So, my wife wanted me to make her a desk, so we made a trip up to our usual wood store. She found this figured teak board that she really liked. Most people really like figured wood, but I’m not normally a huge fan of it. I tend to like quarter sawn, long straight grains but this board was pretty amazing.
I’m always nervous to cut nice, expensive wood but luckily I didn’t have to make many cuts. And the grain lined up relatively well. So I just drilled some holes for some dowels and glued it up.
After a lot of sanding, I had to choose which teak oil to use – Starbrite or Watco. Anyone who’s ever used Watco can recognize it by the awful cap and the accompanying wrench that’s need to pry it open.
I tried both on some of the scrap pieces and… I couldn’t really tell the difference. I thought the Starbright was a little less orange and I couldn’t find my wrench, so I went with that one. And it sure made the grain come to life.
It’s hard to describe, but it looks almost like the grain is under a layer of glass. And all of the textures look almost 3D and reflect the light.
All that was left to do was to attach some hairpin legs my wife bought on Etsy and her custom desk was complete.