Info on Teak

[customsawyer]

I have a customer with some teak logs. Any advice on sawing, drying and planing will be appreciated. He is also asking me what it is worth and what is the best products to make out of it. @teakwood You have more knowledge on this then most on here.
I don't know if I should make flooring, paneling, trailer deck boards, or horse fence out of this stuff.

[Southside]

Did they grow locally?  How big are they? Just curious. 

[dougtrr2]

I have never worked with teak, but it looks like you may have your work cut out for you
Working with Teak: Cutting, planing, gluing and sanding.mys-teak.comhttps://mys-teak.com › working-with-teak-cutting-plan...

Sounds like you will need a good supply of bands.

I consider teak a pricey wood, so it surprised me that someone would have some logs to mill with no idea of what they are going to do with it.

Good luck,

Doug in SW IA

[teakwood]

First need to know how big the logs are? How many? Where are they from?

You can use it for horse fences, if and only if you costumer is Bill Gates  :D :D.

For sawing use bimetal blades. If the logs are wide, go slow. Air drying for a little bit then kiln, very easy drying wood. Won't crack, split, bow or twist. Planning needs to be with carbide cutters. I have best results with spiral heads.

Best thing to do with teak is outdoor applications,  deck, sauna, flooring, patio furniture, because it's the best lumber for outdoor. Water and insect resistance because of the natural oil it has already inside the wood. But we use it for everthing, inside and outside. 


Value: if it's old growth = a king's ransom 

If he has several logs of quality teak, find a boat builder ask him what measurements he needs, saw them accordingly, charge well and tell your customer he can retire afterwards. No joke! 

[customsawyer]

Some guy had them shipped in and he bought them from him. I haven't laid eyes on them so don't know anything about them. If they are good quality I might just see if I can buy them. I'll check on my blade supply and see if I have enough.:D  Thanks for the replies.

[teakwood]

Send me pics and pricing, I help you. 

Buy them!

[customsawyer]

I will see if I can make it happen. Please don't get me excited. I don't need any help in the spending money department. It seems to flow out of here just fine. ;D

[teakwood]

. I'll check on my blade supply and see if I have enough.


It's not that bad! I only use silver tips and can saw 1.5h between filling. Although I have never sawn old growth. If they already dry then it's alot worse to saw compared to green

[customsawyer]

I'm sure they will be dried some. I know they have already changed hands once and it was mentioned they would make me a deal on them. Might be a reason for that. No one could saw them, to small, some other problem with them. I have a few carbide blades for the mill that might do a good job on them too.

[teakwood]

Carbide blades have a thicker kerf right? You will loose wood

[GAB]

Jake:
@scsmith42 resawed some wood for a boat owner last year.  I believe that it was teak.
If it was teak he might be able to help you.
GAB

[Ianab]

Carbide blades have a thicker kerf right? You will loose wood

But if you use regular bands and have some wavy miss-cuts, you also loose wood. Dry tropical hardwood is a good use case for carbide. Green teak is a lot more forgiving than dry.

[Peter Drouin]

Any dry log is harder to cut, If dry less $$ for them.
I would also run a metal detector over them too.

[customsawyer]

The carbides I have don't seem to have a thicker kerf. They just have the little tips added on to the blades but no set. Don't really matter as I don't' think I will need the carbide.
I got in touch with the guy that has the logs yesterday. We actually set up a time and I went over there yesterday afternoon. His brother got the logs 3 years ago and then was diagnosed with cancer. He passed a few months ago, so what little knowledge about the logs went with him. They are plantation trees as you will see in the pictures to follow. We grabbed one log about 6 inches in dia. and put it in the back of my truck. I didn't even change blades. The one I have on had sawed a good bit of pine and then a couple of cypress. It still cut this teak just fine. I'm not impressed with the logs and this isn't going to be a big money making deal, but for some reason I still want to give it a try and see what I can learn about it. Here's some pictures of the logs and the lumber I sawed out of one. Logs are from 4" to 12" dia. and most are 8' or shorter as you will see, they are loaded on a trailer sideways. In one picture I put my 16' tape measure in for a size reference. Lots of checking and even a little bit of rot so there will be a good bit of loss in the logs. A few logs have some flat sides to them so they were at a sawmill at one time or another. You can see a little bit of rot in the far end of the lumber from the one log I sawed. The lumber actually looks a little bit like poplar to me. There was a little bit of stress but that is expected in our plantation wood, so no surprise there.

