VirgilJ
Member
In the last 4 months I have started turning pens again after a lay-off of 7 years. Naturally I had a lot of work to do to get back anywhere near where I was when I quit. I had to re-learn the use of a skew and I switched from using a mandrel to turning between centers.
A lot has changed in the last 7 years. A Ca finish is almost the universal finish, and I was never very good at doing one. I decided I'd try out the new( to me) Stick Fast finishing system. At first I got good results, but I could not be consistent. One pen would look great and the next just sucked.
I started trying some of the various CA application procedures I found on these forums and had so-so results. I was looking for a procedure that was fairly simple and turned out well every time. I know that's asking a lot from someone who's CA challenged, but it was either that or change finishes completely.
Eventually I found a link on here to William Young's BLO/CA YOUTUBE video. I gave it a try and found it dead easy and produced a consistently silky smooth fairly shiny finish. The only down side to this method is the shine is a bit less than a pure CA finish. The upside is I can nail this finish every time.
I started experimenting with a bunch of different polishing compounds, buffing,and micromesh in every possible combination and just couldn't get the shine I wanted. Since nothing seemed to shine like a pure CA finish I decided to take my silky smooth finish and give it a pure CA top coat. I gave it four coats of thin CA. They went on much better than I usually do I think because the base finish is so smooth, A light sanding with 600 and then 800 just to remove any circular marks and then polishing compound or buffing (doesn't seem to matter much which) and I have a silky smooth Shiney finish that is very close to a Pure CA finish. It's not perfect, but it's way to h**l and gone better than I was doing because it turns out the same every time I do it.
If you're like me and just can't seem to master a Pure CA finish you might want to give this a try. It won't make you a world class finisher, but it will consistently give you a finish You don't have to hide.
A lot has changed in the last 7 years. A Ca finish is almost the universal finish, and I was never very good at doing one. I decided I'd try out the new( to me) Stick Fast finishing system. At first I got good results, but I could not be consistent. One pen would look great and the next just sucked.
I started trying some of the various CA application procedures I found on these forums and had so-so results. I was looking for a procedure that was fairly simple and turned out well every time. I know that's asking a lot from someone who's CA challenged, but it was either that or change finishes completely.
Eventually I found a link on here to William Young's BLO/CA YOUTUBE video. I gave it a try and found it dead easy and produced a consistently silky smooth fairly shiny finish. The only down side to this method is the shine is a bit less than a pure CA finish. The upside is I can nail this finish every time.
I started experimenting with a bunch of different polishing compounds, buffing,and micromesh in every possible combination and just couldn't get the shine I wanted. Since nothing seemed to shine like a pure CA finish I decided to take my silky smooth finish and give it a pure CA top coat. I gave it four coats of thin CA. They went on much better than I usually do I think because the base finish is so smooth, A light sanding with 600 and then 800 just to remove any circular marks and then polishing compound or buffing (doesn't seem to matter much which) and I have a silky smooth Shiney finish that is very close to a Pure CA finish. It's not perfect, but it's way to h**l and gone better than I was doing because it turns out the same every time I do it.
If you're like me and just can't seem to master a Pure CA finish you might want to give this a try. It won't make you a world class finisher, but it will consistently give you a finish You don't have to hide.
