Prefinished vs Unfinished

Even if you were a chemist you wouldn't know who has the best finish without physically testing. I like the blotter test performed on www.penofin.com/battlehome.shtml . It's a simple test of determining which finish will absorb into the wood the best.

The problem with staining exotic hardwoods such as Ipe and Brazilian Redwood is getting the finish into the wood. I admit I haven't tested all the finishes out there, but I've tried more than a few, and still find Penofin to be the best. After hand finishing a ton of hardwood post caps I can open a can of stain and apply it by rag and know immediately how it penetrates compared to Penofin.

Many people request unfinished post caps because they have been told to use somebody else's stain and they think there will be a drastic color difference between the Penofin and the product they want to use. This creates a problem for both of us. If I cut 100 post caps, stain them with Penofin, and end wax them, and put them on a shelf in stock, I may get 5-10 caps that develop small splits called “checks”. Whereas, if I put 100 unfinished caps with no finish - just waxed end grains on the shelf, I can expect better than 50% of the caps to develop checking while they're sitting on my shelf. For this reason I will no longer be stocking unfinished caps. Applying the Penofin and wax on the product soon after it has been cut has proven to be best. Keep this in mind with your decking and railing. Get the finish on and wax the end grain as soon as possible after cutting. When you are all done working on the deck, clean it up and give it another saturation.

Even with Penofin, your caps can be delivered perfect and next week or next day it could still split and check - and I don't warranty against it. I'll replace a cap that splits through, but not against checking. The best you can do is to keep feeding the cap some finish until it's tired of drinking, and keep a waxed coating on both end grains.

So basically you have 2 choices when ordering caps.
1) Take my cap from stock already prefinished with Penofin, and then put your stain directly over the Penofin if you must. Since there are variations in color of the wood to begin with, chances are the Penofin colored caps will blend in with whatever clear or natural stain or finish you may be using anyway.
2) Or - Order the caps unfinished - allow 1 week for production - and take them as they come with expectation that many of the caps will either be checked by the time you get them or may check soon thereafter.