I have followed pretty much the same procedure with good results but then i noticed that some of my pens would develop a sticky feel to the touch after some time. Has that happened to you ever? I have switched to wet sanding with dr's walnut oil to a high grit (2000 or 3000) and then some more oil that i try to burnish with some paper towels. It is a very "natural" finish, nice to the touch and looks; it also seems to work fine with hardwoods.
I've never had a sticky feel...HOWEVER, I also DO NOT touch the finish, regardless of whether its the first "coat" or subsequent touchups, until its dried in a room temp room for at least 8 hours. If you touch the finish right off the lathe, its not hardened. I did get some fingerprints stuck in the finish the first few times I tried using it. That was over a year ago now. I use this little tool I created, a dowel, sharpened on one end, with two nuts and a washer sandwitched tightly between them at the other, to get the blanks off the lathe without touching them.
As long as you let the finish cure well, then it doesn't seem to have problems. I even left this one pen, a kit I tried that ended up being extremely cheap and I really didn't like it, out in the sun for hours, then picked it up and played with it, even scratched at it with my fingernails, and it had no issues. Left it out there the rest of the day in the hot sun, and it still didn't have any issues.
I think, as long as the entire finish, wax surface coating and all, is allowed to dry and cure properly, you shouldn't have issues with it. I have been using one of my earliest PP finished pens for over a year now on my desk, and it still has the same feel to the finish that it did when I first made it.
I will say this...actually. Some of my earlier pens with Pens Plus, I used just too darn much of the finish. I've mentioned a few times, IME, this is not a "build up" finish...you don't layer it on and on and on until its real thick. In fact, if you do that, I think that may in fact lead to problems down the road. The finish definitely feels different, maybe even "soft", even after drying for a day, if you layer it on thick. I use a "liberal" coat the first coat, to make sure it really covers the whole blank...but, I do not try to build it up these days. I find that this is more like a thin film finish, where the oil and shellac penetrate the wood, while the wax rises to the top and provides a protective coat above it all. The wax, if you apply this finish correctly, should literally be utterly crystal clear. It shouldn't have a soft satin look to it...it should look like glass, or the surface of an incredibly clear pond. It should be CLEAR. This is the main thing about Pens Plus...its not just a friction polish, its got that Cosmolloid 80H synthetic crystal wax in it...those crystals are small and regular in size, which is actually in contrast to most natural wax crystals which are large and irregular (which is why bee and carunauba wax give you more of a satin sheen...they scatter light much differently than C80H.)
I have done just the oil finish myself as well on a couple experimental pens. I haven't tried to sell them, as in all honesty, being a pure oil, I really do wonder if after some time, it would get sticky? With the pens plus, that wax ends up coating the outside of the pen, and when it hardens properly, it gives you a fairly hard, crystal clear, and fingerprint-resistant (which does indeed seem to be the case based on my own experimentation) finish. It is NOT as hard as CA, of course...but it seems to be fairly durable. Now, with woods, they can be dented, or potentially get more of a deep or gouging scratch, if you stick your pen in a pocket with say keys. I have a keyring part that, actually was my first part finished with Pens Plus, probably near a year and a half ago now, and it held up very well over that time. Being on my keychain, it did end up with some gouges...but at the same time, I stupidly chose to use flame boxelder as the wood, which is rather soft.
Anyway, I do think there is a proper use for PP. That involves not touching the finish until its cured, and curing in my experience requires about 8 hours or so at around room temp. Cold weather, can definitely hamper curing. Very warm weather, seems to exacerbate the amount of dull spots that can appear (maybe the DNA is evaporating too fast?) I let my blanks dry in the house on this little pen blank drying rack I created, just two pieces of wood glued together in an A-frame, with pairs of wood pegs set vertically, across the length of both sides of the frame. I'll use that little dowel tool to get the blanks off the lathe. Each peg in the rack has a dimple at the top, where I can put the point of my removal tool, tilt it up, and drop the blank over one of the dowels in the rack. So I never touch the finish until at least 8 hours have passed. OFten I'll do a set of blanks in the evening, bring the rack in to dry, and leave it overnight, so its frequently 12 hours or so before I touch them.
One thing I have learned is that, not all the dull spots are "real". Sometimes, just on the surface, little bits will appear dull. I now take a clean microfiber cloth to each blank to clean them up before I decide if they need any touchup. Usually, most blanks, around the ends, where the endgrain can soak up the finish, they do look dull, and most blanks go back onto the lathe for touchup there. I will usually keep working at those ends until they shine like glass too.
