WEATHERED A-GRADE & C-GRADE COMPARED

This page highlights two weathered teak folding chairs at the warehouse in Indonesia.

The Kimberly chair (on the right) was a chair purchased back in 2002 and sold for about $125. It was made from a-grade teak. This chair was being used in the office until about 2007 when we brought it outside to be used with a table.

Anyway, in this case, this Kimberly chair is currently mixed in with a few other reject chairs that get used around the warehouse. It is currently being used as one of the eight chairs for guests. It has aged outside for about 1-2 years and started its silvery patina transformation.

Among the other chairs were also several c-grade chairs. The c-grade 'french' chair (on the left) was from a purchase back in 2006 and was a slight variation of the standard folding chair that sells for $39.

This c-grade folding chair, as we call it, looked very similar to the Kimberly chair……and something I’ve been wanting to highlight for some time – and that is once teak ages, it is hard to tell the difference in grades.

To highlight my point, we sanded back the silver with a simple piece of used sandpaper. With a little sanding, you simply see the dark red of the a-grade chair and the lighter tone of the c-grade chair. When compared together as aged chairs, it is hard to even see a difference. In fact, the camera shows more of a color difference than the eye notices in the silvery patina.

Besides the fact you might like the Kimberly chair, if you plan to leave your teak outdoors, do you really care if the grade is 'a' or 'c'?

Now, I am not here to argue the longevity aspect or the pros and cons in grades. I briefly address that elsewhere on the site, but I am here to show you that when aged 1-2 years, the teak variations in grain and color become a rather muted point.