CA/BLO finish

[jyreene]

Okay so I tried William's finishing method on a few pens this weekend and it started out great. I am still pleased with the overall finish but would have liked it a little shinier. I will post some pics when I get home as one of the pens is there and I'm not allowed to bring a camera in the office.

Has anyone had this problem? I might have handled the pen before it truely set in which would explain it. Plus I did have to do a lot of filling on one of the pens because the wood had a large void in the center of it. I managed to save it but could this have caused part of the problem, having CA glue already in the wood?

Looking forward to trying this finish some more as it feels really good and does have a great shine, until I touch the pen.

 

[Texatdurango]

I can't speak to your exact situation but having tried the "Williams method" myself I can say this from my own experiences:

1. Left alone the finish would be what I consider a soft sheen or matte finish. It gives the pen the protection of the CA coating without the usual glassy, glossy look we all associate with a CA finish.

2. If you take that exact same pen over to the buffing wheel and buff with white diamond you will quickly see that you have just as good of a CA finish as if you piled on the CA then sanded and polished to a mirror smooth gloss.

What I like about this method is that you have the best of both worlds, you can have a matte or satin finish in minutes without sanding or take it one step further and buff to a gloss finish.

Jyreen, I think if you applied 6 to 8 coats evenly over the body of the pen I doubt that by simply touching the pen would do anything. I would guess that you had a dry spot where little or no CA was applied and you were touching bare to almost bare wood. A good way to find out is to buff it! The CA will shine, the bare wood won't.

In my opinion this is hands down the best way to apply CA to a pen and doesn't deserve to be clumped in with all the other 16,732 "methods" one should try. Don't give up on it and don't feel that you have to start modifying the process and get sucked back into the micro mesh routine just to get a shine.

 

[hunter-27]

I can't speak to your exact situation but having tried the "Williams method" myself I can say this from my own experiences:

1. Left alone the finish would be what I consider a soft sheen or matte finish. It gives the pen the protection of the CA coating without the usual glassy, glossy look we all associate with a CA finish.

2. If you take that exact same pen over to the buffing wheel and buff with white diamond you will quickly see that you have just as good of a CA finish as if you piled on the CA then sanded and polished to a mirror smooth gloss.

What I like about this method is that you have the best of both worlds, you can have a matte or satin finish in minutes without sanding or take it one step further and buff to a gloss finish.

Jyreen, I think if you applied 6 to 8 coats evenly over the body of the pen I doubt that by simply touching the pen would do anything. I would guess that you had a dry spot where little or no CA was applied and you were touching bare to almost bare wood. A good way to find out is to buff it! The CA will shine, the bare wood won't.

In my opinion this is hands down the best way to apply CA to a pen and doesn't deserve to be clumped in with all the other 16,732 "methods" one should try. Don't give up on it and don't feel that you have to start modifying the process and get sucked back into the micro mesh routine just to get a shine.

You nailed it. You need to decide if you want a "Plastic" looking and feeling wood pen or a more "natural" looking and feeling wood pen. Neither is better than the other, only different and very subjective. Keep doing what your doing taking the time to experiment as you wish and develop what you want.