Alaskan Yellow Cedar sealer/stain

[James 625]

In order to use a stain you have to understand the wood. To use a stain you have to understand it's content and how it works in the wood. If your trying to achieve a Dark color on a wood that can not take much product it will not work because your spreading the pigment much further over an area so it will be lighter. Dark colors do not work well on horizontal cedar.

Remember Alaskan Cedar in general is very difficult to care for or it can be real easy as it ages.

[billdvorak 14]

I am getting exactly what I want for now. I have an old fashioned wood stove and so I wanted kind of a cabin feel to the deck but most of the stains I tried looked like kind of like "look at me---I'm a beautiful deck". The RS and the AC both seemed more modest but still very nice.

Anyway I can't do the whole deck at once so I am trying to do a board at a time and every other board. Also around the sides is very weathered and is going to look different not matter what I do so I am thinking about highlighting it by using a different color or shade. weird huh. Anyway nobody but me looks at the floor so in the end it doesn't matter that much.

[billdvorak 14]

It is not slippery at all. I wish it was a little bit glossy but it is a very matt finish. It hasn't stopped raining here. We are at 500% normal rainfall so I have had plenty chances to grip test.

[billdvorak 14]

I have finished the deck. Will post pictures when it cures. The odd thing is that the most weathered part looks the best with AC Rustic Brown. Overall it looks great except it seems to be attracting dust. Especially the stain that was applied during cool weather. I am planning to apply some clear AC transparent over the dusty areas. Does this make sense?

[bigchaz 157]

The stain is most likely collecting dust because it was over applied and never soaked into the wood fully. This goes along with your cool weather comment as the stain doesn't dive as deep in cooler weather. Applying additional product over top will only make the problem worse and will take even longer to dry than the first coat of stain.

[billdvorak 14]

Thanks for your advice. I will leave it alone for now. Any suggestions? It otherwise looks much better than I ever imagined. The AC was very easy to apply. I will have the wood stove and furniture back in about a week and will post some pictures then.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Looking forward to seeing them.

Beth

[billdvorak 14]

Picture one is the old stain that lasted 10 years on the covered part of the deck.....but peeled after one year on the exposed parts. The color was yellow, then turned orange. Never looked natural. Picture 2 and 3 are about two weeks after applying the AC.

When I installed the wood stove in 2009, I loved it so much that I wished to match the deck to go with the looks of the stove. I tried samples of Cabots, RS, Sikkens, etc. Only the Armstrong-Clark looked natural and had the ease of use like Ready Seal. I am not quite done yet but I am loving it.

[billdvorak 14]

About a month of summer has past since I finished the deck. I did the steps with Cabots ATO cedar because I liked the yellow tone and the rest of the deck with AC rustic brown. The AC looks to be still curing as the appearance is getting a nice depth that it didn't have a first. The Cabots looks to be already getting sun bleached. The AC is not showing any problems with the abuse it is getting. I am becoming a big fan of Armstrong Clark.