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Turning Teak

Robert Feingold

Robert Feingold

Joined
Jun 14, 2011
Messages
119
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64
Location
Brooklyn, NY
I have a couple of pieces of 8/4 qtd teak cutoffs from a job and was wondering if anyone has turned teak. I know that it dulls my HSS shaper and molder knives very quickly and expect that it will do the same with my lathe tools.
What type of tools should I use-scrapers? gouges? Is it worth it?
Any comments will be helpful.
Thanks,
Rob
 
I've found Teak to have a nice oily cut to it. It's almost like cutting leather with sharp shears. IMHO you'll enjoy turning it. I wouldn't think it would dull your tools very quickly.
 
The minerals in the wood will tend to dull your tools more quickly, but it is till beautiful wood, so fire up your lathe and show us the results
 
Wow, kind of all over with opinions on the stuff. I just got finished being beaten up by some Rhodesian teak and it was a hateful experience. Brutal tearout, cut like lawnmower cuts a diamond. Only saving graces...sands not to badly and I do not have to work it anymore, or ever again.
 
I have quite a bit of old teak, reclaimed from some amphitheater seating built back in the early 1930's, and if you're turning something like this, my advice would be to leave the grinder running, so as to save wear and tear on the switch.............

Gorgeous wood, but I do have to sharpen much more frequently and it's very tearout prone, so a gentle touch is the order of the day.

Rich
 
I do know that there is silica (used to make sandpaper) in teak from many cabinet projects and expect that my turning tools will dull very quickly. Running more that 20' of teak on my molder requires carbide knives.
Thanks for the varied responses. I will turn some tomorrow and will post my results.
Rob
 
Turned quite a few teak pens when we lived in Annapolis.
Quite popular with the sailing crowd.

I used my regular skew that I used in all my pen turning.
Teak has I high silica content and you will have to sharpen more often.

Al
 
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