Ideas for wood that can be stained to look like Burmese teak

[Anonymous]

I have a large platter to turn for the local branch of the Burma Star Association. The trouble is that they are unlikely to be able to afford genuine Burmese teak. Has anyone any ideas for a wood that could be stained to look like B.teak?

As regards staining, at what sanding stage is it best to apply stain? I have just made one platter but didn't start to stain it until I had sanded it to 400grit. As a consequence, only the grain really went darker and I am obviously going to want all of the wood to go dark.

Many thanks

Paul

 

[MikeW]

Hi Paul,

Hate to sound flippant here especially being ignorant of teak prices there, but it would seem to be their choice--pay for teak or pay someone to make something look like teak, which would, at least in my shop, cost as much. That's aside from the issue it just seems disingenuous to use something else seeing who it's for.

I don't know how large of diameter nor how deep a platter you are making them, nor the orientation of the bowl (edge/face grain), but if you can locate a dealer there I would check to see if they have any off-cuts from larger boards they would let go for less than the board cost, which may mean gluing up the blank and doing a face grain turning.

That said, you may be able to fake it with a very light mahogany and use a couple analine dyes to get to the brownish-green hues in the teak. I would still sand as high as you intend. The analines will color the early/late growth well.

If you do use analine dyes, you'll need to do lots of experiments with differing proportions over a few days time. Also, once you are ready to actually do the platter, sand as high as you intend, wet lightly with water, let that dry very well and knock off the raised grain then apply the analine.

Good luck,