[SawyerTed]

End uses for teak are usually outdoors.   It is used extensively for wood components on the topsides of boats, normally varnished.  Teak is also commonly used for high end outdoor and indoor furniture.   The marine uses motivated my learning about Teak many years ago. 

Teak is now mostly plantation grown in Asia.  It is native in SE Asia but grown widely in Indonesia.  

Without a buyer and a specific end use, 5/4 and 4/4 would be how I would saw it, IF it had to be cut before a buyer is found.  An alternative would be cut to 8/4 or 10/4 for resawing later.   

[Ianab]

The boards you have cut look a lot better than the logs would suggest, but that's down to teak being so durable.  A bit of end checking has to be expected with old hardwood logs, nothing you can do about that except rotate the log to minimise it.                                                                                                             

[customsawyer]

I was pleasantly surprised when I opened that log up. 

[Sod saw]

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Although I have never sawn teak logs, I have used teak in rebuilding our boat.  

I had heard that teak is hard on knife edges but my limited experience is that it was a very nice wood to work it down to various shapes.  Having said that, I did use very sharp edges and watched closely to keep them sharp.

As a general rule a boat will take a beating when out in weather; and I found that when buying teak boards I looked for thicker rather than thin ones.  Some of what I used was many inches thick then recut them on the table saw.  

Teak is known for its weather / rot resistance.  Many times it will be used for the outdoor parts but it also has a natural slip resistance causing me to use it for the companion way steps (unfinished) to go down below.  Many folks will use it for decking on houses as well as boats due to its slip resistance. If left outdoors it will turn a natural shade of gray, which is not bad although some will prefer to lightly sand once in a while to bring out the fresh teak look. 

There are wooden boat building magazines where you might consider advertising the cut logs and hold off cutting them until you have a buyer.  That boat builder might want the whole log sliced and air dried (not kiln dried).  Some builders will purchase whole cut (live edge) logs, store them stickered under roof until a project comes along. Teakwood is not wrong in that old growth would be nice to know about.

If they are very nice, you might contact some boating museums who rebuild / repair their own boats. New England and the Pacific North West areas of the USA might be a good place to start marketing.  And then there is also the obvious "local" retail store where you can sell one board at a time.

Of course all of this depends on the quality and IF you can acquire ownership of those logs.

Good luck with this project,  I, for one, am envious of your luck to have been offered this opportunity.  have fun with it.


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[teakwood]

That is normal plantation teak as we have it around here, not very impressed with log quality ether, the thicker ones on top are nice and definitely a but log, you can see that from the rooth flair. Definitely no old growth teak, way too much sap wood, I would guess around 20 years for that but log, have you count the growth rings? If from a slow growing area tha but log could be older. The color is rather fade, half of superb color you want to see in teak, still pretty nice and will pop up after painting. Definitely buy them, how many m3 are there. Here I would not pay more than 500$ for this load, where you are probably more. Buy them cheap and make yourself a nice furniture or patio chairs or a small deck.

[teakwood]

No real boat builder will buy this teak, that's not boat building teak.

This one is boat teak!
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=121593.0

[longtime lurker]

 

 

It's called "square log" they feed them through a bolter type saw to maximize volume for shipping.

I had a quick look, indicative pricing around $65 -100 USD a cubic metre on the wharf out of Africa or South East Asia.

It's not boat building teak but it'll be great for decking, cladding, or outdoor furniture 

[Resonator]

Logs are from 4" to 12" dia. and most are 8' or shorter 

I'd suggest sawing lumber for outdoor furniture. With what small lumber those will yield, that may be the best market. 

[Sod saw]

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Yes, After looking at the log photo,  I agree that the logs will probably not be wanted by any boat folks.

Too bad that they are small and had been left behind for so long.

But they can still be part of your overall business if bought properly.


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[teakwood]

$65 -100 USD a cubic metre

Wow, thats cheap for blocked wood. here it's a lot more.

[customsawyer]

Thanks for all the replies. You guys convinced me I was going to get rich off this deal. Now I have to figure out how. Lol