You will need the following to do the Greg shine. No, not me Greg; Cozee Greg. I learned this from him. :
Nitrile gloves. Paper towels of your choice (I use viva select a size). Thin CA. Thick CA. Aerosol accelerator.
Rule number 1: always wear nitrile gloves or you may end up wearing your blank.
:biggrin:
After you have finished your final sanding on the blank (I sand to 400 and then 0000 steel wool) you want it spinning on your lathe at slowest speed.
Rule 2: never put a dry paper towel in contact with your CA covered blank. It will very likely stick.
Fold your paper towel into 4ths. Add a few drops of thin CA to the corner of the paper towel and then hold it below the blank. Starting on one end dribble thin CA on the top of the spinning blank and soak up the excess on the bottom of the blank. Move across the blank until you come to the far end. You are going after a "damp" blank. Not soaking, not dry. Let it dry.
Rip off the corner of the paper towel and repeat so you have two coats of thin CA. This is your sealer coat so the thick CA will build on top.
Rip off the used corner. Same process except with Thick CA. Put 3-4 drops on the paper towel. Touch it to the bottom of the blank and add a few drops to keep the coat smooth and wet as you move across to the far end. The goal is a single, moist coat from one end to the other. You should be able to go back the other way ONCE if you have to. But ...
Rule 3: never more than 2 passes across the blank unless you want to sand paper towel off the blank.
Let it spin for 30 seconds or so and then hit it with a light mist of aerosol accelerator from about a foot away. The goal is just a little accelerator to accelerate the drying without causing it to flash off to white.
Rip off the corner and repeat. Do it over again until you have 3-4 full coats.
Now you have a nice thick coat of finish on it but it isn't all that good looking (depending on how well you applied it). But you KNOW that there is 4 coats of thick CA even at the lowest point. The trick is to get is sanded smooth without sanding through the finish at the low points.
Rule 4: Never do "rough sanding" without a hard sanding block.
Find a sanding block. Mine is a "double wide" pen blank. Choose your sand paper based on how smooth the blank turned out. I've gone as rough as 180 and now can usually start at 320 or 220 as I get better at applying the CA. Use your sandpaper with the sanding block to do the rough sanding. With the block you are assured of only taking the high spots down. Move the block across the block as fast as you can so you get a "cross hatch" sanding pattern. Check frequently and keep going until you have a smooth, even finish across the blank. Once smooth and good, stop the lathe and sand the length of the blank with the sandpaper with no block until all the cross hatches are gone. At this point you have removed all the high points but stopped before you sanded through 4 layers at the bottom of the finish you applied.
Next level of sandpaper with sanding block. Crosshatch until you have nice even crosshatching. Stop, no block, lengthwise until the cross hatches are gone.
Repeat until you are down to 400 grit. Remove the blank from the lathe and end mill it (I recommend end-sanding so you don't risk chipping the finish but do what you have). Remount the blank and continue with 0000 steal wool. (From this point you can skip the sanding block.
) Try to hit the corners of the blank to remove that nice razor edge you just put on it. But VERY lightly or you will sand through.
Same deal with 4000 and 6000 MM wet sanding.
Dry the blank (I use an air compressor). Use buffing wheels and your favorite buffing polishes to get the final shine. Still, crosshatch followed by lengthwise. I use red rouge, white diamond, swirl remover.
Take the blank off and drool over it. Wipe it clean and assemble the pen. Apply a light coat of your favorite anti-static wax (I use Eagle1 auto wax) to the entire pen. Buff to final shine.
I hope this helps!!
GK
ps Rule whatever: once you start sanding the blank, never, ever touch with your bare hands until after the finishing is done. You will be tempted to feel just how smooth your blank is or to wipe off the saw dust but then you have body oil in some spots and not in others. Bad for finishing.
