Members Of The BMCC

Reclaimed Teak and Sustainable Furniture Making

At Rockwood Furniture, we made a conscious decision about 8 years ago that we were going to convert our business to being as sustainable as we could possibly make it. As a small local business, we have to balance a few things in this process including the taste and preferences of our customers as well as the ongoing economic struggles of running a small business. That being said, we knew that the easiest thing we could do was to switch as much of our material sourcing from plantation teak to reclaimed teak. This meant finding new suppliers and learning how to work with slightly different materials but the journey has been rewarding and we are now proud to say that the overwhelming majority of our products are made from reclaimed teak.

What is reclaimed teak?
In simple terms, reclaimed teak is old wood that has been salvaged from old buildings, homes, infrastructure (like bridges) and cleaned up to be used to build new items like furniture. We work almost exclusively with very small suppliers, many of whom have created a small business for themselves by dismantling their old houses and selling all the old wood and using that money to build themselves a new home with electricity, running water and air conditioning. There are many villages that have created this little cottage industry for themselves dotted all over Indonesia. Obviously once an individual house has been completely sold off then the family moves on to something else, which is usually farming or similar.

Why is it more sustainable than plantation teak?

Put simply, reclaimed teak is not taking any resources from the natural environment that have not already been removed. Most of the teak that we buy was cut down several generations ago and while many would prefer that it was never cut down in the first place, the reality is those trees are long gone and the thriving reclaimed teak industry ensures that this wood is recycled over and over again.

Is it better than plantation teak?

Yes and no. Plantation teak has one big advantage over reclaimed teak and that is consistency of appearance. When a furniture maker sources plantation teak, they know it will be coming from the same physical location, grown in the same conditions over the same time span. Therefore, the physical appearance of plantation teak will be very consistent from one plank to the next. Reclaimed teak on the other hand is from all over the place, cut down over many years and used in different conditions through its life as timber. But if you ask me, its the variations we get in reclaimed teak that adds to its allure.

All that being said, reclaimed teak has generally had decades to age and most importantly for it to dry out. This usually means there is a consistently lower moisture content in reclaimed teak which makes it more predictable in terms of movement and future aging.

Teak vs Everything Else

Teak in general is an extremely durable wood with a very high natural oil content that helps repel all sorts of pests and even when pests like termites and borers do find teak, they tend not to spend much time eating it. It is more common for pests to use teak for nesting with limited eating and damage and then finding their food source from some other wood. The same thing translates to teak in the home. Even if pests do find it, they would prefer to eat something else and will actively seek out other food and leave the teak alone.

These natural oils (not to be mistaken with “Teak Oil, which is a completely different topic and is in fact nothing to do with teak) are also very good at protecting the wood from rot from exposure to water. Some species of timber are susceptible to rot when exposed to water constantly but teak is one of the more durable of all species in this regard.

So when we combine the use of reclaimed materials and recycling as much as we possibly can with a material that is extremely durable and capable of lasting for many generations then we feel we are actively helping to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Instead of buying furniture every few years and throwing the old stuff away when it falls apart, we would much prefer people buy something once and hand it down for generations to come.