Pen related question

[William Menard]

has anyone ever tried finishing a wooden pen using paste wax. Maybe minwax paste wax? If you finish the pen doing 4 or 5 coats and buff, will it last? Im thinking applying like a friction polish and apply a few coats. Your thoughts and experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[plantman]

has anyone ever tried finishing a wooden pen using paste wax. Maybe minwax paste wax? If you finish the pen doing 4 or 5 coats and buff, will it last? Im thinking applying like a friction polish and apply a few coats. Your thoughts and experience would be greatly appreciated.

I have used about every type of finish in my 70 years, including all types of waxes. Most everything will work. One of the problems with wax is that it picks up dirt and oil from handeling and dulls with use and needs to be rewaxed and buffed. Also if you apply to much pressure and build up heat, it will burn and ruin your finish. Try it on some scrap wood first, or on your blanks before you assemble the pen. I use a three step wax finish on some of my wooden pens if I don't want that slick glass feel and look. It is still very pleasent to the touch. Some of the harder woods, such as Ebony, only need a wax or buffing to bring out the shine. Jim S

 

[SteveG]

I have an old time description of the properties of wax: (Just talking wax here, NOT composite finishes that are part wax.) Wax is described as a substance that sticks very well to just about everything, but not at all to itself. It is true. You cannot "build up" a wax finish. On plastics, for example, you can put a single full coat on and buff. Then you are done. If you put another coat on and buff, it will not stick to itself and when you buff, you will be back down to the single thickness you had with the first coat...and NO MORE. With bare wood, it is slightly different as you need to saturate the wood to achieve a complete coat, and that can take repeat applications to get your first complete coat. But once there, you are done. Again you cannot build a second complete coat because it will just buff off down to the first complete coat, a few molecules thick (because wax does not stick to itself). So if you want a "build" type finish there needs to be some other (additional) component to your finish besides wax. The wax finish does wear off fairly easy, it is a thin coat and soft. So you can restore it easily with a new coat, but it can and will only be brought back to the initial single thickness.

 

[William Menard]

Thanks kindly for your responses. Maybe I should of posted one last question to the initial question. What in your opinion works best if your not fond of CA or dipping for a beautiful wood finish. Thanks

 

[Dan Masshardt]

Thanks kindly for your responses. Maybe I should of posted one last question to the initial question. What in your opinion works best if your not fond of CA or dipping for a beautiful wood finish. Thanks

Right now I'm finding pens plus to be the best alternative.

Wood turners finish is okay too but more work. For me.

 

[William Menard]

Thanks Dan, thats exactly what I was hoping to find.

 

[plantman]

I have an old time description of the properties of wax: (Just talking wax here, NOT composite finishes that are part wax.) Wax is described as a substance that sticks very well to just about everything, but not at all to itself. It is true. You cannot "build up" a wax finish. On plastics, for example, you can put a single full coat on and buff. Then you are done. If you put another coat on and buff, it will not stick to itself and when you buff, you will be back down to the single thickness you had with the first coat...and NO MORE. With bare wood, it is slightly different as you need to saturate the wood to achieve a complete coat, and that can take repeat applications to get your first complete coat. But once there, you are done. Again you cannot build a second complete coat because it will just buff off down to the first complete coat, a few molecules thick (because wax does not stick to itself). So if you want a "build" type finish there needs to be some other (additional) component to your finish besides wax. The wax finish does wear off fairly easy, it is a thin coat and soft. So you can restore it easily with a new coat, but it can and will only be brought back to the initial single thickness.

As Steve pointed out, you can't build layers of wax up. So I will explain my three part wax system. I guess the first two layers would actualy be classified as buffing compounds. The first being a medium grit red Tripli stick. The second being a finer grit white diamond stick. The last layer is a Carnuba Wax stick that is buffed to a high shine using a brown paper towel, or a flannel wheel. Jim S

 

[thewishman]

Another finish option is plexiglas dissolved in acetone. Cheap, quick and durable.

 

[Indiana_Parrothead]

Chris that is a pretty cool ideas to use the plexiglas dissolved in acetone. I suppose that any thing that you can dissolved in acetone would work. How do you apply it? How do you know when you have dissolved enough material in the acetone? I might have to try this sometime, thanks.

Mike