All About Teak Wood Grades

Teak is an extremely dense [40lbs cuft when dry] coarse grained hardwood that is resistent to rust, rot, and termites. Teak wood is generally straight grained, but occasionally wavy. There are three grades of teak: A, B, and C with A being the highest quality. It has a coarse and uneven texture. Teak wood contains a high level of silica which causes rapid blunting of cutting edges. When fresh cut, the surface of the wood is dull in appearance, and the timber has a distinctive, pleasantly aromatic odor which has been likened to the smell of leather. Fresh sawn teak has a slightly ‘oily’ feel due to the high oil content. One of the most commonly quoted facts about the characteristics of teak is its durability. It is resistant to rot caused by fungal decay, and the high level of resinous oil present in the timber helps to act as a natural insect repellent giving the timber very high resistance to attack by termites and other wood boring insects. The timber is said to be resistant to water and many chemical reagents, including acids. It does not have a strong reaction when it comes in contact with metals. All these statements regarding the durability of teak are born out by the fact that we can see many instances of the timber which have withstood the test of time when used as key components in the boat building industry, or more sedately when used for making municipal furniture for our parks.

With all the online stores and retail outlets making claims about the quality of their teak wood used to make their teak furniture products.. How do you know how to determine if what you are paying for is really the grade generally accepted as ‘A’ grade Teak, or ‘B’ or ‘C’ grade teak? We have found outline below to be a very useful guide with respect to the quality and look & feel of the teak wood on teak furniture items you purchase.

Select: Grade ‘A’
No sap wood
No knot (live nor dead)
No black nature grain
Uniform in color
Uniform in grain (quarter cut)
No mirror (when the sun goes on wood, it will shine, on oak it like a shiny tiger mark).
No water grain
No pin hole
Zero defect

Nature: Grade ‘A’ or ‘B’
No sap wood
No knot (live is allowed 5%)
black nature grain is allowed
Uniform in color
Good grain (combination)
Small mirror is permitted.
Little water grain
No pin hole

Rustic: Grade ‘C’ sap wood
Generally, it is the lowest grade, on teak sometime factories uses chemical to manipulate it to look like ‘B’ ‘C’ grade.
Darker wood, grain is very clear and usually dark as well.

We hope you find this guide for buying Teak furniture products very useful. We have found this to be a very useful and objective tool for evaluating teak furniture products.