"Hi Robert,We sooorrtt of ebonized the wood, but with out the dye. We used a zinc oxide mixture which reacts with the tannens in the wood to oxidize it and give it this color. In oak it turned the color to a sort of purple blue but I have heard with cypress it is a green. With that being said I like where your head's at. We have actually been talking about ebonizing the wood and then everything that is now black  would be powder coated white or be plated in a brass color. "

"Hi Ken,You have some really good comments! The first prototype of the bench was in use and outside for 3 years actually. When designing it we were concerned with exactly the same things you mentioned!- For our prototype we painted the legs and obviously needed to touch it up every now and then but final runs are powder coated just as every other commercial steel exterior bench.- As for the brass and socket caps we used a product called Permalac which worked amazingly! We were turned onto it by an instillation artist who seals her large brass art sculptures with it before instillation in public parks or plazas. It was incredibly resilient and tough. With that being said production saw the socket caps get powder coated. We also inserted thin plastic separators between the socket caps and the brass washers to prevent galvanic corrosion.- In regards to the socket caps scratching you when seated the socket caps are all inset in a deep dato cut in the wood. The tip of the socket caps are both rounded and flush with the front edge of the bench. In doing this your legs will never come into contact with them. Furthermore the legs of the bench will hit your heels before your calf could swing all the way in to make contact.- For the insertion for the brass bars on top, the ends of the brass are pointed on the bottom side so when the seat is pushed together, during assembly,  the brass embeds itself into the wood. We also used a commercial grade 3M all weather wood and metal epoxy which is used on ocean going sail boats. For production runs we have a slip cut brass bar that locks all the fingers into place.- For the wood I would 100% have thought the same thing about the sides flipping forward as there are no pictures of the area in between the two wood halves on this post. There is actually a beam in the middle which ties the seat halves together. This beam is inline with the socket cap bolts on the front. With that being said the seat connection is as follows; The two wood halves are anchor bolted to the base from the bottom and then are bolted together through the front and the back with the socket caps bolts through the center beam. This beam is also sloped in the middle to channel rain water in-between the legs so water will not sit there forever.In all honesty though, your comments were dead on as far as us having the same concerns early on. I am sure as the bench sits outside for even longer we will learn more.Thanks Ken for the great comments!"