Is this timber Teak?

[BareBear]

I broke down a couple of old mass produced bedside drawer units to recycle the wood.

It was labelled as Vienna Teak. I assumed it would be pine stained on the outside and MDF on the inside but now that it’s in bits, I wonder if it is actually teak in parts. Most of it was hardwood faced MDF and stained, but the frame was predominantly this unfinished wood that definitely feels and sounds like old hardwood.

What kind of wood do you think it is?

 

[peter-harrison]

It's hard to say what with all the varnish etc, but it doesn't scream teak to me. Someone on here will ask you for a photo of the endgrain!

 

[SammyQ]

Barebear, I processed many feet of teak and your photos do not initially ring true. The first photo certainly resembles teak colouration; the rest are a bit "hmmm ...not quite right", especially that one with regularised grain; more like 'mahogany' in all its variations.
A good test for teak is to try to sand a discrete corner. The dust should be oily or greasy, sticks together because of the high oil content. Possibly gritty too, because of the silica inclusions.

 

[BareBear]

It actually looks like the darker bits are meranti but I’ve got no idea what the lighter bits are. I’ll give them a saw and post pics of end grain.

 

[Orraloon]

Lighter bits could also be meranti as it has a wide colour range.
Regards
John

 

[highwood122]

It's hard to say what with all the varnish etc, but it doesn't scream teak to me. Someone on here will ask you for a photo of the endgrain!

whilst talking about teak, how do you tell it from iroko. i have some of each guaranteed genuine and cannot tell

 

[peter-harrison]

Teak has a very distinctive smell- a bit like the inside of an old medicine chest. It also feels waxy when fresh planed.

 

[John Hughes01]

We used to call iroko pepper wood as you needed lots of ventilation as it got on your chest whilst you know teak immediately you put it through the saw - a beautiful aroma and,yes. an oily feel. I once got some large push bar to open doors from our local Girlings factory skip and they turned out to be Burma teak - I made a lovely Carolina style door over thirty years ago andit still looks as good as new. My neighbour asked me to take a chain saw to cut up a large garden to take it to the tip - it turned out to be an old extendable solid teak table coated every year in a good quality sikkens-type finish. I recycled it to my house and gave my ******* teak table away. Teak is no longer available they say so grab the old garden furniture if you get the chance

 

[BareBear]

I’ve come to the conclusion that none of it is teak. There’s no tell tale signs as you guys described above.

Mostly meranti, but I can use that.

Thanks again.