Cabot 140.0019400.005 Australian Timber Oil Water Reducible Stain, Natural

I am grateful to have found this product. We used this to stain a severely weather damaged deck upon which maintenance had been deferred for a large number of years by the previous owner. All while buying this home, contractors kept telling us that the deck would have to be torn down and replaced but I didn't believe them, and I didn't want to spend that kind of money when the wood seemed structurally sound but cosmetically awful. The most recent stain that appears to have been applied at least 5 years ago was a solid stain which I disliked because it hides the natural beauty of wood. It was basically paint that they slapped on to hide the problems that were beginning to appear with the wood.In order to prepare the deck to be stained, I started by power washing the deck to remove as much of the solid stain as I could. I probably wouldn't have needed to do so, but I did use a wood grain filler to fill in some of the deeper cracks and gouges in the wood because I thought it would help the wood to last longer. With that done, I used hand sanding blocks on the guard rails and a wood floor sander with 60 grit sandpaper to remove the difficult stain and take off surface defects from the wood. Next I used a wood cleaner and brightener to get rid of the many years of deeply embedded algae stains and lichen and wood tannins and uv damage to get my deck starting to look like wood again. With all of that done, I just had to wait a couple of days for it to dry out before I started staining.I applied stain to the guard rails with a lambskin painting glove and used Cabot's own stain pad to on the horizontal decking. Staining the rails was burdensome and time consuming, but fortunately this stain requires only a single coat application so I didn't have to go back over everything a second time. Staining the deck surface was amazingly quick and easy when compared to doing the guard rails. I got the entire surface stained in about 2 hours and all of the rails took probably 6 or 8 hours to finish in total. I made the mistake of staining one of the guard rails before checking the weather and about an hour after I had finished it the rain started gently so I covered it with plastic to keep the rain off until it had dried for 48 hours. The spot that got hit with the rain did develop some light water spots which I gently brushed over after everything had thoroughly dried out and after that very light second coat they mostly fade into the rest of the appearance and nobody (except me) can tell that they are there. Whenever you are getting ready to stain, I recommend that you check your weather closely and wait until you expect to have at least 24 or 48 hours to let it completely dry before rain is expected.I know that my deck is not the nicest looking deck in town, but I am very pleased with the way that it turned out and with the beautiful appearance compared to what it started looking like. I used Jarrah Brown and only ended up using 3 of the 5 gallons that I purchased, so I am going to keep the other 2 gallons around and hopefully I'll be able to use them in another year or two when it needs to be restained to be kept in good shape.I would highly recommend this product to anyone for use with an old or weathered deck, but only if you are willing to put in the time to properly prepare your deck. I found it to be pretty easy to work with; it didn't make a huge mess, and the odor wasn't nearly as strong as I was expecting it to be after reading about oil based stains. The places where I let it drip or run down the sides don't look as good as where I thoroughly wiped away excess stain which is just a lesson that I learned with this, my first experience with staining a deck.Updated after 1 year: Because it had been so long since our deck was properly maintained I applied a second coat approximately 1 year after the first application, thinking that the other may have soaked deep into the wood and figuring another coat couldn't hurt anything. It has been about 4 days since application and I added a new picture showing it's resistance to the heavy rain we had today.

Great product, better than most exterior water sealing products out there. You do have to apply yearly or every couple years like with most Deck sealants, but it doesn’t peel or come off like most others. . I have seen excellent multi-year performance with this product on a mailbox made of untreatrested oak and pine, on a Hemlock post used for a bump out on a house, and on a bunch of mixed woods ( plywood, untreated, pine, and large seasoned buckthorn) put on a tree fort . I would recommend highly.. usually needs two or three coats due to the light viscosity it tends to soak in and then you put another coat.

Amazing color stain and holds up really good.

This stuff is pretty miraculous. I bought it to rehab some old wicker chairs that had gone very dry and silver gray. The gray was pretty but didn't go with my house anymore. After washing them and seeing what a pretty variegated brown they looked wet, I went on a search for how to make them look that way permanently. Found this product and decided to try. One can just covered both chairs and I saturated them pretty well. The color is just what I wanted! I would like them to be shiny, and will see if there is a sealer they make to accomplish that. Super fast shipping, very easy to use and just a quality product. I will buy from them for other needs in the future.

The Cabot 140.0003458.007 Australian Timber Oil Stain, 1 Gallon, Honey Teak is an oil/solvent based product as described. My experience is that this formulation type is that it will penetrate the wood and provide so much better protection for a longer duration than a water based product. I used a short bristle 'deck stain brush' described as 'made for oil based finishes' to apply this to my 15 year old pressure treated, covered porch deck. It has more 'body' than a 'typical wood stain and brushed out very well with minimal run off on edges and vertical surfaces. Time to dry was approximately 24 hours at 70 degrees F, 60% RH. It dried to a 'flat' or 'matte' finish, depending on absorption into the wood.Looking into the can, this material is a more heavily pigmented 'brown' color than I expected the 'Honey Teak' color to be (see open can image). My older wood absorbed this readily and since it has patina from weathering, the final color was significantly darker in those areas, leaning toward a 'medium brown'. Un-weathered areas were somewhat lighter in color and surface sheen. (see deck surface image). I expect that using this product on newer wood would result in a more lighter, 'darker tan' in color since the material absorption would be less. The 'bare wood stir stick' I used appears much lighter and very close match to the 'honey teak' image shown on the face of the can (see StirStick image).I'm going to rate at 4 stars based on application ease, price and color at this time. I can't speak to the 'longevity', but our 'rainy season' will begin next month so I will update this review next year with my performance observations.My only negative comment has to do with Amazon shipping processes, or lack of an adequate one. I'm not deducting any stars for Amazon's poor shipping methods, but want to provide a caution for others. My experience is that packaging by Amazon never accommodates the fragility of the actual contents. This gallon can was shipped in of a 'sealed bag' (thank goodness), inside of a appropriately sized corrugated box, using 7 - 4" x 6" AIRPlus STOROpack 'inflated pillow pads' for protection (4 survived the journey). Ridiculous. Might just as well have skipped the packaging step and put the label on the side of the can and shipped it as is. The end result would have been identical. My only reason to risk an oily mess at arrival and order this product through Amazon is that I cannot buy this oil based version in our stores.It was a chore to open the can since the top/lid were also damaged during shipment. As one might imagine the can arrived heavily dented, both top and bottom - but fortunately not leaking so I was able to use the material with out issue. I made out OK with my purchase. Just realize that if Amazon continues with poor packaging practices, you may not be as lucky and be delivered a 'wet mess'. Good luck.