ianc1200
Well-known member
A boating friend of mine is currently in Southern India on holiday. He says the timber reclamation yards have lots of teak. Anybody know if reclaimed teak can be, or actually is, imported here to the UK?
Importing teak
- Thread starter ianc1200
- Start date
burgundyben
Well-known member
Interesting question, I'll be more interested in the answer!
I dont even know to ask!
I dont even know to ask!
Keith 66
Well-known member
Well im pinching myself, just had a lorry load of reclaimed teak fall into my lap, t&g floorboards, 4" x 1 1/8" absolutely filthy dirty & has bitumen on one side from where it was stuck down plus the odd nail. Some are 16ft plus long with the majority over ten foot. When the guy told me how much i just said "yes please i will have the lot".
There i was wondering where i was going to get the rest of the timber for my Saunders launch restoration, no worries now.
There i was wondering where i was going to get the rest of the timber for my Saunders launch restoration, no worries now.
burgundyben
Well-known member
Funnily enough I was chatting to someone last night that has 5 tons of teak, I think I'll add him to my christmas card list.
Wansworth
Well-known member
When fitting out a steel hull I found a breakers of commercial properties shop fronts and interiors,not much teak but mahogany
BobnLesley
Well-known member
On buying our first boat it was in sore need of new cockpit locker lids (Delaminating plywood) mentioned teak to a S in Law and she found us a tired teak blanket box for £8 at an auction (2001). using the originals as templates I made all three in an afternoon and fitted them in another. A month later someone with a sister yacht offered me £200 for them, so I used the rest of the box to make him a set too.
Wansworth
Well-known member
Another source was school bench tops,Iroko……few stains from the chemistry experiment
Keith 66
Well-known member
I have seen quite a few lab benches come up for sale on various sites, Often labelled as "Teak" it turns out to be Iroko & the sellers get upset when its not what they want it to be!
Pre war stuff is often teak, post war its likely to be Iroko simply as the price was climbing too high even then.
Pre war stuff is often teak, post war its likely to be Iroko simply as the price was climbing too high even then.
Kukri
Well-known member
Iroko used to be sold as “African Teak”, which perhaps may explain some confusion amongst the non boat-minded. I remember noticing as a schoolboy in the Sixties that our school laboratory benches were iroko, not teak, but that was because I was starting to mess about in boats.
Over the past half century pieces of Clacton-on-Sea bandstand and Woodbridge signal box (both pre-WW1, definitely tectona grandis, and both held together with big iron nails bashed in at random!) went into the two teak built boats that accounted for most of my sailing career.
Now I have a plastic boat, but she is an old one …and I need to replace 120ft of rail capping…
Over the past half century pieces of Clacton-on-Sea bandstand and Woodbridge signal box (both pre-WW1, definitely tectona grandis, and both held together with big iron nails bashed in at random!) went into the two teak built boats that accounted for most of my sailing career.
Now I have a plastic boat, but she is an old one …and I need to replace 120ft of rail capping…
Wansworth
Well-known member
Some lengths of two by one from BandQ should see you right?…….stained
Kukri
Well-known member
I did spend some time trying to convince myself that iroko might do… but it won’t.
BobnLesley
Well-known member
With the added bonus that they'll be pre-bent off the shelf
ianc1200
Well-known member
Our local reclamation yard between Frinton & Clacton has a big pile of what they say is pitch pine - but isn't. However seems to be Douglas Fir with very narrow growth rings, 11 x 3" and about 12' long, £30 each. Really is lovely stuff, no worm holes, just need to find a use for it.
Kukri
Well-known member
That represents A Challenge!
(I think that, if you believed your boatbuilder, at any time between 1870 and 1970, Britain only ever imported pitch pine).
burgundyben
Well-known member
About 10 or 15 years ago in Hamble a yacht was ashore for a replacement copper sheathed bottom, when they stripped off the old copper the smell of the pitch pine was extraordinary.
Keith 66
Well-known member
Last lot of pitch pine i had was staves from a Tannery's vats,scrape down past the dry chalky dye & it was fresh as the day it was sawn 150 plus years ago, Theres still a few bits of it kicking about. I made my favourite guitar neck out of a piece.
Old Harry
Well-known member
run
It by the en of tipped saw blde is the easiest y to remove the bitchumen?
Old Harry
Well-known member
Sorry circular saw with tipped blade
Kukri
Well-known member
If it doesn’t absolutely stink of turpentine when scraped, it isn’t pitch pine!
CJU
Member
If it’s any help,15 years ago while on holiday in Kerala I bought a teak plank approx 5’x12”x1” , which I needed to replace the capping on the transom. I got our hotel to wrap in newspaper and tie it as a parcel and brought it back as baggage. Nothing untoward happened, but I’m not sure that would be the case now.
