[abl1111]

I use the sudsy ammonmia w/ TSP too... I could not find ANY sudsy amnmonia recently so I made some:

8 parts ammonia : 1 part water : (2) spoonfuls of detergent (DAWN)

One difference is that I scrub against the grain... This prevents scrubbing out the soft parts of the wood ( thus creating even more surface area for dirt etc ). I have never seen a negative to this...

I too leave it 'au natural, and during the season, I'll scrub it lightly with salt water ( and leave the salt water on in the sun for a few hours ). It always has a clean-looking, light silvery-grey color. Looks good.

BTW: this is the way many of the Montauk fishing boats take care of their teak ( got this from an Old-Salt out there )

IMHO - oiling teak is like washing a un-garaged, black car - nothing looks better at first - but it's too short lived