What finish for outdoor cedar?

[Kalimna]

Greetings folks,
As the title says, what would you recommend for finishing a piece of garden furniture to be made out of recently acquired Scottish cedar?
I think I would be ok leaving it without a finish, but I don't want to leave it bare.
Many thanks, before I start up this project......

Adam S

 

[twothumbs]

If leaving it untreated it willl pale very quickly into a silver grey colour.

 

[frosties]

I use epoxy on surfboards I make from cedar. It has uv stabilisers. You can get it from seabase in Newquay. Theres another great product called le tonkin var. Special linseed oil/resin with uv stabilisers. Where did you get the cedar from? Is it clear or knoty?
Cheers

 

[Kalimna]

I dont mind the silver/grey colour, however......

The cedar was bought from Scottish Sawmilling Services, not that far out of Perth. And the item I plan on making is an Adinrodack chair (from Veritas plans), so Im not sure that the full-on surfboard epoxy is the best/easiest option

Cheers,
Adam

 

[lincs1963]

Don't know if it's helpful or not but early last year I fitted 2500 M2 of cedar shiplap to two new apartment blocks and they are not having any finish applied. They are four storeys high so the designers are obviously confident that it is going to last the distance.
The colour has started to fade already from the deep red to a paler pinky/grey shade. another couple of years and it will be all silver.
What I did notice was that on the architects computer generated images of the finished building, complete with landscaping etc, the cladding was still shown red and not the actual colour it will turn.
HTH Regards, Neil