Finishing Teak

[Mike Stafford]

More than 40 years ago I made a bunch of tackle boxes for an antique tackle dealer. He would take them to shows and display his wares in the boxes I built for him. He sold the boxes at the show so I had a continuous job building more. I built boxes from cherry, oak, ash, walnut, mahogany, hickory, maple and many other domestic woods. I also built the first box for him out of teak.



I even built a fancy jewelry chest for a customer who saw me building these tackle boxes and decided she wanted a jewelry box the same size with lots of trays for her jewelry. This box was built from ribbon mahogany and fitted with Brusso hardware.





That darn teak ate planer and joiner blades like they were made out of butter and I vowed to never make another box out of teak even though he wanted another one. I don't remember exactly how I finished that box but I believe I cleaned the surface with acetone and then applied thin coats of spar varnish. It looked pretty good when it was done.



Anyway, I digress, what I want advice on is finishing a new teak box I turned from white teak burl. This is a very special piece of wood as teak burl is exceptionally rare. I have turned teak items in the recent past and cleaned them with acetone before wiping on several coats of thinned polyurethane. To my knowledge there have been no problems associated with this process, i.e. I have not received any complaints. That said, someone told me that poly will eventually flake off teak.

I cannot have that happen to this prized piece of wood so I want to finish it well. I have considered using Teak Brite like I used to use on the teak on my boat. It was not so much a film finish as it was a water/weather repellent. It was very durable and really brightened up the wood.

Any suggestions?

 

[larry merlau]

mike the only finish i have ever used on teak was the oil to make it look like teak on a boat and was satin finish.. so the acetone trick is what i have heard from others but your way ahead of me on experience so am watchin to see what you find out.

 

[Dave Hawksford]

For new teak , use Teak oil. We used Watco Teak Oil for years I like to thin it for the 1st couple coats.

 

[Don Baer]

For new teak , use Teak oil. We used Watco Teak Oil for years I like to thin it for the 1st couple coats.

That's what we used on a sailboat we had. It was excellent and stood up well to salt water and sun.

 

[Mike Stafford]

Thank you for your responses and advice. I was pretty convinced that I should use teak oil so I bought some Teak Brite which is what I used on my boat's teak. It has gotten a little more expensive since I last bought some. When it warms up I will apply the finish.

I hope this brightens up the color which is rather dull without finish.

 

[Paul Douglass]

Love your boxes,,,, do you have a picture of one of the tackle poxes open.... ? just curious what you did of the innards..

 

[Mike Stafford]

I barely have pictures of these boxes. I built these many years ago and the pictures were taken with a 35mm camera. The pictures I do have are scans of prints from those pictures. Here is what I have.

In addition to the large handled tray on top there was another layer of two half trays under it. Below those trays there was space for storage.

I made more than 20 of these boxes for this man. He sold them all. I also made one for myself out of those laminated pine panels you can buy in the big box stores. It was designed to hold the Keller dovetail jig and fixtures, clamps, bits etc. that I used to build these boxes. They weren't all that difficult to build once I jigged up for the process.