techtona Is
direct sourcing • local milling • best prices • truly reclaimed • sustainable
Much of our reclaimed teak and ironwood was cut from forests in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. All of it today would be considered old growth. Back then teak, ironwood and other timbers were around in such abundance that the timber was rough sawn into lumber and used to frame all kinds of structures. When extracting this wood from demolished structures, one is struck first by the size of the timbers- 14” wide teak floorboards were commonplace.
Entire mature teak round logs were used as support pillars for many types of buildings to keep living space out of reach of seasonal floods and critters that should not be there. In today’s world of course framing anything in solid teak or ironwood is unthinkable. The material is just too rare.
The teak and other hardwoods that Techtona reclaims have seen decades and in some cases-a century or more of in-situ weathering as exposed stilts, building frames, floors, rafters etc. This creates amazing texture and patina which adds tangible history to the material we work with. The passage of time in harsh conditions also creates cracks, scratches, bee holes and other evidence of wear. In the world of reclaimed teak and other hardwoods, nail holes are a fact of life. We often get requests for wood that is touched up as little as possible-people want the holes and the original texture of the wood. Such tables are shown in our reclaimed teak plank table section.
Our finishing team does an excellent job filling holes in flooring, paneling, decking and furniture. Holes are filled by inserting a mixture of teak sawdust and epoxy and then sanding it smooth or inserting a custom-drilled teak plug and sanding this smooth. Both processes are briefly shown below.
Epoxy FIll
The Nail as Art
From the moment we extracted our first 6-inch, 19th century nail, we knew we had a work of rare historical art in our hand. These hand-hewn steel nails were forged in the late 19th / early 20th centuries. These average 4″-6″ long and are extracted using a precious set of US army, WWII issue nail extractor.
Research has shown that these nails were likely the first of their kind in SE Asia, made by hand and machine on rudimentary ‘nail cut’ machines invented by the Glasgow Steel Nail Co which can trace its business roots back to 1870 in industrial era England. These nail making machines would have arrived SE Asia on ships owned by the Bombay Trading Co to speed up their production of teak and other wood-based products in SE Asia. The distinctive square holes left by these original nails in our reclaimed teak are yet another cultural imprint on this incredible wood.
These nail-heads can be use in any number of decorative motif on any of the custom furniture we design. For ideas, please contact us.
Teak Plug Fill
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