What to do with Brazilian Teak?

[Andy Pratt]

I just got a great deal on some Brazilian Teak (Cumaru) hardwood flooring. I've got 250+ square feet in 3/4"X3.5"X3-7' pieces, (T&G with grooves on one side). After looking up the properties of the wood, it seems like an ideal thing to use in an outdoor environment, so I'm considering all ideas, but want to use it for something that it really excels at.

Anyone who has worked with this have any thoughts or advice on what to do with it, or how to work it? I have no experience with exotics, so I"m all ears.

My first thought was to make a deck out of it for my house in upstate NY, but I'm not sure how it will handle extreme cold&ice buildup (inevitable there). It's rated for 25 years unfinished outdoors, so I'm sure it does well, I just don't know how much of that is bull or not.

What sort of penetrating finishes work on this wood? I'd like to do something, if only for looks, but I'm dead set against anything film-forming due to the severe weather/shoveling it will have to endure.

Thanks,
Andy

[Simon Dupay]

Anyone who has worked with this have any thoughts or advice on what to do with it, or how to work it? I have no experience with exotics, so I"m all ears.

burn it! :rolleyes:nasty stuff to work with.

[Andy Pratt]

Simon, what was hard to work with about it? Anything I should plan for specifically, like a lot of tear out or wear on tools?

[Ben Davis]

Got a deck?

[Chris Barnett]

If I had that teak....I would re-surface my boat deck....if I had a boat...:D.

Works well for outdoor furniture too...

[Philip Glover]

It will be great for outdoor use - even extreme conditions.
A little hard on tools, but not out of the ordinary for hardwoods.

A good UV protective product for teak and ipe is Messmer's for hardwood.
I'm using Messmer's now for and ipe deck.

Cheers,
Phil

[John Michaels]

How about an Adirondack Chair?

[Doug Shepard]

Seems like somebody (Knight maybe??) was using it for wooden plane soles but that wouldn't put much of a dent in your stash. Might make for some good mallets.

[Peter Quinn]

I have worked with more cumaru than I care to discuss. It is heavy. It is sharp. It smells like crap when you cut it, actually like horse manure. Its slivers make my skin itch and burn. It should be called Brazilian Walnut, not Teak, because it has no properties like and little visual similarity to teak. It is in fact closer to IPE in my estimation than teak. It is known to weather well and it wears like iron.

Glue ups are tricky. I have made many stair treads from it, not all have survived clamp removal. You need a lot of clamping pressure, very good jointing, and titebond III seems to work best. I hear it looks beautiful with an oil finish though I have never seen it finished. Perhaps a test piece would help you decide?

I like the burn it idea best. It burns very hot. Actually, with sharp carbide cutters it mills reasonably well, and mostly its pretty stable, not a lot of tension like some exotics. Not none mind you, but not bad. It will ruin HSS knives pretty quick, so keep that in mind if you attempt to build something that requires flattening.

Frankly if you are starting with flooring, milled 3/4" thick with relief cuts on the back, you are lucky to get 9/16" when flattened so your options may be limited anyway. I find flooring makes, well, good floors! Possibly deck boards too if you mill off the tongues and grooves. I have seen cumaru used for little else beyond flooring, stair treads, and decking. Walk all over it, it can take it!

[Dan McCallum]

I picked up some kind of Brazilian wood flooring left over from a buddy's home reno. It works great for bench dogs!

Burning that amount of a tropical hardwood would be a waste. You could use it in many other applications that call for a really hard wood, or longer narrower pieces. Plane soles as mentioned previously is one example. How about knobs, handles, inlay, picture frames, small boxes / drawer fronts, T&G the back of a small cabinet, etc. I kind of like the challenge of finding a use for this kind of 'scrap'.

You can always part it out to your woodworking buddies, and if you are really swimming in it, offer it up on your local CL, or even to a local high school or technical college. Etc.

As far as using it as outdoor flooring, I'd probably post the question at one of the home building forums, eg FHB.

Good luck!