ISLAND TEAK COMPANY

John Stone

Island Teak Company
Paula Gibbs photo

Island Teak Company

681 U.S. Route 1
(6 miles north of Bath)
Wiscasset, Maine 04578

Contact: John Stone
Phone: 207-882-7225

Email: stonesloop@gwi.net

Also located at:
38 Sea St.
Boothbay Harbor, Maine 04538
Phone: 207-633-9899

Hundreds of benches, tables, and chairs in stock.

The best price in Maine.

Finely crafted of solid teak (tectona grandis), garden furniture from Island Teak Company will provide a lifetime of use in your outdoor environment.

The high oil and rubber content in teak makes it virtually immune to rot, splinters, and insects. Boatbuilders have used teak for hundreds of years because of its performance in the harsh marine environment.

Our furniture is specially made to our high standards in Java, Indonesia.

John Stone, owner of Island Teak and boatbuilder for 30 years, personally travels to Java to inspect each piece of furniture for quality of workmanship and material.

As the direct importer we can offer you the highest quality at the best price anywhere! We offer wholesale pricing - from a small truckload to 40-foot containers.

Please call John for a quote.

We insist on the use of ecologically harvested timber, certified for chain of custody by “Smart Wood,” a program of the Rainforest Alliance. For every tree cut, three are planted.

We use only kiln-dried wood.

All major structural joints are tight-fitting, machine-quality mortise and tenons, pinned and glued with polyurethane glue—the best for teak, solid brass fittings, and hand finished for an extremely smooth texture.

We are open 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily (April 15 to Oct. 15)

Please stop by and visit.

In the meantime, feel free to read the story about us (below) from the Wiscasset Newspaper.

Island Teak Company Opens In Woolwich in 2001

By Paula Gibbs


	Unexpected Expansion A NATURAL BUT UNEXPECTED EXPANSION of John Stone's 25 years of boat building and half hull model building business came this year with the sales of teak furniture, following a chance meeting with an importer at the Miami boat show. (Photo Paula Gibbs)

Maine boat builder John Stone had gone to the Miami boat show for years to market his handmade "half hulls," wood models of half a boat or ship's hull crafted by hand from several pieces of wood in exact scale to the real thing.

Unlike the previous shows, however, the last year's event brought one of those twists of fate that often sends us off in a new direction.

He was approached by a man who asked if he could make Stone's booth more interesting by putting some teak furniture in it.

"Sure," he answered, "why not?"

Throughout the remainder of the show, Stone was impressed with the interest the furniture generated, which came from a New York manufacturer and importer. Stone's teak furniture supplier had guessed, correctly, that people interested in buying finely crafted half hull models might also be interested in buying high quality teak furniture.

"I sent him all kinds of business," Stone remembers. As a boat builder and model maker for the last 25 years, under his company name of Sasanoa Shiprights, Stone had worked with all kinds of wood, and understood how resistant teak is to rot and mildew.

When he got back to Maine to resume his own business, he began thinking about how the furniture might sell in Maine. He contacted the company, asking if he could become a distributor. The answer was yes.

The Arrowsic resident found a home nearby for the business he decided to name Island Teak Company, in the Book Exchange just across the Sagadahoc bridge into Woolwich, in the complex where the post office is located. The owners were his friends, and they agreed to let him set up shop for both the furniture and his half hull models.

The wood is kiln dried and each piece is constructed with mortise and tenon joinery, a classic wood joint designed for strength and durability, in which a tongue-shaped piece fits into a groove. The importer also works with Perum Perhutani, a state owned forest that manages the conservation of Indonesian teak forests.

"Teak will last 75 to 100 years," Stone said, "so the furniture has to be put together in a way that will hold up."

Stone says he is grateful that the company is willing to work with "a small time craftsman and boatbuilder."

"Normally, you would have to be a pretty big-time business, buying truck loads at a time with a three-story building to store it." He gets a truck load delivered once a week and sells right off the floor.

"I'm learning what people want," he said, referring to the wide variety of furniture that ranges from the classic Adirondack chair to fancy English garden benches to octagonal tables.

His favorite is a small, collapsible table he calls the Jewell Island picnic table -- when it's folded flat, it has its own carrying handle.

For those not familiar with the world of teak, Stone says there's a lot of "stuff out there" being passed off as teak that isn't. All of the real teak comes from Indonesia, he says, from plantations started by the Dutch to produce wood for boat building.

Not surprisingly, the furniture sells for more than most outdoor furniture. In fact, it is so well made, some people buy it to use indoors as well, Stone says.

Stone says buying this type of furniture "is an investment, not a casual expense. But it lasts a lifetime," he adds.

ISLAND TEAK COMPANY

112B - CAPTAINS CHAIR; 415 - 20" ROUND FOLDING SIDE TABLE, ALSO SQUARE AND OCTAGON

152A - REMY ARM CHAIR

213B - 6' LUTENS BENCH. ALSO 4' AND CHAIR

224E - 24" TENNIS BENCH. ALSO 30, 40. 60

308T - 20 X 32 ISLESBORO AND JUNIOR COFFEE TABLE

GRAD - LAST ADIRONDAK, RECLINES AND FOLDS FOR STORAGE

all of our fine furniture prepared for white-glove shipping

Island Teak Company Opens In Woolwich in 2001