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Home > Flooring Ideas > How many types of teak wood
How many types of teak wood
Burmese teak wood, Burma teak wood, Indonesian teak wood, Asian teak wood, Chinese teak wood, Golden teak wood, African teak wood, South American teak wood, plantation teak wood, Philippines teak wood, Malaysian teak wood, India teak wood, Thailand teak wood....
People
would feel getting lost when they come across the different types of teak wood
in the market for hardwood flooring or wood furniture. It is extremely
difficult for people to know how many types of teak wood there are and what
difference among all the types of teak wood, as ordinary people are not wood
experts, knowing very little about wood.
Teak
wood could be classified into several types in different ways.
The
first way of teak wood classification is teak wood or the wood that looks teak.
In fact,
there is only one real teak wood in the world. The botanical name or scientific
name of teak wood is Tectona Grandis. That is the easiest way to identify teak
wood.
There
are some types of wood that looks very like teak wood in colors and appearance.
For example, golden teak wood is a wood that looks like teak wood, but it is
not real teak wood. Its real botanical name is black locust wood or robinia
wood, with similar colors and wood grains as teak. As a result, many Chinese
teak hardwood flooring or furniture would be sold as Burma teak wood flooring or furniture at a very attractive price compared to the price of real Burma
teak wood. Thus it is necessary for people to know how to identify real teak
wood.
The
second way of teak wood classification is the growth way of teak wood.
the teak
wood yielded in old-growth forest in South Asia, is the mature real teak wood.
Usually only Burmese teak wood, Some teak wood from India and Indonesia are
old-growth teak wood.
The teak wood yielded in plantation forest is referred to plantation teak. This type of teak wood is more and more popular now because of the limited supply of natural mature teak wood from old-growth forest. Plantation teak wood is logged around 15-25 years, in fact teak wood of this age is not mature enough for use. But it is acceptable to many clients considering the good price since the wood properties of this plantation teak wood is still much better than many conventional hardwood.
The
third way of teak wood classification is the origin of real teak wood.
Real teak wood is native to Southeast Asia, but teak wood is planted widely in the world now due to its high economic benefits.
Burmese
teak wood: also named as Burma teak wood, usually it is old-growth native real
teak wood from forest in Myanmar or Burma, with growth time over 50years. It is
the best-quality and most popular real teak wood in the market, with golden
color, elegant wood grains and rich with teak oil inside wood.
Unfinished Burmese Teak wood Flooring
Indonesian teak wood: also named as Asian teak wood. This is also real teak wood, with over 30years of growth. Indonesian teak wood is the best plantation teak wood around the world, due to the suitable weathers and soils for teak growth. Its quality is the secondary among all real teak woods in the world, with wider wood grains, more sound knots, acceptable teak oil content, but a light brown color with a little greyish hue, not so golden brown as Burmese teak wood.
African plantation
teak wood: or African teak wood. This is only referred to real teak wood planted
in Africa. Due to its growth years only 15-25 years, African plantation teak
wood has less teak oil content in wood, thus its stability and durability is
not so good as Burmese teak wood, probably just better than conventional
hardwoods. The color of this teak wood is very light brown, with some cream
color of sapwood. The wood grains are also very wide and it is full of sound
knots too.
South
American plantation teak wood: or South American teak wood. This is also real
teak wood planted in South American, with similarity in quality, colors, wood
grains and teak oil content of African plantation teak wood. Sometimes, even
some wood exports could not identify the difference between South American and African
plantation teak wood.
Indonesian Teak Wood Flooring
India
teak wood: India teak wood is also very famous native teak wood from old-growth
forest, with similar excellence of wood properties of Burmese teak wood. It has
the same reputation as Burmese teak wood. But there is nealy no supply of India
teak wood in International market now due to the huge demand of Indian market
for teak wood.
Thailand
teak wood: Thailand teak wood in reality is the best real teak wood in quality
around the world, even better than Burma teak wood. The only reason is the
growth circumstances in Thailand are the best habitats for teak trees. The over
exploitation of teak wood in Thailand over the past 200 years had endangered
teak wood and Now Thai government has prohibited teak wood logging in Thailand.
As a result, there is no supply of Thailand teak wood in the market now.
The
forth way of teak wood classification is similar quality of teak wood.
Teak
wood is very famous around the world, especially popular among the high-class
society for high-end wood products. As real teak wood is very expensive, many
wood suppliers would use “teak” as the name for some hardwoods that are similar
to teak wood in quality, like stability, durability and water resistance. This
is a very good way to enhance the value and reputation of those similar
hardwoods, such as Brazilian teak wood, African Teak wood, Chinese teak wood.
Brazilian
teak wood: its real name is cumaru, not real teak wood tectona grandis. Cumaru
wood is a native hardwood from South America, especially from Brazil, with extremely
high hardness, stability and durability. It also has high wood oil content for
water resistance. Due to its high density and hardness, cumaru wood or
Brazilian teak wood is resistant to worms, pests and moths. Brazilian teak wood
grains are very different to real teak wood, and its color is usually redish
brown, not golden color as real teak.
African
teak wood: its real name is iroko, not real teak wood. Iroko also has very good
stability durability and water resistance. Iroko looks very different with real
teak wood. Its wood grains are always straight, nearly no knot. With acceptable
price & good resistance to rotting, Iroko is usually used as a substitute
to teak wood for outdoor wood decking, outdoor wood furniture.
South
American teak wood: some times people refer garapa wood as Sounth American teak
wood, as it has very good wood properties, very stable and durable. Further
more, Garapa wood has very nice wavy wood grains, with golden brown color.
Chinese
Teak wood: also named as golden teak wood. It is robinia wood or black lotust
wood, not real teak wood tectona grandis. This Chinese teak wood is widely used
as teak wood (fake), because it loos very similar to real teak wood in color
and wood grains. Besides, Chinese teak wood is heavy and stable. It is hard for
people without wood knowledge to identify Chinese teak wood and real teak wood,
especially after Chinese teak wood is processed as hardwood flooring or wood
furniture. Further more, the price of Chinese teak wood is only 40% of real
teak wood price. The high return causes many suppliers of hardwood flooring
& furniture to use & sell Chinese teak wood as real teak wood to
ordinary customers.
According
to these ways of classification, we now know well that there would be many
types of teak wood, but only one real teak wood, that is Tectona Grandis. Among
all real teak woods, Burma teak wood material is the best quality for wood
flooring, furniture & hardwood decking. We should pay good attention to the
classification and identification of teak wood that you are going to buy.