There is a long thread on the pros and cons of the various finishes. Personally, I think that was the wrong question because there are no pros and cons, only differences and personal preferences. These differences are discussed at the beginning of my video on finishing pens.
There is a scale of hardness that goes from wax to acrylic plastic, and along that same scale is the finishes durability to wear - wax doesn't wear well, and Enduro is a very durable finish that is right up there next to Plexiglass. Everything else, including CA glue is somewhere in between. CA is close, but not quite as hard as cured Enduro.
The difficulty or time required for application follows the same scale. A wax or shellac friction polish is easy to apply, while a CA glue and Enduro are both time consuming, and beyond the abilities of a few. The questions on this forum over the last 5 years should prove that point.
Any finish you can put on a pen will have the same gloss when it is new, provided that the wood species is the same, the grain pattern is the same, and all have been sanded to the same abrasive grit before the finish was applied. The only ones that stood out as being slightly different was lacquer, and Waterlox. Lacquer because of the added qualities of "depth" and "brilliance" that are generally exhibited to a lesser degree by all other finishes, and Waterlox because it is an oil finish, and oils will add more color to the wood, making it a darker color that the other finishes. Enduro also imparts more color to the wood, but not as much as Waterlox.
After making the video, I carried the entire set of test pens around for several months. I did not find one single person who could tell the difference between any of the finishes on the pens when they were new. I had to mark the cap finial and look them up myself. It was only after several months of handling by a lot of people, that they started to show some wear and the different finishes started to become visible. Even then, nobody couldn't
actually identify any finish other than it had either lost or retained its gloss.
I recently found the samples that had been made for hardness testing, and 3 years later I had to read the label to tell which was which. Without handling or exposure to light the wax looked or felt no different from the CA glue or Enduro. The only ones that were obvious were the acrylic plastics because of their pattern, not their gloss.
For those who suggested a video should be made on finishing pens
http://www.woodturner-russ.com/Video-3-Pens.html#anchor_190
There is a scale of hardness that goes from wax to acrylic plastic, and along that same scale is the finishes durability to wear - wax doesn't wear well, and Enduro is a very durable finish that is right up there next to Plexiglass. Everything else, including CA glue is somewhere in between. CA is close, but not quite as hard as cured Enduro.
The difficulty or time required for application follows the same scale. A wax or shellac friction polish is easy to apply, while a CA glue and Enduro are both time consuming, and beyond the abilities of a few. The questions on this forum over the last 5 years should prove that point.
Any finish you can put on a pen will have the same gloss when it is new, provided that the wood species is the same, the grain pattern is the same, and all have been sanded to the same abrasive grit before the finish was applied. The only ones that stood out as being slightly different was lacquer, and Waterlox. Lacquer because of the added qualities of "depth" and "brilliance" that are generally exhibited to a lesser degree by all other finishes, and Waterlox because it is an oil finish, and oils will add more color to the wood, making it a darker color that the other finishes. Enduro also imparts more color to the wood, but not as much as Waterlox.
After making the video, I carried the entire set of test pens around for several months. I did not find one single person who could tell the difference between any of the finishes on the pens when they were new. I had to mark the cap finial and look them up myself. It was only after several months of handling by a lot of people, that they started to show some wear and the different finishes started to become visible. Even then, nobody couldn't
actually identify any finish other than it had either lost or retained its gloss.
I recently found the samples that had been made for hardness testing, and 3 years later I had to read the label to tell which was which. Without handling or exposure to light the wax looked or felt no different from the CA glue or Enduro. The only ones that were obvious were the acrylic plastics because of their pattern, not their gloss.
For those who suggested a video should be made on finishing pens
http://www.woodturner-russ.com/Video-3-Pens.html#anchor_190
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