Protective coating for teak dining table

[Empedocles]

I have a new teak dining table, well finished, & ready to go. I want to protect the surface from spills, etc. I thought to buy teak oil, but reading posts elsewhere, it doesn't do much to give the kind of protection I want. There is a combination tung/teak oil product & I wonder about using that.

What I want is a product I can wipe on with a rag & wipe off the excess, but which will still give me the protection. I don't want to sand/steel wool between coats. I just want one application to initially seal the porous wood. This is asking a lot.

Here are some choices I've run across & I'd like someone's opinion/ experience with. I'd really like it if I can find the product in my local Ace Hardware, Home Depot, etc.:

Oil/Varnish mixtures like Behr Scandinavian Tung Oil Finish, Minwax Tung Oil Finish, Watco Danish Oil, etc.

Thinnned or Wiping Varnishes like Minway (Minwax?) Wiping Varnish, Watco Wiping Varnish, Formby's Tung Oil Finish, etc.

I've also thought of a polyurethane satin, as I don't want a sheen, but polyurethane application is with a brush, producing bubble problems & I don't want to deal with that.

I've thought of Thompson's Water Seal, but that may leave an unpleasant odor.

Would appreciate any opinions/experiences. I'm a novice.

[SonomaProducts.com]

Just to be clear, is this table for outdoors or indoors?

Yes, you want an oil finish. No you don't want a Poly finish. Poly is a film finish and is not going to have the application attributes you want. Even a wiping poly (poly with 50% or more thinner) is still a film finish and can give you problems in gettin a good finish unless you are practiced.

Pure or true oil f> I have a new teak dining table, well finished, & ready to go. I want

[DiggerOp]

Me too ....

Probably not what you are seeking, but may give you some ideas.

I've been using Tung based hard burnishing oil as a finish for some years on interior teak (wooden boats,) jarrah and pine surfaces. It appears to give excellent water and stain resistance and gives a finish that appeals to me .... and more importantly, SWMBO ; )

For my purposes, it does however, require some intensive work.

Typically, I first apply at least two coats of 70/30 diluted raw linseed oil and turpentine, (several more with pine,) on all surfaces, wet sand the last coat and let it stand for at least a week.

Then apply two coats of Tung based oil, wet sanded by hand with 400 grit wet and dry paper and hand buffed. Gives a finish somewhere between low sheen and satin. I believe successive applications with finer grades of wet and dry (600/800/1200) and power buffing will result in a really high sheen, although I've yet to try it.

Link below to a pic of food prep area in our kitchen, treated as described above over three years ago. Has resisted all manner of stains and stood up to knife cuts and bruising without the need to re-finish so far. Gets a single application of Tung oil and light hand buff every six months.

[Lee Michaels]

and is much harder than most pine available now.

[DiggerOp]

Thanks.

It's actually not very old timber - it's reject nonstructural pine that the building trade doesn't want/cannot use. Comes up periodically for auction to the salvage trade and general public, generally in bundled lots of a tonne or more. (I'm in Perth, West Oz.) I happened to be at an auction that the trade wasn't very interested and got 5 tonnes of 8"x 2"x 8' planks for $A70 a tonne.

10% is firewood, 40% has some useable sections and the balance has some nice sticks of wood in there. Still cheap timber. Re-saws quite nicely. Enough there to do the complete kitchen rebuild and storage cupboards and benches for the workshop and then some. Both still works in progress ..... for another 12 months perhaps ? : )

The colouring/ageing effect is from using raw linseed oil. (May also contribute to hardening.) Boiled linseed would leave a much lighter finish, however I'm wary of the additives in boiled linseed, especially in food areas.

[Lee Michaels]

That explains it. You are on the other side of the planet! And those wood prices are incredible! If I could get that stuff at that price, I would be building a lot of things out of it too.

Many years ago, there was a wood source in town who had 2 X 10's and 2 X

12's out of pine for cheap. It was a one time deal. The got a good deal and advertised it. It turns out it was lumber that was ordered by a waterbed manufactuer that went belly up. It was high grade (for pine) lumber.

I loaded up on it aned made things out of it for years. It was relatively light weight for its size. Easy to mill and took a good finish. I still have a couple items made from it around here. It was simple and strong. And it did not require any of those sissy, pretty boy joints or paint sprayers either! :)

[J. Clarke]

He's Down Under--don't assume that _any_ wood that he talks about is like _anything_ that is readily available in the US market.

[dadiOH]

If it's a "new teak dining table, well finished, & ready to go" why do you want to mess with it? The finish already on it - most likely lacquer, maybe oil) already protects it. If the finish *is* a film - lacquer or other - all adding oil to it would do is mess it up.

[DiggerOp]

That's certainly true, - although somewhat ironic in the case of the pine. It was originally a native of California, - Monterey Pine, (Pinus Radiata.)

