TEAK TEAK EVERYWHERE

[Dstejps37]

I have questions about teak. What do you use to clean your interior teak and prevent water damage from regular live-aboard use in the galley. We have teak all over our galley. As we move counterclockwise around the galley, we have a teak cover for our refrigeration (which takes up a large portion of counter space) there is another teak cover that goes over the stove, (supposed to provide more counter space) a teak cover for the waste basket (provides more counter space), then the sink with a teak looking cutting board. It is difficult to not get the teak wet while cooking, with wet items coming out of the refrigerator, and dishes that may have condensation on them. We have placed paper towels down over top of the teak in an effort to keep it dry. But, I was wondering if anyone has any better ideas or tips?

Thanks!

[MarkSF]

Teak is extremely water resistant, due to containing a lot of oils. I have a patch in my cabin sole where it had been permanently damp due to a slow leak from a through-hull. The holly strips in the sole have rotted away, and the plywood under the teak has rotted, but the teak strips are fine.

I would treat the teak occasionally with lemon oil and don't worry about it. You're not going to be able to hurt it.

[Cherp]

At $10-12000 a cubic metre, I would be inclined to use your teak as an additive to very special dishes. With just a little scraping added to a dish, you could wow and amaze them with the flavour. You could waffle on about the palate/aftertaste like the wine buffs do. you could tell them it's as rare and expensive as the best of the truffles. After many years, you would have eatdn all the teak around your stove. You could replace it with a laminate plate and you wouldn't have the problem.

[sww914]

This is not like hardwood floors. You can soak the teak for a week and nothing will happen. Almost nothing hurts it. Worry about global warming or genetically modified foods or military drones in public schools instead.

[bobconnie]

Take the varnish off all your teak in the galley, the use your salt water faucet to wet it and wipe it clean! ya can oil it if ya wish, but in the galley varnish on a surface I use to wash or prepare food no varnish !! just the way Ive always done ! if ya like the varnish just try to keep it dry !! I guess

[Hudson Force]

Tung oil suits us best or "teak oil" products that contain tung oil.

[Matt sachs]

Teak ; Costa Rican telephone poles and fence posts. One mans trash is anothers treasure I suppose.

[David M]

Are you talking about teak utensils or things that are not utensils?

For the non-utensils I would varnish it. Varnish will last many many years if it is kept out of the sun. The last time I varnished my interior was 12 years from the last time it was varnished.

[forsailbyowner]

For food prep surfaces mineral oil is the standard. Teak oil, tung, varnish all have additives that make them not approved for contact with food. Did a little reading about this when I was putting butcherblock in my galley

[ReMetau]

We have a lot of teak in our galley that is all finished (needs redone, but not too bad). We have a cutting board that duplicates as our fridge top cover, but we don't use it as a cutting board. For food prep, we use bare bamboo cutting boards.

We also used to have boards to cover the sinks, but we never used them and finally got rid of them.