I have never put my use of CA glue to words, so this is a 1st, but it is pretty simple so there isn't anything important to leave out. It is minimal effort and probly not much different from what Cav described in an earlier post. There are at least 300,000 ways to put on a CA finish, and I swear that I have read every one of them described on this site over the years. Now I am adding mine.
CA glue isn't any different from any other finish. We sand the wood smooth, put the finish on the wood, let it dry or cure, sand again, repeat as many times as necessary, and then polish the final coat to whatever degree of gloss we want. The only difference is that CA dries faster and is a harder finish than most other things we can put on the pen. The only thing harder is Enduro when done properly, and a coat of pure acrylic plastic. Other than that, it is just another finish and there is nothing magic about it.
Here is how I do it. I use a couple slightly different applications of a CA glue finish.
I make the final cuts with a sharp skew chisel because the smoother surface requires less sanding.
On all wood I sand with 220-grit, and then apply a liberal coat of thin CA glue to harden the wood and fill the grain. I don't use any of the super dense exotics like Cocobolo and such because I am allergic to them. On really soft wood that soaks up a lot of glue, I drip the CA glue onto the wood and smooth it out with a paper towel. Run lathe at no more than 1000 RPM or I will get glue in my face. Then I sand back to the bare wood with 220, and then go to 320, 400, and 600.
On porous wood, wood with little holes and voids, or wood with a coarse open grain - I sand with 150-grit to clean up the surface, and then wet-sand with 150-grit and medium CA glue. The 150 creates a slurry of wood dust and glue that fills in the voids. I keep sanding until the glue hardens. Then go to a clean spot on the sandpaper and smooth out the rough surface. Repeat if necessary. Then sand up to 600 grit.
I use 150 grit for the wet sanding because it will cut through the medium CA glue and make a slurry of sanding dust and 220 grit will skate over the top of the glue.
There is a final inspection and sanding if necessary to make sure there are no voids or dimples in the surface. No magnification. If I can't see it with a bright incandescent light, it doesn't exist. I go back to 320grit if that is what is necessary to get a smooth surface faster. Then sand back to 400 and 600.
Now the wood is ready for the finish. This preparation is the same regardless of what finish I am putting ojn the wood. I show this on my website as the sealer under a friction polish.
If the finish is to be a CA glue, I use plain medium CA glue, no oil, if I want a high gloss finish, and 2 thick coats applied with a paper towel folded to 8 thicknesses. The only difference between thin and medium is that the thin cures faster, but I can put on a thicker coat of medium. The thin cures to a smoother surface and requires less sanding, but it takes more coats to get the same thickness. In the end it takes about the same time, but I use the medium because it doesn't soak through the paper towel and the thin does.
The surface is kinda rough when the glue has dried, so I have to sand in between coats to get back to a smooth surface. That is usually 320, followed by 400 and 600 grits. Then the 2nd coat of medium CA glue with the same sanding to get back to a smooth surface.
If I want a soft gloss, I polish it with 0000-steel wool, give it a coat of wax and it's done. Some people like them that way.
If I want a higher gloss, I polish it with the 0000-steel wool and then go to 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 Micro Mesh used dry. Then a light coat of Renaissance Wax and that's it. Sometimes I use the HUT polish after the 12,000 if it looks like it could use a bit more gloss.
The entire process takes no more than 10-minutes.
The only reason I would use the BLO at all is to get a smoother surface on the 2 coats of CA glue. The sanding between coats isn't eliminated, but all that is required is a quick lick with 600 to smooth it up and pick up any residual BLO before putting on the 2nd coat. The final coat will usually be a soft gloss that is ready to go as it is. If I want a higher gloss, I leave it overnight for the BLO to cure, and then sand from 600 throiugh the 12,000 Micro Mesh to get to the same gloss as the straight CA glue.
I expect the finish to be a matte when using the BLO because there are oil molecules in the surface and an oil makes any finish have a duller gloss than if it weren't there. I could use any other oil for the same thing. Mineral Oil works, but the non-curing oil will always be an imbedded liquid in the surface and the finish can never be polished to as high a gloss as with a cured oil or no oil at all.
In the end, there is no need for the BLO. The CA applied to a 600-grit surface does just as much grain popping, and using the BLO doesn't save a lot of time unless I want a matte finish on the pen. I use it more to demonstrate to others on how to do it than I do as a finish.
My reasoning for not putting BLO on the bare wood goes back to the beginning of my using CA glue to harden and fill the wood, and I have never seen any need to do it any different. I reasoned that if I were to use the BLO on the bare wood, I don't get any penetration of the thin CA glue because the wood is already filled with the oil. I would rather have the wood filled with CA than BLO because the CA is harder. When I have filled and sealed the wood with a CA glue, I could see no benefit for putting a layer of oil between the layers of glue and compromising the bond between them.
I know others will argue that putting the BLO under the CA is the only way to do it. But, you asked how I apply a CA finish, not how they do it.