Brought to Oz around 1880, and NZ in the 1850's it has become possibly the most widely grown lumber tree in the world. Huge plantations here in Oz. Comprises 90% of NZ's plantation forests, including the worlds largest planted forest.

The Oz/NZ timber industry claim that selective breeding over the years has produced a superior tree for lumber when compared to the original Californian stock.

[Empedocles]

The dining table is indoors.

[Empedocles]

all I meant was that I did not make this table, that it is a commercial product. I'm ignorant of what manufacturers of teak furniture do as to applying a finish. Maybe all manufacturers of wood furniture apply some kind of protective coating to their products. You indicate that they do.

All I meant by "well finished" is that the craftsmanship is excellent. I don't know if I have the raw wood or whether it's already treated, as you suggest. And, your point is well taken. I don't want to mess with it if I don't have to. Thanks. You're very helpful.

[Lew Hodgett]

Scott's Liquid Gold worked well on the Teak and Holly sole of my sailboat.

Apply 2-3 times a year or as desired.

Lew

[Empedocles]

Thanks to all for responding. You have been helpful.

I contacted the seller of my teak table, who said to use teak oil from a Danish supplier. The only way I could get that oil would require a trip from MT to the seller in Seattle, so I contacted a Danish company that supplies that oil & ordered a couple of bottles (the minimum).

The seller said that only a light app of lacquer is applied by the manufacturer, and that no harm would be done in applying the oil.

[joe]

Which is why you never trust the seller to know anything more than the price. Probably heard of teak oil at some point and figured it must be what you have to use on teak furniture. "no harm would be done" is not the same as the doing the right thing, or even doing things right. As DadiOh posted, if it's got a lacquer finish (even a thin one), you don't want to put oil over it.

Just a lot of salesman double talk.

Take DadiOh's advice and don't mess with it.

jc

[Empedocles]

Thanks, guys, altho I'm out $40 for two bottles of teak oil I'll never use. I imagine this seller has suckered in a lot of people like me. Pretty good sideline. By the way, this seller is not a fly-by-night, been in the Seattle area many yrs., specializing in Danish modern. Adds to its credibility. Teak is such a beautiful, tough, durable wood. Ran across it in owning a couple of sailboats. My furniture now is teak. Some of it is teak veneer, but that's ok. A small solid teak dining table runs over $3,500.

[dadiOH]

Spit on it. Wood change color? If not, it has a finish. 100:1 it does.

[dadiOH]

I'd say so since "teak oil" is nothing more than either linseed or tung oil with more solvent. You could make your own for around $15 a gallon or less. Used to be $5.00 not long ago. _____________________

Now I see why they charge $20 for a bottle of "teak oil" :)

Last time I looked for teak it was running around $15/bd.ft. retail. Thirty+ years ago it was $1.35 bd.ft. One can still buy it for $1200 cu.meter - which works out to less than 3 bucks per board foot - from Burmese exporters.

[Empedocles]

untreated teak surface looks like. For example, my teak office furniture (veneer) from a different maker has a satin look. I know it's been treated, but the new dining table is completely flat, finish- wise. (The dining table's main surface is veneer, trimmed in solid teak blocks on the edge. The table is round.)

If, as the seller says, the maker put a light app of lacquer on the table, would that account for the flat finish, leading me to believe it's untreated, in comparison to my other teak furniture?

[salty]

I seriously doubt it is completely unfinished unless it was purchased specifically labeled as "Unfinished furniture". I don't think anyone can offer you anything more intelligent and helpful at this point than to suggest you find a way to contact the manufacturer directly. There should be a label or makers mark on the underside somewhere, or failing that, get manufacturer's contact info from the retailer.

[dadiOH]

It looks like raw wood. I know that isn't very helpful - especially when you don't know what raw teak looks like - but I wasn't kidding when I told you to spit on it. If you prefer fastidiousness, just put a few drops of tap water on the table. If there is no finish, the water will soak in and the wood will become darker (until the water evaporates); if there is a finish, nothing will happen.

Here are some pix. Top left is pretty good for raw, unfinished teak; top right is representative of teak with water, oil or varnish (with lacquer it would be a bit lighter).

For example, my teak office

Any top coat finish - such as lacquer - can be made to have any sheen from dead flat to high gloss. ______________

Neither a "light coat" nor lacquer have anything to do with the sheen of a finish. The lack of sheen can be created by manufacturer added additives in the finish before it is applied or by "rubbing out" a glossy sheen after application of the top coats.

I wouldn't worry about the finish being a "light coat" either. The manufacturer put on a finish that will serve for a long time. The only thing you might want to do is apply a paste wax (such as Johnson's) at infrequent intervals; maybe once a year.

The Scandinavian furniture manufacturers do a wonderful job with veneer but under that veneer is particle board. Particle board and moisture do not play nice together so don't douse the table when you clean it, just use a slightly moist cloth...just moist enough to remove whatever needs removing and then dry it. Don't use any cleaner with alcohol either, lacquer doesn't like alcohol.