Any idea what wood school PE benches are made of?`

[Agent_zed]

I have some lab bench tops from the mid 1950s which are made of Utile. They were from a lab which had Parana pine cupboards and bookshelves, and notice boards from an African hardwood whose name escapes me for the moment. Stools were made of beech. They were all ripped out in the 1990s and replaced with plastic coated weetabix which lasted at least a couple of weeks before the doors got ripped off the cupboards... The tubular steel framed stools didn't last much longer.

Les

My dad was a teacher so most of my childhood was having things made from school tables and chairs that were being skipped. Including a seasaw, honey extractor, most of the chair framework of our campervan (long since gone) and numerous other bits and pieces. My current garage stool is from the skip at the school I worked at a few years ago. I mended a chair or 2 when I was there but they don't tend to like things being repaired these days.

Still got a few lab table top pieces, what ever teak like wood it is. Made a few nice picture frames from some of it.

 

[wally7]

what was deal which is stock wood used in wooodwork

 

[Adam W.]

what was deal which is stock wood used in wooodwork

Red/Yellow deal is scots pine from the Baltic states, White deal is spruce again from the Baltic states.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

From what I've read a deal apparently was originally a size of timber not a type.

 

[Adam W.]

Baulks were hewn and deal was sawn, but not to be confused with battens or boards.

So red deal is sawn scots pine and white deal is sawn spruce. Red,yellow,white denoting the species and baulk or deal denoting the conversion and rough sizing.

 

[Woody2Shoes]

From the pics it looks more like some kind of tropical hardwood...

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Baulks were hewn and deal was sawn, but not to be confused with battens or boards.

So red deal is sawn scots pine and white deal is sawn spruce. Red,yellow,white denoting the species and baulk or deal denoting the conversion and rough sizing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_(timber_unit)
The timber would be typically called battens (7 inches wide), deals (above 7, usually 9 inches wide) and planks (11 inches wide); boards were under 2 inches thick.[3][4]

 

[Keith 66]

From the pics it looks more like some kind of tropical hardwood...

I reckon its Iroko, it fades light like that in the sun. Plane it down & you will see. As for using Beech outside dont go there, It rots faster than you can blink. Back in the 80's a lot of beech flitches were slid over the wall at the timber wharf in Old Leigh for a few beer tokens. Much of it found its way into boats. Every person who used it on a boat or outside rued the day they used it as it invariably went rotten!

 

[wurglesnash357]

... notice boards from an African hardwood whose name escapes me for the moment....
Les

Idigbo!