Grades of Teak Wood Furniture

Teak furniture is manufacture by several methods. It is important to understand the grades of wood and manufacturing process.

Teak wood is graded by appearance, knots (their location) and by the kind of wood.

These are three main grade in teak wood.

Grade A teak wood is produce from the center of the tree( known as the heart wood). It will be produced from a tree 30-50 years of age. Characteristic are Close grain, warm/honey color, oil rich and knot free (live knot only: which is have to be  less than 0.5 inches in diameter and present only every 4 liner feet). This kind of wood is used in machine made teak furniture.

Grade B teak wood has a warm color with occasional streak of black and some splotches and discoloration. This grade B teak has more knots per liner feet. It is common used in semi machine made product. Semi machine made implies that personnel use electric saws to cut the wood, but there is no concept of jig and fixture to make all the slats the same size. Semi machine also means that the tenons float in the mortice (the joint is not exact and there are gaps). This is usually filled with epoxy for complete assembled, because the end customer would not tolerate the sloppiness.

Grade C teak wood has dark color in place, mix with a very white color in place know as sapwood. There is an allowance for dead knots (where the knot was weak, has begun gouged out and filled with epoxy or putty). These knots may be on the top or bottom side. Grade C teak wood is most often use in hand crafted outdoor furniture. This is completely outsource to the village industry and follows no process for drying and manufacture. Hand crafted also means that the tenons float in the mortice ( the joint is not exact, there are gaps). this is usually filled with epoxy and generally the furniture comes completely assembled.

In Summary: Grade A teak wood will most likely be machine made and has the highest quality wood.