Now I know who to blame.

[RenewableCandy]

Teak?? Too 70s...

[biffvernon]

but air dried wood costs a fortune ( if you can find some ).

I was lucky to live within easy delivery distance of a timber mercant/sawmill that specialises in English hardwoods. Depending on thickness of through and through cut board, I was buying English 3-year air dried oak at around £25 per cubic foot.

Of course oak is a characterful wood which requires thought when cutting - you can't just feed the tree in one end of the machine and expect windows to pop out of the other. But that's what gives it it's charm and makes people say "Wow" when one delivers the goods.

I never trust the 'sustainability' of any tropical hardwood source.

[Catweazle]

Teak?? Too 70s...

Not if you're a boatbuilder.

[Lurkalot]

Reclaimed mahogany was a thing a few years back, though. In London for example you used to get artists and the like rescuing it from skips. Of course, this was during the economic boom when everyone was having their offices re-furbed.

I worked briefly on bank refurbs , and the most hateful thing was the waste. We would enter a bank , sometimes at the weekend , sometimes straight after closing to start the strip out. Of course we were stripping out perfectly good interiors , at the time the vogue seemed to be for replacing oak with ash. However , as time was at a premium the stripping out was anything but careful it was all big hammers and crowbars , the bank had to be out of commission for as short a time as possible. As a result most of the timber was wrecked and ended up in the skip although I did my best to salvage what I could. I was much happier on restoration work , our work would last more than a few years and I had the chance to salvage much more either off cuts or old timbers . I will admit to becoming something of a squirrel and barely a day went by without something coming home with me be it timber or whatever so much so I acquired the nickname of "skippy" . At one time we had an assessor come to our house to check on a nearby road , we were both at work and my father let him in. The assessor at first didn't believe we lived there as there was so much stuff around , timber , bricks , stone , etc. etc .
I've worked with both American and English oaks along with numerous other woods and found the American white oak to be " blander" for want of a better word , the English having much more character. I once put down an American white oak floor with the instructions to not use any knots , sapwood or blemishes and ended up with a remarkably laminate looking finish