Office Table Top - Acacia vs Teak vs Rubberwood vs Other

[creative1000]

I’m making a computer office desk. Is there any difference between using teak, acacia, rubberwood or other for the table top? Is one more smelly or unpleasant?

I see they’re all for sale on shopee at reasonable prices (attached photo examples of what I’ve found)

Edited October 2, 2022 by creative1000

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, creative1000 said:

I’m making a computer office desk. Is there any difference between using teak, acacia, rubberwood or other for the table top? Is one more smelly or unpleasant?

No. Because whatever wood you use will have a finish coating all of it. You certainly would not want to finish just the top, as if you did it would soon become a banana. ???????? 
 

The stronger the aromatics in the wood the sooner they will off-gas. The only wood’s that are left unfinished are the cedar lining of drawers and cupboards and they will loose their effectiveness in time

 

FWIW the grade of rubber wood illustrated is rather low, unless you like defects you want AA grade. The AC is cheap stuff. You generally pay for the quality you get. There are no bargains in wood, unless you get off cuts that are too small to be valuable.

Edited October 2, 2022 by sometimewoodworker

[Morakot]

One of the consideration about the types of wood for a desk should be the looks. Teak will look very different than rubberwood or even acacia.

 

Another consideration should be whether you are working with the wood yourself or merely placing a ready cut board on an existing frame. Hard woods like teak (but also acacia) would require more skills to work with and tools that are in very good conditions.

 

Finally a minor consideration is durability of an indoor desk. If you are trying to make a heirloom piece for your great grand children go for teak. Otherwise it's probably not so important what you chose.

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by Morakot

[Morakot]

You might find this useful: https://designingidea.com/acacia-wood-vs-teak/

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Morakot said:

 

Another consideration should be whether you are working with the wood yourself or merely placing a ready cut board on an existing frame. Hard woods like teak (but also acacia) would require more skills to work with and tools that are in very good conditions.

The hardness of the wood may make little difference to the ability to work with the wood.

 

Teak is quite a soft wood (note not softwood) at a Janka of about 1,000 while acacia is between 1,700 and 2,000. The difficulty of working with teak is that is has a large amount of silicates (1.4%) so it will dull the tools quickly, so it isn’t really so much the skill but the ability to sharpen the tools so it is actually quite an easy wood to work with, it isn’t the best choice because of its softness.

 

conversely acacia Will make a good desk top as it will not show marks easily but it’s more difficult to work with due to the hardness.

Edited October 4, 2022 by sometimewoodworker