Originally posted by the Svenmeister
Teak is dakine material for a few reasons- it's a very oily wood that resists water absorption and rot. That doesn't mean you don't have to take of it, but it's pretty stable as long as you use your common sense and don't use it to jack your car up to change the tire. Teak, and all wood is a cellular structure, just like a bunch of celery or a fist full of drinking straws- t has long hollows that can fill with water and oils, but Teak has more oil than most woods and is perfect for outdoor exposure. It is also found with a pretty straight grain when you go looking for it and with some prep and the right stuff can be cut and laminated with epoxy to really make a barrel that will resist the tendecy to twist due to the grain's direction.
It has inherent bouyancy from those oil-filled cells and is quiet, or more quiet than metal barrels. But then the noise is mainly from the bands cutting loose... The oil also has a lubricity- it let's the shaft slide along without much fuss, though there are a few of us that coat the track with a graphite compound to get the absolute edge on things.
Teak is a hard, dense wood, like me, and is easily worked with the right, sharp tools. It will split violently if stressed and will take a new blade or bit and flush it if you push too fast or hard. It's akin to the girlfriend in many ways... It finishes beautifully with oil and epoxy/polyurethanes. I'm typing this on a big slab of the stuff matter of fact. My table was a door from an old temple in Java, 1942 and I scored it for salvage and a lot of sawdust later, it's a 300 pound table for 6. Cool stuff.
I like teak for the more open water use, where it won't get smacked around the rocks and such, but that's more of a cosmetic and force of habit thing perhaps. My banging around the rocks and the rig legs is left to aluminum barrels (JBL's). Carbon has no place near these areas.
Yeah, I'm doing teak barrels and complete guns. A barrel like you were asking about will set you back 125-160 depending if you want a solid piece, laminated, the shaft track milled, the trigger pocket machined, release slots, handle pad.... Teak ain't cheap, at about $12-16.00 per board foot. You use teak and you'll quickly have no use for mahogany, though it can be pretty, it's not as stable once it gets wet and depends on the finish for protection.