Hi ldwilson,
Well mate, there are many possible ways to finish a pen, regardless if gloss, satin or matt. I have tried a "fair" number of products including liquid gloss or liquid glass, one of the hardest products to void runs while drying...!
I'm not keen on using oil with the CA, however I read enough of people that swear by it. Not trying to judge on others preference nor interested in "bashing a horse that has been dead for a long time...!" I have to say that recently I started to use the straight CA finish a lot more than ever and actually use it in 97% of the pen blanks I turn round, for either a sample or a pen.
No doubt CA is the fastest way to produce a durable gloss finish on a pen, oils and friction polishes are as fast if not faster but will not either produce the shine nor the durability but that is obviously, and individual choice/preference.
I used and still use a product called Floorseal made by Feast Watson that is a pleasure to work with, is a floor varnish but a very thin in viscosity (nearly like water), can be applied in any possible way you can thing of, has a beautiful shine and is tough as nails, after all is a floors varnish, huh...!!!:wink:
As much as I still like to use this product for other things, I decided to have it replaced with the CA finish for things that I want to finish fast, instead of costing the wood with sanding sealer, let dry, light sand, coat with Floorseal (normally dipped) and hang to dry for 24 hours. While surface dryness happen within an hour or so from application, that hours can become a nightmare when mosquitoes, dust and other stuff flys around and stick to it, unless the blanks is coated and let to dry in a proper painter booth or something similar.
Is certainly not nice to have to re-do the finish to remove (UFO's) from the varnish surface, nor is the time that require before the blank(s) are actually dry enough for handling or assembly, not forgetting that 99.9% of chemical varnishes and finishes will take approx 14 days to fully cure, CA is an exception only to a point as its true curing times can reach 7 days, depending on the total thickness and enviro. temperatures it is exposed to...!
One other interesting fact is that, I went from a finish that would take approx. 2 days from application to handling/assembling to straight CA which can be achieved in 15 minutes or so BUT, the interesting part is that, I started to used lots of accelerator on my CA finishes, increasing dramatically the speed of the application(s) and finish.
My suggestion to you is, do some practice runs to get you on the right path of success. I would suggest you to get a pen blank that isn't nothing special, put it in the lathe between centres, (no holes required) and turn it until round, this will be your starting point for the practice exercise. Sand the wood up to 400 (180-240-320-400 or similar...!), then clean the blank with a air gun if possible, if you don't have one use a small painting brush.
After you have if clean, try wiping the blank with acetone or accelerator with the lathe either running or not, let it dry for a minute or two. Start with thin CA, this will help you with the application as it wont dry as fast, make sure you have a paper towel material that don't react with the CA, the blue paper towel is certainly the best, many other will start socking as soon as you touch it with CA, that means that the paper towel is reacting and working as a hardener, reducing your application time considerably.
Use the bottle on the top and paper towel (applicator) under the blank and with the lathe running at slow speeds, run your CA from right to left, then when you reach the lathe headstock end remove the CA bottle away from the blank and run the applicator back to where you started from, remember that all this has to be done as fast as possible, movements coordination will be a little tricky at first and maybe you will endup with a few pieces of the paper towel (applicator) stuck to the CA but, that's the whole purpose of this exercise, you don't have to be stressed about messing up a good blank that has been drilled, turned and finished to be a nice pen in the end and maybe and order that you can't afford to mess-out either because the blank is expensive and probably the only one you have, as also you running out of time to get this order done.
This things play in your mind a lot more in the beginning of pen turning than after a while, they are more than enough to set you in the panic mode while working on the pen, that doesn't help a bit...!!!:frown:
Try 4 coats then sand all ridges with 320 or 400 grit paper, do it with the lathe turned off and rub the blank lengthways, this will remove the ridges a lot faster and removing less CA from the blank as it will leave a good surface for the second lot of 4 coats. After the last coat, let it set for 5 minutes or so and then sand it with wet micromesh using the same technique as you use between the 2 coating groups fro the first 2 or 3 grits, then you can turn the lathe on and complete the grits steps.
Clean and check for any dull spots (signs that you removed too much CA and exposed the wood, repeat the last 4 coats CA application if this happen...! ), apply a little cream polisher compound (many to chose from), rub it firmly on the wood with a clean piece of the applicator (paper towel) while the lathe is turning, this time at faster speed. Use this polish compound as if you where doing burnishing or friction polish methods, this will bring a amazing shine to the finish.
Remember, this is a training/practise exercise, at any time that you stuff things up, you have still plenty of wood to play with so, give it another shave and start again. When you active a good result, and you thing that you got it, don't be so sure, shave that finish off or if you feel that looks too good to cut/shave off, grab another blank and test yourself and your confidence, if you really got it, that next blank will come up as good or even better than the previous one, then and only then you can trust that you got the steps and process worked out.
That would be the time to seat down with a beer, relax and enjoy the achievement, you can then get that nice blank that has been waiting for a while and transform it into a pen with that nice finish you so much like...!:wink::biggrin:
This is my story, and I stick with with, even tough I apologise for the length of my post..! You already knew that, didn't you...??? no, no, I mean the length of my posts...!
Cheers
George
