Originally posted by ahoiberg
<br />how do you keep those beads when you're sanding?
I sand at 500rpm (the slowest my lathe goes). Generally, I sand both circumferentially (with the lathe turning) and longitudinally (with the lathe off) with each grit before moving on to the next. I typically start with 180 or 220 grit, depending on how much smoothing or shaping is needed. I think I started with 180 on this set, as the upper barrels are pretty straight. I turned them a little proud and sanded them flat.
These pens I sanded to 600 grit. My experience is that the grain usually jumps out at 600 so I often stop there - especially if using a CA finish. Other times, I go all the way to 2000. So, I sanded the barrels with 180, 220, 320, 400, and 600, but I didn't hit the beads with the first two. I only touched them with 320 and up.
I sanded the beads circumferentially with a the sandpaper folded in two (actually in 3, but that's not really relevant). Starting with the fold in between two beads, I roll the paper lightly each way up to the crown of the beads. This preserves their shape. I didn't sand longitudinally with 320 grit - just 400 and 600 and then only very lightly and briefly so as not to change the beads' profile.
Then I cleaned them with CA accelerator, gave them 2 coats of thin CA and 3 of thick CA/BLO (sanding longitudinally with 600g between coats). A quick buff with tripoli, white diamond, and wax completed the finish.
I gave them a day in the sun for color and delivered them the next morning.
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