"Brian Watson" wrote
Dry as a bone - in fact the way the stuff soaked in I thought the wood might
be *too* dry.

It soaked the stuff up allright, but left b*****-all (no, that's not fair -
it left insufficient, by a long way) pigment on the surface.

I'm not a fan of pigmented treatments normally, but I used some
Cuprinol Fence and Shed preservative - http://tinyurl.co.uk/qqe3 - and
applied it with a sprayer. It's slightly pigmented with a sort of
waxy solid that occasionally needs clearing from the sprayer, but I am
very satisfied with the results. The colour is even and has not faded
in all that July sun, and it is a true preservative, not a silly paint
like the "£5 for 3 gallon" rubbish you can buy at the co-op.