would ever need. I have not ever ordered from them, but I was recently hunting for some 16/4 stock and they had it. I ended up laminating two 8/4 hunks to get what I needed. They are slow at email responses, but someone always calls back on the phone. These are the guys selling 100 bd ft packages on Ebay for $1295 which is $12.95/bd ft. That is about $5 less than I can get it for locally.

It is a dreamy wood that is hard on the tools. You hands will feel like they were rubed with lotion after you work with the wood. It has color variations which can be hard to deal with. I recently made a deck table and I used individual boards to keep the colors to a sort of pattern. 5 Coats of Watco teak oil and I have a satin finish that beads water like a freshly waxed car.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e179/drvermin/P7273349.jpg?t=1185537638