This is my first aluminum pen, so I am just guessing as I go along as to what to do. The way I did it was to turn the blanks using a gouge and then a skew. I followed with every grit of sandpaper in my shop up to 12000mm. I followed that with a 3 step buff and then some Ren. wax. I then removed the scratches I put on with the Ren. wax and went back to the buffer again. I then put it back on the lathe and used Nev-R-Dull as it spun. This seemed to give it a ton of shine. I would have to say that it does look a lot like Stainless, but I think that any metal can if it is polished. I was considering using a Lacquer finish, but the customer was pacing and didn't want to wait for that (impatient but wealthy). My next one will have a Lacquer finish and will have a lot more time in it to get every little scratch. I also want to try a brushed finished on one. Thank you for all the comments, this was a fun pen to turn. I guess I need to turn something very different every now and then.
I would've liked to try powder coating it, but I don't have the setup for coating YET.