How to Stain, Seal, Preserve & Protect my Exterior Natural Wood Surfaces?

“Water Tight”

Getting oils into the surface of your outdoor woods helps that wood repel water, since oil and water don’t mix and the oil got there first. Oiled wood keeps water out! Wood swells when it gets wet and shrinks as it dries, which produces strain on the yearly bands of the wood, causing warping, twisting and cracking. Keeping your wood sealed with our oils helps keep it “dimensionally stable”. This also means nails aren’t “lifted” and screws aren’t broken. And your boards stay younger, longer!

One of the oils we use turns into “solid” when exposed to air. Since this happens slowly, the mixture acts like a liquid when applied, so it can penetrate the wood, but once there, this solidifying oil keeps the non-solidifying oils from evaporating back out of the wood as fast as they otherwise would. It also plugs the surface of the wood, so water is even less capable of getting into your wood (reducing "wet/dry" cycle damage). Your oils and wood last longer!

Oils also improve the natural color of your wood. Red becomes deeper red. Pines and Cedar become more golden. The wood just looks better!

“Sun Protected”

The other major element your outdoor wood suffers from is Ultraviolet Sunlight Exposure. We don’t get sunburns when we stay indoors or protect our skin when outdoors with clothing. Our sealer uses Transparent Oxide pigments, which are tiny, sunglass-like crystals that absorb UV energy before it penetrates the wood to damage it and your other seal ingredients (our oils). These tiny crystals also have a “color character” that is very simulative of the color of various woods. Our Redwood sealer makes and keeps Redwood REALISTICALLY Red! Our Cedar Sealer makes Cedar and Pine Golden! Our Brown versions (Mahogany, Dark Teak and Brown) have some transoxides and some non-oxide pigment particles to get a darker color and even more UV Sunlight protection.

Clear is Least UV Protective:

We label our Clear version “Least UV Protective” because we use very little Transoxide pigment in it, so as not to “colorize” the wood much beyond what the oils themselves would do. We don’t recommend our Clear over our pigmented versions, but so many customers have been disappointed with other Company’s pigmented “stains” (Not ours!) that they now only want to use a “Clear”. As such, we do make a Clear, though we don’t think it will satisfy you as well as using one of our colored versions would have.

CONCLUSION:

Like a Frog that needs to go in and out of water and BE HAPPY, our Sealer helps keep your wood

“PROTECTED AND LOOKING GOOD, WHETHER WET OR DRY”