Why does everyone think that that cra_ _ y looking grey is "beautiful? If I
wanted grey kumber I'd try and buy it grey to begin with. .
"PDQ" wrote in message
. ..

"Jack Fearnley" wrote in message
. ..
| 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.
|

If you leave the cedar alone, it will age to a beautiful silver all by
itself. If you have a South facing deck, the sun will cook any cover you
apply. I have that deck and I've been thru Sikkens, Behr and HH. Only
thing I found that really works is my belt sander.

| I bought a Behr product from the local borg. It was supposed to be a
light
| cedar but it came out rather opaque and darker than I wanted. It looks
ok
| if I brush it on and wipe it off but I am afraid that there wouldn't be
| enough left on to protect the wood if I did that.
|

What you see is what you get. There is no stain that will stay. That is
why there are 2 kinds of colour cover - opaque and semi-transparent. The
former is for those that do not want to see grain and the latter for those
that do. You can re-apply the stain periodically but you will eventually
cover up the grain with stain and no grain will show.

| When I suggest using a wipe on stain followed by protecting with a clear
| finish such as Thompson's water seal I get funny looks. Is there
something
| terribly wrong with this approach?
|

Ask any reasonably astute sales person and you will get the
"Is-he-for-real??" stare/look. The water seal does not stay good for long.
If you want to see grain, look for a clear wood preservative and be prepared
to re-apply it annually or bi-annually. The preservative will keep the
cedar from splitting and checking - at least that is what they say.

| Actually there is one practical problem because the wiping stains don't
seem
| to come in cedar.
|
| Any suggestions would be welcome at this point.
|
| Best Regards,
| Jack Fearnley
|

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PDQ
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