Teak

[Tony Bilello]

A friend of mine has an old teak boat that was made in China way back when. The boat has some issues, mainly that it is solid wood.
He was thinking that the boat might be worth more if parted however, there are old iron nails about every 12" to 14" so the deck beams cant be used as teak planks. Is there any market in the teak as a turning wood?
The boards that could be cut up are about 12" to 14" wide and about 1 1/2" thick. This would make 12 to 14 inch bowls an inch and a half thick.
Would this be worth the effort?
Is Teak considered food safe?
How much would a teak blank like this be worth?

Tony B

[Greg Cuetara]

Tony,
That teak is not worth anything...let me know where you are located and I will come take apart the boat for you and get rid of that awful wood.
Greg

[Jerry Sambrook]

Greg,
Pick me up on the way through, and I will help you
Jerry

[curtis rosche]

teak that has been used as a boat if full of water, pprobably salt stained, no one will want it, except for small inlay things where the color change wont be noticible. it is not a safe wood. you should get rid of it asap, i live in paradise PA. i can help dispose of this ugly dangerous wood.

[TYLER WOOD]

Tony, don't listen to tese yahoo's!!!! It's fine if you are an amature turner not wanting to get any nice wood. It's OK if you HAVE to use it. Me, I would not as it's generally a throw away wood. Let me use it to perfect my skills!!!:D

Actually it would be very worth your time to try and salvage as much as possible. If you gan get the nails removed you may be able to rip the edges and still end up with 8-10" wide boards that are hole free. The water will not be much of a problem, as teak is naturally water resistant (not water proof) it shouldn't be too bad unless it's set in water the entire time. You may be able to sell the stuff at a very nice profit!!!

[Raymond Overman]

Wow, tough crowd here. Teak is beautiful wood and nice to work with. It's hard on tools. If he starts sending it to everyone on SMC's Turner's forum, for being so nice and helpful, put me down for a couple of pieces. I could probably make something out of it if my arm was twisted.

I can't say how much your reclaimed wood is worth exactly. I have a feeling that it's worth whatever the guy can negotiate. From my quick Interwebgoogle search, it looks like you can buy teak at about $28-$33 / bf kiln dried and being that his stock is in short lengths I would think a fair price would be well under this. Especially if he found a buyer for the lot.

[robert hainstock]

I have a small quantity of "Shipwreck" oak that lay on the bottom of lake Superior for over 100 years. Other than the fact that the water stained the wood dark charcoal black and that there were some long, large spikes in it, it works fine. So would teak.:):)
Bob

[Jim Underwood]

Tony,

You're being awful cagey. We need to know your address, phone number and approximate board feet, so we can arrange to stea... er.. give you an exact price on it.;)

Seriously I'd say it's worth salvaging. I have not actually turned any teak, but similar oily woods turn well, and hardly need any finish. Go for it.

The boss says we bought some kiln dried Teak for cabinets for around $10 bd/ft. (That could be totally wrong, but it's at least that much because I know it's got to be more than Cherry.)

My suppliers current price is about $16 bd/ft.

[curtis rosche]

you should cut off a peice that has nails in it and work it, plane it down to see if the nails risting left behind any neat colors, if they did you might not want to cut out all the nails

[Allen Neighbors]

That size would make an awesome set of dinner plates. :)

[Frank Kobilsek]

Tony,

Selling blanks of only one kind and size on a short term basis is a tough business model. But yes these plate blanks are worth something to somebody, if you can find them.

I stumbled into a similar deal a while back. 11" wide solid maple bleacher seats 1 5/8 thick, that were remove from a local grade school. The best local historians tell me that the bleacher probably installed about 1906. Wonderful close grain is a really special example of old growth timbers.

I made a meager attempts to move a few but quickly resorted to using them in 'blind trades' and for plates that I turn.

Frank

[Eugene Malone]

Dont mind that shower of Yahoos trying to put unnessery work on you .Cut her loose on the next high tide and Point her for the Emerald Isle with my name on it. What ever you do with her make sure to have fun .Money is neither here or there I can vouch for here. Regards Boysie.

