Most commercial teak these days is plantation-grown, not native timber...as are many of the other hardwoods. Teak actually is one of the more readily available.
I feel bad about wasting mahogany scraps - wish I could think of a re-purpose for the trim pieces and small baseboard - but it's all quite thin ... I cringe a bit when throwing it in the fire. .. not much good for true woodworking projects - but maybe crafty things .. ? or toys .. ? dunno. Ideas welcome. John T.
replying to Electric Comet, Iggy wrote: Nothing. The right wood used correctly for the job at hand is still and will always be the best. Plastic's only knocked at the door of wood as it dried-out and literally shattered and crumbled on its last breath. Plastic ain't Art, it's a failed fart. But, the world's brightest morons continue to imagine they'll beat nature. Sorry folks, but the frauds of science unknowingly and long-ago crowned DNA of any and all sorts the smartest and most advanced entity in the known and unknown universe.
There are woods in dire (extinction level) danger (pink ivory, among the exotics, and American chestnut which used to be widely used). But, regardless of species, wood has colors, grain, and both large-scale and small-scale features. It has chatoyance (catches the light like tiger-eye rock).
So, in terms of objets d'art, wood will always be visually interesting. The 'composite' products are, by comparison, somewhat flat and boring. I like knotty pine for its rich visual features, the 'finish' grades of wood are dull by comparison. Plywood and composites are beyond dull.
Everything has a place. The Azec window trim that I'll never have to paint is better than wood and looks just as good in use. No, I'd not build a dining room table from it.
replying to Ed Pawlowski, Iggy wrote: Sure, Azek and the like look great at the start (like everything else), but they haven't proven themselves to beat Black Locust, Ipe or Sassafras. All of which, remain solid for decades with no protection nor treatment and they can be completely renewed for another bunch of decades with sanding or planing. Azek can't do that and anything Azek-like, so far, eventually sags and has only an afterlife of landfill and not furniture that's good for centuries.
If it's going to be painted anyway, then how they look without paint is irrelevant. And how well do ipe, black locust, and sassafras hold paint anyway?
replying to Ed Pawlowski, Iggy wrote: Yep, same thing with Black Locust, Ipe or Sassafras. However, I think longer than just myself, a lot longer and think only Stainless Steel should replace the outdoor uses of wood...and of course all plastics and plastic-composites.
replying to J. Clarke, Iggy wrote: They don't need paint nor anything else to last longer than plastic-composites have currently lasted. Any wood takes paint and stain wonderfully, plastic doesn't and must have color built-in. Which only fades as the entire plastic structure deteriorates.
replying to J. Clarke, Iggy wrote: Ipe? None. Though, I've painted most every other exterior grade wood and they've lasted decades. Even my parent's outdoor Redwood (a softwood) deck is 45-years old and its only had Solid Stain applied 3-times, with the last time being for just a color change.
I've painted a few exterior plastics and some interior laminates and got maybe
1-decade before they released themselves and rubbed right off. Completely strip whatever by easily peeling it off by hand.
I don't know Azek's longevity, because it hasn't been around long. But, all of the composites I've witnessed so far make it to about 20 or 25-years and they get saggy (structural degradation) and very hairy or furry (deep oxidation). Maybe Azek will prove better.
What's your point? Has Azek or other composite, somehow, lasted 120-years for you? What's your actual experience? If the crap's so great in every way, then why aren't houses built out of it?
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