Removal of excess Teak Oil

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Squeaky

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Good evening:

A friend asked another friend to apply teak oil to some garden furniture without clearly explaining what was needed and how to do it which resulted in a thick tacky covering of oil on all surfaces of the furniture. I am not sure that the wood is actually teak but it certainly looks like it - certainly it is a close grained hardwood.

The big question now is how to remove the excess. Sanding will take lots of sandpaper as I am sure the tacky excess will gum up the paper pretty quickly.

Is there any type of solvent that might do the job? If so, what?

I suggested leaving it out in the mid-day sun for a few months but that didn't go down well.

Any suggestions or comments welcome.

Cheers

Squeaky
 
White spirit might help it soak in to the wood.
As might gently warming it with a hot air gun...
Don't mix the two, it will catch fire!
 
Squeaky said:
Good evening:

A friend asked another friend to apply teak oil to some garden furniture without clearly explaining what was needed and how to do it which resulted in a thick tacky covering of oil on all surfaces of the furniture. I am not sure that the wood is actually teak but it certainly looks like it - certainly it is a close grained hardwood.

The big question now is how to remove the excess. Sanding will take lots of sandpaper as I am sure the tacky excess will gum up the paper pretty quickly.

Is there any type of solvent that might do the job? If so, what?

I suggested leaving it out in the mid-day sun for a few months but that didn't go down well.

Any suggestions or comments welcome.

Cheers

Squeaky
Click to expand...

They should ban that stuff!

Some sort of solvent should thin it down a bit, i dont know if white spirit will work, but if it does, apply with a scotchbrite pad and wipe off with a cloth as you go.
 
We use the method told to us by that nice chap at Howell's-the supplyer of all sorts of usefull teak bits for boats. He told us to apply several coats, let dry completely and then polish it with really fine steel wool. This works very well. I do our cockpit table every year and it looks like new still.
 
I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but I would wipe it over with a cloth wetted with teak oil. The fresh oil, which still has its solvents will dilute that dried on the surface allowing excess to be removed.

Rob.
 
Not sure how he managed to get so much on that within a week it hasn't all soaked in/evaporated. I lather my teak garden furniture in it at the start of the year and by the following weekend it is perfectly alright to sit on without getting cloths marked. Maybe it has been sealed or something other than teak oil has been used in the past which has had the same effect.
 
Good evening:

neilf39: I also don't know how the young lady managed to get so much on the furniture but there is a definite surplus which is now tacky.

However thanks to the above responses, I have managed to get some undeserved kudos as I tried both white spirits and teakoil with a brillo pad and either definitely works by softening the excess making it fairly easy to scrub off.

I only tried a couple of test patches as it will be a fairly labour intensive program to remove most of it. I am fairly sure it will not be possible to remove that which is on the slates of the chair backs but it might well disappear if left out in the sun for a while.

Thanks for your responses.

Squeaky
 
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