[curtis rosche]

i would suggest keeping the teak, make platters, make some seggmented bowls, cut out all the nail holes and make a bowl out of those peices, the rust and water discoloration would make some interesting work

[Tony Bilello]

I havent seen the boat yet. It is on the hard ( dry docked). The best thing to do is try to get a piece and turn it and see what it looks like. Then decide from there.
Thanks for all of your help and ideas.

Tony B

[Greg Cuetara]

Tony,
On a serious note. Teak is fairly rare and definately worth salvaging. It is very rough on tools, due to the fact that it has a lot of silica in it, so you will have to keep sharpening turning tools and you may ruin planer or jointer knives if you mill enough of it. I would think that you take the nails out it could be worth almost as much as new teak. As far as a turning wood I know I have seen people make pen blanks out of teak and charge a pretty penny for them as these only need to be 3/4" square by 5" long you could work around the defects in your pieces.

Let us know if you need help,
Greg

[curtis rosche]

if you dont like it we can still help with it

[Barry Elder]

Tony, even though you haven't seen the boat, if it is made of Burma teak, then it is worth a lot of money. Custom flooring, cabinets and furniture, boat builders, someone out there will pay lots of money and come and take the boat apart for him. You just have to find the right people. Those planks sound just right for plates, platters, and bowls, and so what if they should have a hole or two. That's why I bought all that crushed stone!!

[Allen Neighbors]

Tony, if you get a lot of it, and have some to trade, let me know. :D

[Tony Bilello]

I went to look at the teak boat today for the first time. I took a small board about an inch or so thick and quickly turned a plate. The first plate I have turned in almost 20 years. I just bought a lathe and I am re-learning.
The board was from part of the floor so I didnt expect any interesting grain. The wood is very dry. I turned it and put some varnish (all we had handy) just to see what the color would be like.
I am hoping that the hull planks have some interesting stains but was unable to get a hull section.
Again, is there any possibility of selling just plain straight grain bowl and plate stock?

Tony B

[Russ Peters]

Looks like a nice plate. Really cant see the grain in the pic but nice looking form.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Yes you can. You can actually add up to 5.

[Tony Bilello]

I have re-written this because I am having trouble figuring out the threads on here and how they are displayed. I think I got it now.
This is my 5th or 6th atempt at trying to get the photos posted. I think the image sizes were too large. Anyway, here goes....

I went to look at the teak boat today for the first time. I took a small board about an inch or so thick and quickly turned a plate. The first plate I have turned in almost 20 years. I just bought a lathe and I am re-learning.
The board was from part of the floor so I didnt expect any interesting grain. The wood is very dry. I turned it and put some varnish (all we had handy) just to see what the color would be like.
I am hoping that the hull planks have some interesting stains but was unable to get a hull section.
Again, is there any possibility of selling just plain straight grain bowl and plate stock?

[Tony Bilello]

Here is a profile shot

[Reed Gray]

Tony,
Want to trade some for some Mountail Mahogany? I would imagine that the teak is very similar to Ipe, high in oils, and silica. You might do better money wise to salvage the long planks as they have more value than short pieces, and nail holes are evidence of age, and are design opportunities. Would be especially nice for cabinets, counter tops, or other woodworking projects. The old growth teak is very expensive (in the $30 plus per board foot), and my understanding is that most of it comes from Burma (Minimar now?) and they only export finished product not raw lumber, even if this means cutting a rabbit on one end. The plantation grown stuff, just isn't nearly as nice ($10 per board foot range).
robust hippy

[Greg Cuetara]

Again, is there any possibility of selling just plain straight grain bowl and plate stock?

Tony,
The short answer is yes there is a possibility. If you have a lot of stock I would try going to a major distributor and see if they will buy pen blanks, bowl and or plate blanks from you. The longer you can keep the pieces the more money you would get even with nail holes. With 5/4 stock I might try going to the local hardwood dealer and ask them if they are interested in stocking it but I would think you might need 500-1000 bd.ft. or more for them to be interested. It sounds like there is quite a bit of interest on SMC so It might be worth cutting some blanks and trying to sell a few on here.

Where are you located?
Greg

[Bill Wyko]

I hope Teak is food safe. My whole kitchen is built out of it. It's a great wood to work with. It's like cutting a hide of Connoly leather with sharp shears. I think you will have a great time working with it.