I ask because I herad that Thailand was banning the export of teak logs-they were worried about illegal loggers destroying their forests. Now, I see that teak furniture is getting much cheaper-I used to see teak lawn chairs going for >$300! Now, they are for sale at discount places, for less tha $100. So, is teakwood rare, or actually quite common-was the "endangered " bit a slick way to raise prices?
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Banning the export of logs is also a way to protect domestic producers of finished wood products. That may have been a factor in their decision.
Solid teak furniture is still expensive. A lot of “teak furniture” is particle board with a thin teak veneer. And some of the veneers are frightening thin. I looked at one used piece that had a vener that was almost paper-thin. It had what should have been an insignificant scratch and you could see the particle board underneath.
Disclaimer: I tend to buy used furniture. So I come across solid pieces more often. I don’t usually find newer pieces that are solid.
To further the OP question (not to answer it) . . .
I recently purchased some outdoor furniture that is made of a wood (I wish I could remember) that is very hard and has the characteristics of teak. I was told that the current restrictions on teak are such that solid teak is very hard to come by.
I have also been told that you have to be very careful about buying teak furniture that is not manufactured in the USA. If you buy it at a seemingly cheap price overseas and ship it back, the wood will change characteristics with the climate and the furniture may fall apart. The wood has to be seasoned at the local climate before it is cut and assembled or you are asking for trouble.
Correct me if I’m misinformed.
Quite a bit of teak used in furniture and trim work is plantation grown. I don’t have a cite, but I’ll make up some numbers if you want me to. As exotic hardwoods go, teak is fairly stable with regard to movement in response to humidity fluctuation. I’ve built furniture with it, and so far there has been little change in its availability, at least not at the retail level.
Teak is the most popular species for forestry plantations here in Panama today. I’m not sure how much is exported.
Teak, as a species, is not endangered. However, natural teak forests in Thailand, with all the other wildlife they contain, are threatened. So it may be quite legit for Thailand to ban logging in natural forests, even though plantation grown teak is plentiful.
I can tell you that it has been against the law for quite a while now to use new teakwood in construction in Thailand. You can build using previously used teak, but you must show some sort of certification it’s not fresh wood.
I also know there’s a lot of illegal logging, and a lot of teakwood is brought in from neighboring countries. Am not sure if the prohibition on building with new teakwood is only for Thai wood, but I think it is. Will try to get back to you on that.
I lived in a teakwood house back when I lived up in the North. Those are pretty solid.
I don’t know if it’s the same everywhere in the world, but here in the UK, there seems to be a fair amount of stuff marketed as ‘teak’ that isn’t really teak at all - it’s most often Iroko (AKA ‘African Teak’), or some other hardwood, leading to a rise in popularity of the term ‘genuine teak’ for items that are in fact made of the real thing. In other words, ‘teak furniture’ has become a synonym for ‘furniture composed of hardwood resembling teak’.
Teak isn’t rare or endangered, but old growth is largely unavailable to western woodworkers.Plantation grown is now the norm.IIRC, this change took place in the 1980s.
I suspect the teak you see getting cheaper isn’t really Tectona Grandis but one of several substitutes, Iroko (African origin) perhaps most common.
Whether plantation teak is actually plantation teak, or (at least in part) old growth rainforest teak laundered through plantations is highly questionable.
Indeed, when I had a look at buying some teak furniture a while back, it seemed to me that (a) everyone agrees that old growth forests are logged for teak in significant quantity (b) nobody failed to say that the teak they sold was plantation teak. So it was hard to avoid the conclusion that it is plausible that old growth teak is being sold as plantation teak.
The Dutch have been plantation growing teak in Indonesia since the 1800s, but most of the solid pieces I have or I have seen are from the “Danish Modern” period (1950s and 1960s) and were from the best old, “slow-growth” trees. The trees would be a minimum of 8o to 100 years old. The furniture became internationally trendy in the early 1960s.
It’s not an endangered species, but it is under straict governemnt control (presumably to portect old growth forests). So the cheaper “teak” like the previously mentioned iroko has been joining lookalikes in the market (Cape teak, Johore teak, Philippines teak,
Rhodesian teak), these aren’t Tectona Grandis.
There are also teak plantations in South America now and parts of the Caribbean, so my guess is the cheap “teak” furniture, is cheap furniture covered in a lookalike veneer.
I was sure I had some information on this somewhere here at home but cannot find it.
I did find this online, though.
I tend to doubt this, as teak has been used extensively in ship decks for many years. A wood that was so sensitive to climate differences would be useless for that application.
It’s pretty dense (the logs don’t float, which make it difficult to extract from the forest) and extremely resilient to the elements in general. You can have teak furniture survive several winters outdoors. It might turn a grey, but buff it up with some teak oil and it will look as new as the day you bought it. The way it can deal with climate extremes is exactly the eason why it’s been so popular in ship building.
Also, there’s been a lot of teak furniture that’s been made from teak reclaimed from decommissioned ships.
A good deal of teak furniture that was all the rage in the 1960s, was not manufactured in the U.S. and the pieces I’ve bought (circa 1950s) are in as good shape as it was 50 years ago (with the exception of a few dents and scratches and some of the fabrics).
Yes, I have seen furniture advertised as “tropical hardwood” instead of teak. How fast does teak wood grow? I’m sure it is nothing like the growth rate of pine, but is it fairly quick to mature?
Sothe America seems o have the same issue with wood-all kinds of Brazilan species (like jatoba) are advertised as being “mahogany”. True mahogany (from Honduras) is quite rare , now.