I understand wanting to preserve the table but it has done pretty well on it's own for 18 years. If you put something on it now it will probably look like a table with "something on it". You said yourself how much you love the patina,I reccomend leaving it as is and injoying it another 18 years. Just think about aged celebrities that got face lifts that went bad.

klem1 - thing is, the table now gets wet, which it didn't in the past. It takes forever to dry, making it unusable for a day or so after heavy rain. Ideally, I'd like water to pearl up and run off vs. soaking deep into the wood.

"I'd like water to pearl up and run off vs. soaking deep into the wood."

Anything with silicon as an ingredient will do that,,,,,,,,,,,,,,but,I hate silicon. Once you apply silicon,there's no going back to square one and trying something different. There is no less than three dozen trees called acacia. It's for that reason I can't point you to the "best"treatment. Adding to the difficulty of giving you a clear answer is the fact that "keeping the current drifwood look" by using a preservative sound's like an oxymoron.

I hear you - this is going to be trickier than I thought....

I guess for the time being I'll put the cover over it after each use, while I try different clear finishes on a piece of driftwood to see if I can find a product that will at least partly seal the wood while preserving the silvery look.

Thanks klem for your input.

Thanks Prowell woodworks.

The slats have never had sealer applied, so this should work. I will try their Regular Semi-Transparent finish in Weathered Grey or Juniper Ash.

It should be noted that we've never used the regular Semi-Transparent product. Only the Ultra. In speaking with Michael at WoodRX directly years ago when we first went over to this, he convinced me that the Ultra is the formula that's best for areas with tough winters. If you do use the Regular, let us know how it turned out. The Ultra is the best exterior finish on the market, in our opinion, so given our trust in them, perhaps the Regular Semi-Transparent is of equal merit.

I see. I didn't even check out the Ultra, as the color chart doesn't show the greyish driftwood color that we're after. We keep the table indoors over winter, so we should be ok in that regard. Thanks so much.