What Is Teak Wood?

All Garden Benches offers a variety of Teak Wood products. Customers often ask us, "What is Teak?" This article is offered to our customers in order to answer that question!

Teak Wood comes from the Far East and is native to Southeast Asia. In particular, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and India produce much of the world's Teak wood, but it is also harvested after being naturalized in places like Africa and Caribbean countries. Burma leads the way in Teak production, accounting for at least a third of the total Teak output in the world. It is, therefore, considered a tropical hardwood tree, and, as with all tropical species, the rarity of the growing conditions for Teak makes it a valuable resource. Yet, Teak trees can survive in a wide variety of Tropical conditions, including arid areas where rainfall is less abundant. Teak is grown on plantations with an eye towards cultivating the best quality and to naturally weed out lower quality.

As a deciduous tree it has an impressive combination of leaf and flower, as seen in the images. The flower is quite flagrant and is blooming from June to August. Harvested Teak wood has a pleasant leathery scent and is conducive to being worked by carpenters and woodworkers. In fact, one of its advantages is that it is considered a hardwood but with woodworking qualities that mirror softer woods.

As we mention often in the various garden benches, porch swings, and dining sets that All Garden Benches offers in Teak, the wood's natural oils make it naturally resistant to the elements, including insects, pests, mildew, fungi, and other elements that threaten its growth and survival in the wild. This makes it a durable wood even before millers get their hands on harvesting it. Further, the high oil content along with tensile strength make it suitable for all sorts of furniture production - both indoor and outdoor. The Old World would capitalize on this strength by using the wood for ship building and making many of the necessary on-deck items that might be exposed to water and the elements. Today, it is still used for ships, but consumers around the world choose Teak for many furniture items that they would want to have a natural resistance to rot, decay, and weathering. The only harm that is common for Teak furniture would be the UV rays of the sun, which fade Teak wood and can sometimes lead to a silvery-gray surface color, which is sometimes even desirable in appearance. For those who don't want this, however, it is easily avoided by reducing direct exposure to sunlight.

We continue to offer great Teak products to our customers because we feel that there really is no other kind of wood like Teak in terms of uniqueness. As most of our products are meant to be enjoyed outdoors, All Garden Benches has confidence in the quality and durability of the Teak Wood benches and furniture that we offer for sale.