Sealing Fake Teak Patio Furniture with Fake Watco Teak Oil

I purchased a hardwood patio furniture set from World Market a few years ago. The furniture is not teak, but instead a tropical hardwood of unknown species. According to a tag underneath the table it was manufactured in Indonesia. I paid about $600 and change, which seemed like a decent deal for a table, four chairs and a bench.

The first week I had it I applied Thomsons water sealer to provide some protection (later I learned this is not a good sealer). This Spring I noticed some cracks starting to form in the wood so I decided it was time to seal again. This time around I did more research on sealers. What I found out is there are basically two basic recommended choices for sealing: a penetrating oil, or a marine/spar vanish. Oil based sealers soak into the wood and give it a rich appearance. They seal out the water and some sealers provide some UV protection, but it's not a hard protective shell like a spar varnish. Oil based sealers also need to be reapplied more often (every 6 months, depending on climate) but they are easier to reapply than a varnish. Unlike oil sealers, varnishes form a hard barrier on top of the wood and better protect the wood against scratches, and dings (provided it doesn't go through the varnish layer) and grease stains, which oil sealers do not protect well against. Varnishes can crack over time, especially when exposed to direct sun. Varnishes also require more work to reseal: sanding/stripping.

I decided to use an oil based sealer since I felt I would need to clean the wood extremely well and sand before applying varnish, since it's longer seal, and I didn't have the time for that. I went to the hardware store thinking I'd get a Tung oil, since I read it's food grade safe. The hardware store only carried pure Tung oil but I was advised it was only recommended for indoor furniture. The salesperson first steered me to a deck sealer, but when I asked about Teak oil he showed me the Teak oil options, which was really just one: Watco Teak Oil. This is basically teak oil linseed oil plus some additives to preserve the wood and provide some UV protection. It's not super cheap at $38 (gallon) and I used about 3/4 of the container, much more than I expected. Doing some after-the-fact reading on the Rustoleum website, which manufactures Watco "Teak Oil", I found the Material Data Saftey Sheet. This sheet indicates the top 5 ingredients, NONE OF WHICH INCLUDE TEAK OIL. The top five, disclosed under the New Jersey Right-to-Know, include: Raw Linseed Oil, Resin, Zinc Borate. The Pennsylvania Right-to-Know section shows the non-hazardous ingredients at greater than 3%, which include: Raw Linseed Oil and Resin. Again Teak oil is no where to be found, and its reasonable to assume teak oil is non-hazardous. So, Watco Teak oil is completely misleading. It should be labeled Oil For Teak or other hardwoods.

In preparation for sealing I cleaned the top of the table with a laundry detergent mix and scotch brite pad and it did a good job removing some grease stains and accumulated dirt. It really lightened up the wood. I also sanded with 220 to soften up some rough spots. I left the table alone for a couple days to fully dry out. The directions don't mention cleaning is necessary but the data sheet does.

After shaking the can for about 20 seconds, I put on some nitrile gloves and went to work applying the oil with a cheap paint brush. This stuff has a consistency slightly more viscous than maple syrup. It seems like the job would go fast, but considering the four-sides to every piece of wood, and the hard to get to places, it takes longer than I imagined. I was going at a good clip and it took about 3 hours to complete the set (6 pieces), not including cleanup. One thing I forgot to do was shake the can ever so often.

I wore a respirator since the vapor is nasty. I also wore eye protection, which came in handy since the oil was splashing off the brush here and there. After 30 minutes you're supposed to wipe off excess oil. It's nearly impossible to time this as it takes 10-25 minutes to apply. So depending on where you started, it could vary from 0-25 minutes of dry time. I left it on longer than 30 minutes on some of the pieces and it got gummy when wiping off. Hopefully this is a short term issue. I applied the second coat, recommended by directions on the table top only, since I decided that's just too much work.

 The cleanup did not go as smoothly as I expected. It says easy cleanup using mineral spirits, but I found that this is actually not easy. I gave up on the brushes and tossed them. BTW, I found a 2" brush to work the best. I did the job over an old cracked patio, so I didn't care much about the oil stains.