Polishing assembled pens off the lathe

[putnamm]

I am still figuring out my preferred finishing method. This week I turned, finished and assembled my first rollerball pen in Walnut burl. I am happy with how it turned out. I applied three coats of a three-part combo of oils to bring out the grain. When that was dry, I applied a wax. And then I assembled the pen.

After some handling, the finish is already dulling. The assembly process was quite involved, and I don't have any tools for disassembling the pen. So is there some way I can further polish or shine this pen to make it more brilliant?

I do have some Renaissance wax, some Shell a wax friction polish and a few other finishing products at my disposal. But I cannot disassemble the pen to put it back on the lathe.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Mark

 

[TonyL]

I have done it with Maguire's 205 polish and the like, followed by Rejex synthetic wax, but, I have never disassembled a pen to do it. And this was more just to clean-up a pen or two I made for someone, not really to remove scratches. I am also very careful not to go near the hardware with an abrasive polish which by definition most polishes (and some waxes) are or contain.

 

[JimB]

You don't really explain what you did. What is the combination of oils? They may be the problem as they do not hold up to handling or perhaps you didn't let them dry/cure long enough before applying wax. Did it dull from just sitting around or were you using/handling the pen?

Depending on what you did, just bringing back the shine might not do any good as it may just dull again.

 

[KenV]

Mark, oil finishes, or resin oil finishes are destined to be matte, or not-very-shiny on pens. There are some polymerized oil finishes,that can be slowly developed, but not to a gleaming brite shine.

Oil finishes are on the soft side

Disassembly is best facilitated by obtaining a set (or two) of transfer punches. If you have a Harbor Freight close by, that is a good place to get pen disassembly sets of these. The sets I have from harbor freight are on the soft side for the intended purpose of marking centers through holes in metal, but work well for pen work. They are used to tap fittings out of tubes, and work on most pens.