How to Make Your Own Teak Oil

Have you ever wondered what teak oil is or where it comes from?

Although it makes sense to assume that just like coconut oil comes from coconuts, teak oil must come from teak wood; that assumption would be incorrect.

Teak oil is made from a variety of different oils and it is simply used as a finishing product for any type of wooden furniture. It is possible to make your own teak oil but there is not one simple and standard recipe.

The original teak oil was made specifically for teak wood, which is logical, given the name. These days, teak oil is made to be used on any type of wood and it can often penetrate the wood grain more effectively than other finishing oils.

It is true that there are natural oils in teak wood but you do not get teak oil from extracting it out of the wood. Teak oil can be made by blending a variety of oils and solvents creating a product that will protect items made of wood. Teak itself is a type of wood that is often used to make items such as cabinets or furniture.

Teak is considered a close-grained wood, similar to maple. Often when someone builds a beautiful piece of wooden furniture they will want to apply a finishing coat that will provide a hardened finish.

A product such as tung oil or boiled linseed oil polyurethane mix may not work as well as teak oil because it does not penetrate into the close-grained wood deeply enough.

If you would like to make your own teak oil it will be a matter of experimenting with what works for you. There is not one kind of teak oil, nor is there one recipe. If you look at two different containers of products both called teak oil you will see that the ingredients may vary tremendously.

Tung Oil vs. Teak Oil

It is beneficial to make comparisons between the different types of wood finishing products in order to determine which type of oil is best suited to the projects you are working on.

Some of the benefits of teak oil as compared to other oils include being easy to apply and offering an aesthetically pleasing look to the wood after it is applied. It is thinner than many other finishing products so it is considered useful for close-grained wood like maple, teak or mahogany.

It is unclear to experts as to whether or not there is any actual benefit to the furniture teak oil is used on. Teak oil does not crack or peel even if it is used on outdoor furniture. One of the cons (or possible pro, depending on your point of view) is that teak oil does change the colour of your wood.

Tung oil is another popular type of finishing oil. It is useful to use for products that are used in food preparation or handling, such as cutting boards or bowls because it is non-toxic. However, tung oil does not penetrate as well as teak oil especially if you are using a close-grained wood.

Making Teak Oil

Teak oil is known for being able to penetrate dense wood so it makes sense that your teak oil  would need to be quite thin, a dense liquid will not penetrate the wood grain as well. The way to make an effective teak oil would be to start with a mixture of oils and then simply add petroleum distillate or paint thinner to your mixture.

Alternatively, you can add naphtha instead of paint thinner. The benefit to using naptha is that you would end up with a quicker drying product. Some of the oils that are popular to use when making teak oil include linseed oil, tung oil or mineral oil.

In order to mix your own teak oil use one part oil and one part petroleum distillate or naphtha. Adding a varnish will provide even more protection, just be sure to choose a varnish that will mix well with the oil you are using.