Confused about gluing Teak

[toller]

I am doing my first teak project, a box with the resawed wood I asked about a few days ago.

Anyhow, I had to glue up a panel for the lid. Having read many posts here about how poorly teak glued, I used three biscuits over a 12" panel.

But then I broke the cut off ends and found the wood broke repeatedly rather than the glue joints. In other words, the glue is stronger than the wood.

I am pretty sure it is really teak; the saw dust clumps together in a waxy mess. That is teak, no?

So why didn't I have any trouble gluing? Can I count on future glue ups being just as easy? FWIW, I used the fancy yellow glue from GarretWade.

[Dave W]

[Frank McVey]

Nah, there's teak and teak. I've worked with it a fair bit over the years, and some is certainly oilier than others. If you have a seriously oily bit, untreated, it will give you problems with gluing and finishing: if you don't, it won't.

In either case, give it a good wipe over with any good solvent/degreaser before doing what you have to do, and you won't have too many snags. They've been making long-lasting ships' bits out of it for centuries, and without the glues and finishes we have available nowadays.

Cheers,

Frank

[todd the wood junkie]

There is young teak (provided mostly from plantations), and there is old growth (over 30 yrs or so). Young teak, while environmentally more friendly and cheaper, suffers from a lack of the very oil that makes mature teak a great choice for outdoor furniture etc.

That is why you must be very careful when buying outdoor furniture that manufacturers can legally claim as 'teak', when it's really immature teak that lasts for only 5 or so years outside before it rots.

Always check your source the age of the teak before purchasing.

[Hitch]

of_the [e-mail] (todd the wood junkie) wrote in news: [e-mail]:

This month's issue of WoodenBoat magazine has an article about teak. While South Asian farms, especially in Myanmar (Burma), have teak crop rotations of 60-80 years, South American farms typically have crop rotations of half that. Thus, the South American teak is typically heavy on the sapwood, and light on the heartwood, which (as stated above) has less of the resins and waxes that teak is desired for. If you want the durability of older-growth teak you usually need teak from South Asia, although much of this is difficult to get due to import restrictions from certain countries, especially Myanmar.