Owner of Timmersol Log Cabin & Decking treatment here. UV protection in a Clear oil based treatment is definitely a thing and should only be taken with a pinch of salt for those treatments which seem good value for money or are dirt cheap, because added UV filters cost an absolute fortune, and I should know because we put a lot in our Clear.

As you've mentioned, pigment also offers UV protection but with varying degrees. A semi transparent treatment will offer less protection than a solid colour, but the trade off is loss of the natural figure of the timber.

Another point is the carrier in the treatment. If it's just oil without solvent it will hardly penetrate and the weather will strip it off very quickly. Dearomatised solvent is only marginly better. It needs to be fully aromatised to carry the oil into the timber's cells. Yes it stinks for a few weeks but it's performance is second to none!

Osmo exterior uv protection poly oil.  Used it on my exterior door,  looking great several years later, no bleaching yet.  Also , I restored the same door from a very bleached state with their restorer - amazingly effective.  Love Osmo products.

Thanks for coming back with an update, this is indispensable as very few videos review after the fact.

I've first 'painted' a garden shed door with white spirit, before then painting in exterior gloss. It's been absolutely rock solid, despite very damp conditions of West Wales. I think a lot of products now available have been severely hampered by rules restricting VOCs and other chemicals available in the past. Certainly no water based treatment I've found does anything very much at all. I'm not quite at the stage of using diesel mixed with used engine oil, as apparently recommended by farmers, but I can see why they would.

Sorry to say !  painted my homemade bench ( made from new scaffolding planks ) with two coats of black exterior oil based gloss …three years in still looks “new”

I build outdoor furniture from new softwood.  I did a long term torture test of maintenance free finishes.  The winners (survivors) of my test are Yacht Varnish and Owatrol Aquadecks.  I thin the yacht varnish and apply 3 coats, sanding in between.  If I do a good job and sand between coats after giving it time to dry properly it works very well.  I thin the first coat 30%, so it penetrates.  If I don't let it dry properly between coats it will fail.  I now spray my varnish to save time and get better results.  Aquadecks is a film product available in multiple colours that does penetrate a bit.  You apply 2 coats while the product is still wet.  If I am in a hurry and trying to save time on a piece, then I will use the Aquadecks, even through it is expensive.  I can ship a piece the next day which is important.  

For a piece that I will keep and use personally, I will use the yacht varnish and spend the time.  Oils are really 'temporary' and work fine if you are going to do regular (annual) maintenance and love sanding.  I like cubitron and use it on my 1x30 belt sander for sharpening.  For general woodwork I use cheap Chinese sandpaper which I buy in bulk.  It does not last that long, but it is so cheap I don't care.  I usually switch grits and just throw the old sheet away before it is worn anyway.   It ends up on the shop floor in any case and I just pick up a piece if I need to sand something small by hand.  I think Osmo is overpriced as obviously they have a huge marketing budget.  Owatrol is really expensive, but if you have a problem situation, it could be a perfect solution.

I have always used Treatex Cedar oil on my cedar fence and on cedar tongue and groove installed on an outside office and it is outstanding in its results and durability - great update as always Charlie

I recently built some woven UK larch fence panels and tested a number of oils before treating them. I tested a number of Treatex's oils due to the natural ingredients, Exterior Oil (Sheer), UV Oil, Larch Oil and Cedar Oil, and found the Exterior Oil to be the best. It's does change the colour of the wood, but to the appearance of the wood when it's wet, so still give a natural enough finish. The other oils made a significant change in colour and saturation as you found in your video, I'd also say the the UV Oil from Treatex is a high build product, and does not apply or leave as good of a finish as the others in their external range. With this I've also tested Rubio products due to their high status for interior oils however, the Rubio Duro Grid, whilst technically a very interesting product with the claimed 10 year life span from one single application, and UV production based off micro wood fibres in the oil, is an absolute nightmare to apply. The product has an almost PVA glue like thickness, and it's recommended you keep a wet edge whilst applying, but the product drys very fast and in my opinion, it's hard to get a finish that isn't full of brush marks or unblended layers on edges when working across large areas. Their most natural colour grassland beige, is also just a bit too unnatural and orange. Rubio do have another product, Wood Cream, and the transparent colour does leave an unchanged colour finish, goes on very well and offers great water beading. However it's very expensive and it does make me wonder if the price of wood cream, although naturally waxed based, can be justified over other cheaper products such as Roxil silicone based wood cream (although I haven't used it to know). As for Osmo UV Oil, I'm still yet to test this out purely based of a number of peoples bad experiences with the product. That said I have used Osmo Country Colours for solid colour finish and have been very impressed with the longevity of that, 3 years so far from 2 coats on my font gate and with a clean even now and agin it's showing no signs of wear and tear.

Thanks Charlie, how frustrating, there's nothing worse than completing a  project build successfully only for it to be let down by the finish so having to strip it all down and try something else, hoping you have better luck with the Owatrol ! I've never found one right answer to this problem so still use a mix of Solvent Based Wood preserver, Teak Oil, Sikkens Stains, Cuprinol Garden Paint & Non-slip Decking stain (which gives quite a nice matt finish on other things as well as deckng), none of these is perfect either ! The holy grail of a finish that doesn't need to be routinely and regularly maintained doesn't seem to exist, so this needs to be factored in to every outdoor timber poject sadly ! ☹

For outside wood then one of the saturating wood oils from Owatrol is always my choice, like Textrol. Excellent, easy to maintain as well with no sanding needed when you want a top up.

Osmo all the way, used it on my timber floor and fell in love with it, and have used their range on numerous other projects in and out and it’s always done the job.

When we use larch we usually dont protect it because it will basically look like what is in the video, leave with for a few years an then finish it with clear  oil, after the silvering process it seems to take in preservatives like oil better.

Larch is quite dense and resinrich wood so full rotting to occur is rare, allow the  water to drain and raise it off the ground or concrete etc and it will be  fine

I got so fed up with useless oils I used engine oil mixed with a little petrol. Did the job perfectly. It tried quickly and perfectly protects the wood.

"Damn-it I thought it was going to be much easier than this." Famous last words of every DIY'er. Another is "This is taking longer / is more difficult than I though." And because of Youtube the 'other half's' complaint "Why is it taking you so long, it only took so-and-so half an hour, I saw the video." Thanks for sharing.

thorough as always Charlie, thank you for sharing your process, very impressed

As a cheap alternative, I use Everbuild wood stain. It’s water based and really works outdoors. A quick top up every two years. I’ve used it on lots of projects. On softwood, apply the first coat with a rag and wipe it off straight away. Avoids blotchiness that comes with staining pine. Works great.

Since creating my own protective treatments using acetone and waste polystyrene I have never looked back.

Great video Charlie !!!!!!!

Thanks Charlie, really good pointers on the sanding discs as it’s all too tempting to go for the cheapest but it’s just a waste of time. Here’s my solution to protecting wood from the elements that has worked well on a long wooden handrail. Base coat of Morrells oil based floor lacquer 2 part with a catalyst (used for floors). Over the top of that 2 coats of spray on clear coat auto lacquer bought from Halfords! Probably horrified the wood workers but it works

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻. Thank you Charlie