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Food safe adhesive for teak?

bosleyjr

Diamond
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
Location
SE PA, Philly
After 40 years of marriage, the spoon part of our teak salad tongs has broken. The wife and I have a fondness for these tongs. Is there a good food safe adhesive that will work with teak?

Also I have to clean out some of the crude that was in the crack that has been there for a while. Dawn dishwashing soap and a toothbrush have had some results. But there's still some black staining. Bleach?

Thanks.
 

richard newman

Titanium
Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Location
rochester, ny
Teak requires an oil tolerant adhesive, two I've used are Titebond and epoxy. I don't know that I'd eat either one, but there will be hardly any of it in there, and it will be cured. There are epoxies made specifically for oily woods Epoxy is waterproof and gap filling, but should not go in the dishwasher.

Not sure about the black stain you mention, but cleaning with isopropyl alcohol, acetone, and/or lacquer thinner is a good idea.
 

dgfoster

Diamond
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Location
Bellingham, WA
Epoxy is for all practical purposes inert and is considered food safe. See West System’s web site for direction for teak.

Denis
 
agree with above and (ahem) put my mouth where my money is in this case. :)
Some of you will nod and mutter "well that explains things".

Nonetheless;
For half a century, I've typically repaired kitchen bowls, platters, wooden serving ware, etc, with WEST or other epoxy, though sometimes try a first pass on ceramic with cyanoacrylic & see if it holds (don't bother with that on wood) & don't think it has hurt me yet.

smt

edited: BTW, I've never owned a dishwasher, and don't leave repaired items in the superhot rinse water sink overly long. Not claiming either of above is significantly heat resistant.
 

mike44

Aluminum
Joined
Mar 21, 2020
Chlorine bleach will remove the dark spots. I glued a cutting board that developed a crack, used hot hide glue. First I sawed the board in half at the crack. Then reglued the two halves.
If you place the spoons in a dishwasher then hot hide glue is not the answer. Epoxy ? Titebond, maybe.
 

garyhlucas

Stainless
Joined
Oct 17, 2013
Location
New Jersey
Resorcinol glue is likely a good candidate. I laminated curved teak parts for my sailboat that have continous weather exposure.
 

dcsipo

Diamond
Joined
Oct 13, 2014
Location
Baldwin, MD/USA
After 40 years of marriage, the spoon part of our teak salad tongs has broken. The wife and I have a fondness for these tongs. Is there a good food safe adhesive that will work with teak?

Also I have to clean out some of the crude that was in the crack that has been there for a while. Dawn dishwashing soap and a toothbrush have had some results. But there's still some black staining. Bleach?

Thanks.
 

wood2steel

Cast Iron
Joined
May 17, 2013
Location
georgia
As mentioned; an oil tolerant Epoxy is the best route! Installed a Teak stair casing and Handrail system 40 yrs ago and we used Acetone to clean all mating surfaces of oil residue before applying adhesives. All seems to be still holding well !!
 

bosleyjr

Diamond
Joined
Sep 30, 2006
Location
SE PA, Philly
Saw this and thought it was some seriously deep innuendo.
Not the teak salad spoon, but ... Actually, we have a special tray for cooking and serving food. It's Swedish stoneware, and it's called a spodju. We got it from a friend of my Mom and Dad's at our wedding shower. The running joke is that when the spodju breaks, the marriage is over. Like the stone table breaking in Narnia.

A spodju (on the left - it's about 13 inches long)
Spodju.png
 








 
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