Teak is a highly sought after wood for furniture because of it’s beautiful color and durability. With this in mind many people seek out pieces from antique stores, estate sales, yard sales and from relatives. As teak ages it slowly turns a grey color, which true antique lovers and aficionados prize greatly. For the rest of us we prefer that it shows us the splendor of the natural golden color. Restoring it to this natural beauty is actually a relatively easy task, though somewhat time intensive.
Before beginning this restoration process I recommend covering your work area with newspapers or drop cloth as we will be dealing with sawdust and linseed oils as well as sealers. For larger areas and pieces an orbital sander is recommended with fine grit sandpaper. Smaller areas should be done by hand or a specially shaped power sander such as the Bosch Corner/Detail sander kit (www.homedepot.com $128.00) which comes with a variety of different shaped attachments, or the Ryobi Detail Sander (www.homedepot.com $29.97) that has one shape of sanding head.
Gently sand the wood until you have reached the original wood color removing only as much as is necessary to take the silvery grey color from the wood, any more may cause more damage than necessary to the piece. After you have sanded the piece back to the original color take a slightly damp soft rag and wipe it down, completely removing any trace of duct from the surface. Make sure you get in all the nooks and crannies as the dust from these can be drug out during the finishing process and show up in the final stages as a rough unsightly mess.
To obtain the best finish, and the longest lasting finish, I highly recommend using either teak oil such as Amazon Teak Oil (www.jamestowndistibutors.com $19.26 pt) or a linseed oil such as Sunnyside Raw Linseed Oil (www.nothingbuthardware.com $22.99 gal.). Either one of these will work just fine, their purpose being to protect the wood from deterioration due to contaminants in the air and fading due to sunlight. Working on one section of the piece at a time, apply a small amount of the oil to a soft cloth and rub gently into the wood. This process requires the application of several light coats rather than one thick coat to get the best protection and coverage. One of the best things about this is seeing the natural beauty of your furniture reappear before your eyes.
Once you have applied several coats of oil to the piece you will have a beautiful piece of furniture you can be very proud of. Now the trick is to keep it that way, so how do you do this? I recommend using a teak sealer such as Semco Teak Sealer (www.jamestowndistributors.com $25.70 qt). This product goes on easily and dries to a nice glossy finish. This should be applied after your piece has had time to dry completely, or it will smear your beautiful finish and will not dry properly.
All that remains is to enjoy the fruits of your hard work for years to come. Should you need to touch up your work a simple cleaning with something like TE-KA Teak Wood Cleaner (www.jamestowndistributors.com $26.08 kit), then a good rub down with your oil and seal it again.
