by Dvanharn » Sun 11 Jul 2004, 20:54:13
"So-called Teak oil is a marketing designation that refers to many different oil (or oil and varnish) formulations"
You can formulate any oil you want and market it for wood finishing at "teak oil." I am aware of no regulations regulating the formulation. Some people have acutally filtered used motor oil, thinned it with mineral spirits and called it teak oil. Actually, if you use botanical oils (from living plants) it is a renewable product. If you make it from a mineral-based oil and mineral spirits, like many marketers of "teak oil" is will become very expensive like all other petroleum products.
Which brings up another interesting possibility for making a living in the post-oil peak era. Products like turpentine, which is made from pine sap, will probably increase in price as petroleum products of similar usage go up.
Encyclopedia.com says: "Turpentine is a yellow to brown semifluid oleoresin exuded from the sapwood of pines, firs, and other conifers. It is made up of two principal components, an essential oil and a type of resin that is called rosin . The essential oil (oil of turpentine) can be separated from the rosin by steam distillation. Commercial turpentine, or turps, is this oil of turpentine. When pure, it is a colorless, transparent, oily liquid with a penetrating odor and a characteristic taste. It contains a large proportion of pinene, a compound from which camphor is manufactured. Turpentine is obtained in large amounts from several species of pines of the SE United States; its physical properties, e.g., boiling point, depend on its source. It is used chiefly as a solvent and drying agent in paints and varnishes.
Dave van Harn