What would be the best thing to do with a piece of furniture we have which is in pieces and we can put together. It has joints and that sort of thing where one part sticks out and the other part has a hole for it to fit into to protect it all from the weather? it will be partly protected and partly exposed--I mean, it will be outside and we will protect it as well as we can but it might occasionally be fully exposed.

We live in a very humid place, aka the Swamp and it's hot, too.

In addition to knowing what to do wrt varnish, polyurethane, stain, etc., I also wanted to find out if we should just do what will show or if we cover all of it before we put it together, or what?

Thanks very much

linseed oil

My dad has been a woodworker for at least 20 years. I had him read the opening post and he said:

1) No varnish or stain is mother nature proof.

2) Best bet is Marine or Spar varnish (same thing, just different name in different parts of the country) and varnish before you put the furniture together *except* any joints that require glue.

HTH

Great, thank you both very much!

The linseed oil looks like it takes a [i]lot of sanding... I'm going to check out what the spar varnish requires.