Outdoor Table. What to finish with?

First lets understand, your trying to finish green ( wet wood), a couple of weeks isnt getting the wood dry, at 1 1/2 thick you couldnt do that even in a kiln, so you have wet wood, and I am not aware of any finsh that will work with wet wood very well . White oak is an excellent exterior wood and will hold up with nothing on it, an ocassional washing with a 50/50 mix of bleach and water will renue it , you need to use stainless fastners, or you will have iron stains, ( black around screws and nails) , if this happens use some deck brightner, ( aka Oxalic acid) . The best product I am aware of that may help you is http://aquacoat.com/?page_id=114

Finishing any wet wood is doomed to fail. If you start drying it, I can recommend untinted paint. This would be the #4 (or #5 in Olympic) oil exterior base. It will dry to look much like varnish, with the advantage being it is outdoor paint, and has UV inhibitors in it. You can read more about it here, this is the article that put me onto using it.

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)

What these guys are saying is true. You will have a hard time getting green wood to last and look good outdoors. When you are working with dry wood outdoors, so far I have found nothing better than boiled linseed oil. I have a picnic table built by my dad in the 60’s out of untreated pine that is still around today. You have to use boiled linseed oil as unboiled linseed oil never really sets up and is always oily to the touch. And every couple of years you have to reapply a coat, but 50 years outside from untreated pine is pretty good. I don’t know any of the newer finishes that have that kind of track record.

Don’t use linseed oil, boiled or not. It’ll turn moldy black on oak. Been there.

-- Clint Searl.............We deserve what we tolerate

Dry the board first, you’re putting the cart before the hoarse. Outdoor tables are difficult enough without the added factor of drying the wood after the project is built.

I built an outdoor table for myself in Padauk, finished it in waterlox marine finish and both the wood and table are doing well outside.

Thank you everyone for the advice!

I knew it was “green” when we started cutting it, but the wood is so beautiful we just wanted to start making things right away.

I will take all the advice to heart and try to store the wood away until it can dry out on it’s own, which I know is some time away from now. I can say that a few tables have already been built with this wood for indoor use at my buddy’s house, and a simple sanding sealer used on it and two months in they are OK. (I know, 2 months is no time at all.) :)

Thanks again everyone!

-- K & K Woodworking

Sikkens is the best out door product wont crack over time.