Refinishing teak furniture

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So I bought this beat up chippendale patterned Drexel Heritage teak bench at a local recycler...Construction Junction...for $20 and I told my wife that I would glue and dowel the broken mortise and tenon joints, sand the paint and re-paint and place the bench in the garden. Well now that I've completed the corrective work and made a first pass at sanding the unit, it's starting to look pretty damn awesome and I am questioning if I should work to remove the balance of the paint, reinvigorate the teak finish and leave some of the "patina" or just prime and paint. I will keep you posted.

I’d take it down to bare wood then refinish. I love teak, how it ages, how it responds to use and handling. I used to have a boat with acres of teakwood and relished taking care of it.

Clear finishes don't really protect the wood, hence paint. I have used teak for thresholds. Coated with spar varnish they age less than well. With a coat of solid-color stain they do much better.

I like the patina as is, though the bare teak surfaces will go gray and that will reduce the contrast between old paint and teak color. Teak doesn’t require much, right? I think you can oil it (and re-oil it) to keep the warmer color, but otherwise teak just silvers and that’s the built in protection. I know in some areas, metal caps for the feet help keep the wood from splitting due to repeated wet/dry cycle.

Super nice bench though. $20? That’s great.

I get that people like paint for durability but to my eye teak is one of the most beautiful woods. And a deep glow in it is fantastic.

All paint off as best as you can, then brightener, then oil, oil, oil. Varnish is a major PITA because you have to have perfect brushes, etc. And you have to redo it constantly.

At least to this old sailor that is what you do with teak.

For supplies...defender.com

A brightwork trick-of-the-trade is to use a super-fine (0000) copper wool for finishing. Never use steel wool. Little shards break off and end up rusting.

Great find! Those teak benches go for real money when new.

Finishes love to leap off of teak. Paint, varnish, whatever.

Check out the wooden boating aficionado forums. I would think the first question is whether you plan to bring it indoors during the wet/cold season. They're the experts but if it will be outdoors, then from what boat maintenance I've done, maintaining a paint or varnish on teak will become an annual process of full sand + refinish. A drying oil (tung oil, Tru-Oil, etc) is easier because it doesn't have to be completely sanded off before applying a new coat.

Here in the PNW I see boating friends just let their home teak furniture turn silver, and they do a very light sanding each year to keep the grain baby-butt smooth.

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Originally Posted by htwoopup

For supplies...defender.com

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Jon et al, I stripped and sanded the wood as best I could and I am going to treat it with Star brite oil...pics to follow of course...thanks for the advice.

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp...300&id=3959766

My wooden boat (no teak but some mahogany) gets "boat sauce": 6 parts teak oil like your Star Brite, 1 part Spar varnish (oil based), and one part pine tar. I never sand.

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Originally Posted by Dave Thompson

I love teak, how it ages, how it responds to use and handling.

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...and especially how it smells. I was briefly employed in an architectural millworking shop a billion years ago, and the highlight of our week was whenever a few boardfeet of teak came through the shop and started getting planed, joined, and sanded. Delicious aroma!