Category: 1
Wood density at 12% moisture content (kg): 680
Also known as:
Botanical name: Tectona Grandis Linn
Origin: Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, West Africa
Use: Teak is one of the best and most valuable wood species that we know of. It combines almost all the properties that can be required from good wood. It has good durability, low shrinking and swelling, high resistance to moisture fluctuations, very good strength properties and easy workability. It preserves the nails, screws and fittings and is therefore the best wood for shipbuilding. It serves as construction wood for exterior and interior building components with high demand on deformation resistance and joint stability.
Used for:
- Shipbuilding
- Bridges, fences, port constructions, poles
- Construction of wagons, switch and bridge sleepers
- Roofs, doors, window frames, flooring including parquets, stairs
- Vats and barrels in the chemical industry, for battery cabinets and for laboratory tables, water levels
- Carving, modelling, stick making
- Sliced veneer
Durability: Teak is one of the most durable wood species in the world. It is completely immune to fungi, rot and insects, resistant to 5% hydrochloric acid and 10-20% sulfuric acid without any significant changes. Its impermeability due to the content of oily resins guarantees high durability even in a wet environment. It tolerates alternately dry and humid environments without being damaged. The oil content protects the iron joints from corrosion, so the nails do not rust.
Wood description: Sapwood: 2-3 cm thick, worthless, highly differentiated – golden white to light gray. Heartwood: varies in color, yellow to golden brown, sometimes brown green, in the air and light darkens to light brown to chocolate brown. Texture: teak texture is medium coarse, homogenous, usually straight grain, dense, no spiral grains, wood is almost vividly black streaked, with a matte shine, greasy to the touch because it contains oily resins, crystals of acid calcium phosphate are in the vessels, which often cause a slightly greyish appearance, decorative wood.
Wood treatment:
Cutting: quite difficult, blunts tools, necessary to use stellite knives
Drying: easy, rather slow
Workability: easy, using special tools smooth surfaces are created
Gluing: alkaline adhesives, holds well
Nailing/hammering: necessary to pre-drill holes
Clean workability, finishing: good, it is recommended to clean the surfaces after grinding/sanding with diluted nitrocellulose lacquer, then it is necessary to regrind the surfaces due to resin residues and other substances, resin varnish should be used as a base /repeat 3 times/, it will preserve the natural beautiful wood color and protect it for many years against fluctuations in humidity
