Teak wheel, real deal?

[Larry T.]

I want to find out if my teak wheel is the real deal or not. I have seen many pictures and mine looks real to me. I am told the real thing feels different. I have no frame of reference. Can a real wheel be identified through pictures?

Wayne Midkiff has posted some pictures more than once and I think mine looks like his. The spokes on mine have the correct chamferred edges. But I am told repo's are often made with original center spoke section from the cheaper plastic wheels. Is there an authority on this I should be talking to or sending pictures to?

[Don H.]

Re: Teak wheel, real deal?

Larry
this thread has some good detailed info in it regarding old original teak wheel vs repop.
https://www.forums.ncrs.org/showthre...wheel&uid=9227

I spoke with Eric Freeman at Kissimmee, and inspected his repop wheels, and his old original example on display, and as discussed here many times, his product looks to be equal in quality to the original and nearly indistinguishible, in fact probably beats the original as to quality. I say this because he uses a full width rosewood stringer between the top and bottom teak segments, as opposed to the original wheel that used a thin piece of rosewood veneer around the circumference of the wheel. The other difference I could detect is the overall appearance of the modern teak wood Eric uses, which looks different as far as the grain from the old original. The old wood segments have a lot of irregular grainy imperfections, and wide variety of different grain patterns throughout that his modern wood segments lack. The wood segments in the modern wheel seem cleaner (and lighter in color) with consistent long grain patterns through them.
I hope this helps a little.

[Grant P.]

Re: Teak wheel, real deal?

Just purchased a wheel from Eric and I could not be happier. Very quick delivery and a quality product. I would highly recommend him. Grant