swim platform

[illiniboarder88]

Does anyone know if Tige ever used a wood other than teak for its swim platforms? When I applied oil to mine, it came out very very black. I'm wondering if the wood could possibly be mahogany...

[da.bell]

It's fake teak... Iroko wood

[illiniboarder88]

Ok, a couple more q's then. 1. Are all tige swim platforms Iroko or was Teak an upgrade option? 2. Anyone out there had any success in keeping it from getting real dark when finishing? If so, please let me know. To put this in perspective, mine darkened up quite a bit with just mineral spirits wiped on it. Fortunately, it did not dry as dark as it initially looked like it would. The cetol I put on it turned out really dark, though.

[samw]

I was planning on refinishing mine this spring how do you tell which one you have??? I thought it was Teak???
What is Iroko wood?

Thanks

[da.bell]

Here is a link to Razzman's teak platform.

http://www.tigeowners.com/forum/show...?t=4039&page=2

He did an excellent job and would be best to explain to you what he did. From my understanding, Tige has always used the "fake" teak on their swimplatforms.

[da.bell]

I was planning on refinishing mine this spring how do you tell which one you have??? I thought it was Teak???
What is Iroko wood?

Thanks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroko_Wood

[chpthril]

I know that the industry as a whole started using "F"eak a few years ago due to cost and availability, but dont know how far back. I would have bet money that yours was Teak

[illiniboarder88]

I'm shocked it isn't real as well, but I'm almost 100% sure it's not teak. We've had teak on sailboats for years, and the teak on those has never turned out like this did. This wood also has a bit of a different color to it when sanded down that I have seen in the past with teak. We've always used cetol in the past, but it came out looking almost black on the swim platform. I'll have to give regular teak oil a try or maybe some watco.

[chpthril]

do some pics and let us know how it goes, this is interesting.

[G-MONEY]

Iroko wood

ERRRRRRRRRRRRR

ERRRRRRRRRRRRR

ERRRRRRRRRRRRR

(smoke coming out of my ears)

[xpjim1]

I know in 02 My platform was real teak. In 05 I got fiberglass as I like the simpler maintenance. what year is your boat

[illiniboarder88]

2000

[dogbert]

It's real teak. You may need to clean it. I'm about to do an update on a cleaning/restoration product I got at my local Tige dealer. My results were outstanding. It lifts out the old products you may have applied over the years and gets you back to the original wood.

Hopefully I'll have time tonight to upload the pics. I'm not kidding about the results because anyone who's seen my boat since I did it thought I bought a new swim platform.

[illiniboarder88]

I've done some extensive sanding on mine, and it now looks like woodtone but not quite the usual shade of teak. Are you saying that the previous chemicals are reacting with what I'm putting on there? That does make some sense, but what really is throwing me off is how dark it gets when just applying mineral spirits to the wood. I tried this on both the top and bottom of the platform. When I put on Cetol, it came out almost black which was really shocking.

[da.bell]

I've done some extensive sanding on mine, and it now looks like woodtone but not quite the usual shade of teak. Are you saying that the previous chemicals are reacting with what I'm putting on there? That does make some sense, but what really is throwing me off is how dark it gets when just applying mineral spirits to the wood. I tried this on both the top and bottom of the platform. When I put on Cetol, it came out almost black which was really shocking.

It turned black immediately??? I thought you had to wait awhile for the oils to soak into the work......