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 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.

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?

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