Pete,
<b>THIS IS NOT MY ORIGINAL IDEA.. FAR FROM IT.. IT IS JUST THE WAY I DO IT
HERE IS THE SYSTEM I USE ... LET ME PREFERENCE THIS BY SAYING.... PLEASE TRY THIS ON SOME SCRAP STUFF FIRST... THIS IS A GREAT FINISH, BUT YOU NEED TO PRACTICE TO GET IT RIGHT... IT IS NOT FOOLPROOF. YOU WILL FIND A COUPLE OF DIFFERENT WAYS TO DO THIS FINISH
...</b>
Basically you will need the following items...
Sanding Sealer.. I use Chestnut Cellulose Sealer I get from Woodturners Supply
Thick Set CA glue and mild accellerator ..
Various grades of sandpaper up to 600 grit which you probably have anyway..
0000 grade steel wool
MicroMesh Kit.. the woodworker kit that goes to 12000 grit..
Hut Plastic Polish or Novus Plastic Polish for the final polish..
After sanding the piece to 400 grit, wipe off all dust and apply a thin coat of sanding sealer and wipe off excess.. let it dry for a couple of minutes and then steel wool smooth... If you are doing a wood with a lot of open grain, you might want to apply the sanding sealer by sanding it into the wood.. this will fill the grain.... then sand again to 400 grit and apply a second coat..
Here is where it can get tricky... I use Nitrile Gloves so that the CA does not stick to my fingers...
Using Bounty or Viva (brand does matter) paper towels... fold one sheet until about an inch wide... this gives you some padding and allows the CA to go on smooth..
For the initial coat, I put a couple of drops of BLO on the paper and with the lathe at slow speed (on my 1236 Jet the slowest speed), start to dribble CA at the joint of the paper and wood and smoothly move back and forth.. DO NOT try to put a thick coat on the wood... just get a smooth, thin coat on. Give a light spray with mild accellerator, then sand again with 400 grit to smooth the finish and wipe off the dust.... THIS IS YOUR FIRST COAT...
Continue to put on at least 2-3 more coats with a dry section of towel (no BLO) steel wool lightly between coats to smooth the little ripples you will get... with these coats the paper will tend to get hard and seem to be smoking.. so work smoothly and quickly... trying to put on the CA with hardened paper will leave a rough finish...
After the final coat is dried, sand lightly with 600 grit just to smooth the finish, wiping the dust befrore proceeding to the MicroMesh... for the final 4 grits of MicroMesh, I wet sand them... make sure that you always wipe the dust between grits, even with the MicroMesh...
The wet sanding with the 12000 grit MicroMesh should leave what looks like a glass finish... if you want to make it shine even more.. use the plastic polish to really bring out the gloss even more... the plastic polish will remove even the tiniest little swirls that almost invisible to the eye...
On my pen I finish this with a light coat of Renaissance wax.. but any really good grade of wax buffed on the lathe will work....
If you have a buffing system for your work... a light buff with the carnuba wheel will work..
This far from being the end all and do all technique.. it is just the way I do it and it works for me... there are a bunch of different ways to do it... I am sure that some of the others will pipe in with what works for them
The two examples below were done that way
