Jack Fearnley wrote:
I have built a rustic looking garden bench out of cedar and I now need to
finish it. It needs some kind of stain to unify the variety of colours in
the wood and, of course, it needs protection against the weather. I live
in Montreal Canada so the weather can be pretty extreme.


I really like Olympic Maximum Cedar Tinted Oil Finish on cedar.

This guy sells 100's of pieces a year finished with it with excellent
results:

http://www.baldwinlawnfurniture.com/

The finish is very easily renewed. If it's not stocked, almost any
paint store can get it.

Barry