I was thinking more of a satin finish, but either way, it will be cool with paint.
It's a fun and unusual topic. Sure to get a bunch of guys throwing ideas out there.

There may be a paint that will stick to Cyprus wood. Everything we painted made of it shed the paint in a year or less. My office in South Carolina had Cyprus wood around the windows. could not keep Paint on them.

Destry, Get a can of high grade marine spar varnish satin finish. Epifanes matte finish . Durable and water resistant, brings out the beauty of Cypress

Destry stay Vintage

Half Kerosene half Linseed oil. Protects the Cypress gets dark as a piece of drift wood, won’t peel off. It was the standard coating inside of wood skiffs & duck boats for years.

William

Bill correct me if I'm wrong but can't you add a darker stain to the Cypress to darken it and then add the Linseed and Kerosene mixture?

Linseed oil Kero was a common cheap bilge coating for work boats and about any other wood around water. Linseed oil needs something to thin it so it will penetrate. Pigments can be added to color the mixture. Probably hundreds of local recipes used.

Today small job like that bucket and wanting to stay traditional I would mix boiled linseed oil with turpentine about 50/50. The oil will darken with age. Turps a better choice than Kerosene. If wanting darker soon add some burnt umber, or any other pigment you desire. Very little pigment needed to color.

Experiment on some scrap wood first.

William

Destry:

Be careful of the Linseed/turp misture as any left over rags can spontaneously combust if wadded into a ball and left for a period of time. We almost burned down the homestead one year after treating all the butternut paneling.

That’s a very good caution, i just finished a acetone cleaning job on a old machine. All the dirty paper towels transferred to a small metal can with a tight lid. Will be held outside away from other combustibles until trash day then transferred to the regular can on the curb.

Fire precautions 2nd nature to me, should have stressed in my post.

William

Market Hunter great to have you back on here. As many are pointing out - Safety First! The only appropriate color for the Kick Bucket is Hi Viz Safety Orange. Each year hundreds are injured tripping over buckets and stools in the duck blinds because they can’t easily be seen. To tell you the truth I have never seen an oily rag catch fire.

Destry can you tell me the diameter and height? It appears to be a little taller than a regular 5 gallon bucket which would be even better.