Next best option would be an Acrylic urethane...examples being Enduro, Bristol, Sherwin Williams, all great stuff, but not going to finish your pen in an hour. I find it best to use a rod finishing machine. You can build one, you simply need a very slow spinnning motor, a rod and some corks. You mount the rod to the motor so the rod turns super slow. You drill holes in the corks so they can slide on the rod, just like a bushing. You mount the pen between the corks. You turn on the motor and you spray the finish on to the blanks. You can use an airbrush and you can spray the finish quite thick if you like. The idea is that the rod spins real slow keeping the finish from sagging. I do it all the time myself. There's a lot of advantages, such as a finish that is actually stronger than CA, more flexibe, cheaper, and has no reaction to oily woods such as ebony. But it takes time. You have to spray 3-5 coats depending how thick you spray. You have to let is sit at least a good 24 hrs to harden up, but it is better if you give it 4-5 days. You have to then mm wet sand the pen and polish it just like you would any other finish, in order to make sure the finish is even/level, and of course the more you sand and polish, the glossier the finish. You have to be a bit more careful sanding because if the finish isn't cured enough, it will melt from heat of the sanding. The longer you wait, the better it will be, because finish takes at least a week to fully cure, if not longer.
For a CA finish..sometimes I do that, I'm in a hurry or am working on something very grainy or pitty like a pine cone. I have found that titebond CA works best for me over other brands. Price is the same, but seams to dry more clear. I use thin CA. How hard is it to spread glue anyhow? You take a part baggy, turn it inside out so as to not have any red letters exposed..depends on where you bought the parts of course as to whether this is a problem. You put the baggy on finger. You turn lathe on slow as it will go, a towel over the bed of the lathe. No bushings..just put the tube between centers and tighten just enough so it spins. Apply a coat of thin CA as even as you can..just one pass would be best, then imediately turn off lathe. Keep the lathe spinning with your left hand and quickly grab the spray can accellorator and spray the pen real quick. Doesn't take much. Wait about 3 minutes. Repeat step 1, wait about 3 minutes, repeat. and then one more time for 4 coats. Wait an hour. Yes, you just do one barrel at a time between centers...1 min after the 4th coat you can remove barrel and start next one. After a good hour at least, then you put the finished barrel back on the lathe between centers, or you can sand the ends flush and put the barrel back on the bushings, but I don't bother. You will need to re-flush the ends as you'll have CA crusted overhang. Pull down with sandpaper towards the pen only to remove, if you pull away from the pen, you can cause a chip out. anyhow..back to the body of the pen. You will hand sand with 220 by hand only the length of the pen. This is to even out the finish, remove any ridges. Once all the ridges are removed, fire the lathe up full speed scotty. Wet sand with 320, 400 then switch to mm pads, all wet all the time. After that, some plastic polish and you are done. takes maybe 15 seconds per grit. If you sand too much, you will remove finish and be back to the beginning of course. You learn over time, you need to underspin the pen just barely so that the finish doesn't cause the pen to be proud of the pen parts. this works for me. You get 10,000 other guys to tell you there method and they will all be different.
It aint finished till it's finished.
No finish happens in 2 minutes, or it aint a finish.
After a finish is applied, it's still not finished.
