First an apology to many members.
There have been a lot of questions in the past year about dull spots on CA glue. I think there are 2 of them right now. The usual response has been that they were caused by sanding through the finish into the bare wood.
I have never seen this as being the cause because I never realized that anyone would be sanding that much. I have been giving more attention to the questions and their descriptions, and watching others turn and finish pens, for the past few months. I take back everything I said and thought - SOME PEOPLE REALLY ARE SANDING THAT MUCH.
They run the lathe too fast, use too coarse a sandpaper grit, use too much pressure on the sandpaper, and use it way too long. Yes, thay can and do remove all of the finish.
Bare wood and CA glue can be sanded and polished to the same high gloss to where it is difficult to tell the difference. However, the bare wood will lose its gloss in a day or two of exposure to air and light. I already knew that, but I never considered that anyone could make it happen on the same piece of wood at the same time.
For what it's worth, here is how I sand CA glue, and I have never sanded through it unless I wanted to.
While it seems hard, fresh CA glue is quite soft and sands away easilly. I use 400-grit for sanding the cured glue, and only go back to 320 if there is a bad rough spot. I use fresh paper with each pen and I use just enough finger pressure to hold the paper to the wood. The sandpaper will cut by itself without a lot of pressure.
Be careful to not use too much finger pressure. Think "light". When you think you aren't using enough pressure, it is probably just right. I watched a guy bend the mandrel with pressure on the sandpaper. That was definitely too much.
I sand with the lathe spinning for noi more than 3 or 4 seconds to remove the high spots.
Then I bring in a bright light so I can see the shiny spots that are dimpled in the surface, and sand with the 400-grit just until the shiny spots are gone and there is a smooth uniform matte surface, and stop. I only use 320-grit, and sparingly, when the shiny dimples are more than I can remove in a reasonable time (15-30 seconds) with the 400.
It is now ready for the next coat, where I do the same thing again with 400-grit as many times as there coats of glue.
The final coat is done with the same 400-grit to level it out. After that, there are many ways to get it to the high polish we want. After the 400, I go to 600 and do the same thing. Then I do it with 0000-steel wool, and 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 Micro Mesh.
Sometimes I use a little Renaissance wax on the 6k and 8k Micro Mesh, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I think it improves the gloss after the 12,000, and sometimes I can't tell the difference, but I choose to do it anyway most of the time.
There have been a lot of questions in the past year about dull spots on CA glue. I think there are 2 of them right now. The usual response has been that they were caused by sanding through the finish into the bare wood.
I have never seen this as being the cause because I never realized that anyone would be sanding that much. I have been giving more attention to the questions and their descriptions, and watching others turn and finish pens, for the past few months. I take back everything I said and thought - SOME PEOPLE REALLY ARE SANDING THAT MUCH.
They run the lathe too fast, use too coarse a sandpaper grit, use too much pressure on the sandpaper, and use it way too long. Yes, thay can and do remove all of the finish.
Bare wood and CA glue can be sanded and polished to the same high gloss to where it is difficult to tell the difference. However, the bare wood will lose its gloss in a day or two of exposure to air and light. I already knew that, but I never considered that anyone could make it happen on the same piece of wood at the same time.
For what it's worth, here is how I sand CA glue, and I have never sanded through it unless I wanted to.
While it seems hard, fresh CA glue is quite soft and sands away easilly. I use 400-grit for sanding the cured glue, and only go back to 320 if there is a bad rough spot. I use fresh paper with each pen and I use just enough finger pressure to hold the paper to the wood. The sandpaper will cut by itself without a lot of pressure.
Be careful to not use too much finger pressure. Think "light". When you think you aren't using enough pressure, it is probably just right. I watched a guy bend the mandrel with pressure on the sandpaper. That was definitely too much.
I sand with the lathe spinning for noi more than 3 or 4 seconds to remove the high spots.
Then I bring in a bright light so I can see the shiny spots that are dimpled in the surface, and sand with the 400-grit just until the shiny spots are gone and there is a smooth uniform matte surface, and stop. I only use 320-grit, and sparingly, when the shiny dimples are more than I can remove in a reasonable time (15-30 seconds) with the 400.
It is now ready for the next coat, where I do the same thing again with 400-grit as many times as there coats of glue.
The final coat is done with the same 400-grit to level it out. After that, there are many ways to get it to the high polish we want. After the 400, I go to 600 and do the same thing. Then I do it with 0000-steel wool, and 4000, 6000, 8000, and 12,000 Micro Mesh.
Sometimes I use a little Renaissance wax on the 6k and 8k Micro Mesh, and sometimes I don't. Sometimes I think it improves the gloss after the 12,000, and sometimes I can't tell the difference, but I choose to do it anyway most of the time.
