finishing red oak

I would use spar varnish on it. Spar Varnish has some ulta violet inhibitor in it.

-- Gary, South Central Wisconsin. So much to learn, so little time!

Garys suggestion is good and don’t forget to give three coats on the feet,because red oak is not a good outdoor wood.

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

is that a clear finish or could i use a light oak stain in it to bring out the grain

A better bet for the bottoms of the legs would be to paint the end grain with some polyurethane glue or epoxy, to prevent the wood from drawing up water. Put several coats of PURE tung oil, not tung oil finish.
Then you can coat it with a spar varnish, if you want. I wouldn’t, mainly because someday you’re going to have to scrape all of that flaking finish off. I would just use the tung oil and renew it occasionally. That’s my $0.02.

-- Tim -- http://tmuli.com