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Putting a piece of glass under it would turn it from a beautiful, tactile table into a mere decorative base. Accept the fact that the wood will age and decay.

Cabot Decking Stain and Glidden Endurance were the best products when tested by Consumer Reports.

After the wood is pretty well dried out, you could try pouring a layer of clear polyester resin over the top surface. Its fairly messy and smelly, but can produce a beautiful effect and preserve at least the top of the table pretty much as it looks now. It does off-gas for a while, but it is outside and after airing out should be perfectly fine to use as a table top. You can buy clear casting resin in gallon containers at the plastics stores on Canal Street.

If you use the resin, you may want to sand the top first to bring the grain of the wood more prominently through (if that's what you want. You'll probably also want to somehow pressure-wash (carefully) the rest of the piece, that way you'll get all the dust, cobwebs,etc that you may not want captured in resin. Finally, you should ask for help and pour the resin in a dust free spot. It's sort of tricky to put the resin all on at once, evenly, without help... plus, you need to make sure nothing lands in the resin while drying. Otherwise it's captured there forever!

Nice find; it's beautiful!

I'd put 3 stout feet on it, so that it is 2 to 3 inches off the ground to let air circulate under it. It's probably so heavy that you could put the feet far enough toward the center so that the legs aren't noticable and the mass appears to float. 3 half bricks may work for feet.

Sand the top with random-orbit (best type?) sander until it was super smooth (and hopefully doesn't pool water), then treat it with many coats of the best deck sealant I could get.

Sure the bark will fall off, but who cares? Then you can try to seal the sides of it.

I don't know what part of the world you live it, but here in the midwest, I'd try to either cover it or roll it into the basement for the winter.

There are a bunch of products that can help. The cetol line of products works (we use Cetol-23 on a barn door and its holding up). BUT, and I don't know the exact name, the ideal covering would be the stuff they clear coat log homes with. If it can keep pine from losing its newly cut look, then it should work on anything. Sikkens makes these products, and I'm sure there are others. If you really want it to last forever, you need to have it dry out a bit, which will mean you have to put it inside for a while before you put the coating on. Even after you do that, it will 'seep' moisture a little, but it will be nothing like the rot you will have if you leave it as is.

Wow I think this is a beautiful piece. Second the advice about raising it off the ground and sealing/resining it. Don't put a glass top on it unless you plan to hang macrame wall hangings nearby for a total 70's look. Just the natural wood with some kind of sealant is great. Then pour yourself a glass of wine and enjoy.

What about keeping it environmentally friendly and not putting any chemicals on it? Raise it off of the ground as suggested to keep the moisture/bugs out, let it age gracefully then you can get another one when this one starts to decay.

That is GORGEOUS!!!! It looks so great with your killer modern outdoor furniture - what a great mix! Now I want to see the rest of your house :)

I vote in favor of leaving it alone - my parents had some similar tables we brought home from a tree that fell in Maine and they lasted 11 years. They were still going strong when we moved, we just didn't take them with us.

Oaks are slow growing and thus are an extremely strong wood.

Linseed Oil would create a nice but natural looking finish. It gives you a shine and accents the grain with out the hard, glossy look of varnish. I think it also helps protect the wood from bugs.

I have a bunch of fat tree stumps in my garden to use as table or chairs when we're outside cooking at the fire pit. A few years ago, when I got them, I had some leftover pond liner pieces (rubber?), and I cut circles and put the stumps on them. Not a bug has drilled up (or whatever they do) from the bottom. The bark does peel off, but then it looks great in a new way.

I wouldn't use linseed oil since it is a non-drying oil. But resin is good once the wood is thoroughly dried out. That may take a while though, but the wood will have a great weathered look by the time it's ready. Put it a bit off the ground though so there's no rot. I did this with a bunch of smaller logs, and they quickly took on bugs and rot because of this and they got rained on frequently. But even with this they still looked cool.
The changes of the wood will be nice whatever you do--very wabi sabi. The imperfections add to its beauty and history. I'm really glad part of the tree is being used after it was cut down. It's such a shame to see such age go to waste.

I would peel all the bark off now and seal the whole thing. Then proceed with the raising it off the ground and putting rubber underneath for bug prevention. And definitely bring it in during the winter months.

Shellac it.

Speaking from the experience of having an old tree stump I've moved with me since 1970 I say leave it alone. It will become a dynamic piece changing over time to be enjoyed in all of its incarnations. Yes, raise it off the ground with bricks, my stump has gained very interesting cracks and fissures where it has always stood on the ground. I still love my stump which I picked up off a road side looo those many years ago. I love the way the gnarled roots point up from the trunk which serves as a base. Your stump is absolutely gorgeous and will continue to be so without intervention on your part. :)

Beautiful piece! I can understand why you'd want to preserve it as it is.

I recently built a bench for a little sitting area right outside my back door (actually an Ikea hack...maybe I should take a pic and submit it...) and put a few coats of oil-based polyurethane "spar varnish" on it to protect it from the weather. So far as I could tell it's similar to the water-based polyurethane we have used to refinish wood floors in the past, except (a) it's oil based, not water-based and (b) it purports to have some UV-blocking additives to keep the wood from greying in the sun.

The varnish was rather stinky, but I applied it outdoors with a disposable brush, so it wasn't too bad as far as the oil-based part. It brought up the color of the wood (fir) I was using nicely but even 3 coats didn't leave too thick of a coating. And rainwater beads right up on the surface... I like it.

So, consider that option. The produce was Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane. Worked for me!

Hey AT,
Your stump needs to dry out before you do anything to it. A stump that size in your part of the country should take about 2 years to become completely dry. In the mean time you should keep it from getting wet. Keep it dry.