Barbarians at the gate

[Phil Pascoe]

Make sure you cap any upward facing end grain. I regularly pass a an oak gate post that I put in 37yrs ago that is still solid - I capped it with sheet alloy the day it went in.

 

[PerranOak]

Ah. No chemicals then?

 

[AndyT]

The question of what to use on exterior oak to keep it looking new seems to come up quite often. Answers include advice that there is no perfect answer; that hard wax oil works; that linseed oil is best as it is easy to renew, and plenty more.

Have a read of these threads for instance:
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/oak-windows-finishing-advice-t49856.html
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/oil-for-oak-doors-t55905.html
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/what-to-finish-outside-oak-door-with-t57946.html

But (without having seen your gate) if it were my gate I would just reason that it's not furniture, it's not even house joinery, and it's better to have it look like thousands of other nice old gates and age naturally. Do you really want to keep cleaning it off and refinishing it every few years?

 

[PerranOak]

Cleaning it off?

 

[AndyT]

Cleaning it off?

If you use a finish that makes a waterproof layer and it fails, you'll need to scrape or sand off the loose edges and possibly go back to bare wood to avoid a blotchy effect when you renew it.

If you use an oil finish you will need to at least wash and brush off dirt, lichen, mildew etc before you put new oil on.

 

[PerranOak]

Oh right. ok.

So, I've heard that Sadolin products are good?