polish for 'plastic'?

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I use Simoniz Vista car wax. Works great for me. I'm not particular about the brand of wax, just as long as it's a liquid wax. Makes it easy to apply. A few coats and I'm done! It also brings an unreal shine to CA finishes, as they're plastic, too.
 
I never use plastic "polish" to shine my pens after sanding, instead I use polishing compounds.

Compounds or "scratch removers" are designed to remove scratch and swirl marks left by sanding, using a finer polish does little to remove these scratch and swirl patterns.

I use Novus and they make three products; #3 Heavy scratch remover, #2 Fine scratch remover and finally #1 Plastic clean and shine.

Needless to say, after sanding I will usually start with #3 then #2 then off to the buffer. Depending on the material, often the Novus #3 and #2 are sufficient without buffing.

The only time I use the Novus #1 is to periodically polish the pens on display. It's anti-static so helps the pens from collecting dust while sitting on my display racks.

I save the car waxes for my cars and brasso for my brass.:smile:
 
Brasso and even semichrome are an abrasive. They can remove plating so be aware. Here is the problem with rubbing, buffing and wax compounds meant for cars: The chemicals do not play nice with vintage materials. No we do not generally use vintage materials in the pens that most of us make. I do use ceboplast when I can get it, I use celluloid with some segmenting, I use Ebonite and I have even used old Sheaffer rod. We had looked into a 5 part polishing system that we thought about offering. We sent samples and MSDS to prominent vintage pen people. This was a product that was designed for Mercedes coming out of the factory. Everybody said this stuff will hurt your pens. Everyone has a preference, I loved the new 5 part system but I could not in good conscience offer something that would have a potential to react chemically.
 
I used to use Mequires swirl remover until I started using Novus and I use it the same as Tex, but what is car polish:wink:? People still polish cars:confused:? Once a week to the car wash for the deluxe job:biggrin:
 
I follow George's regime of Novus. I've used it on all the different plastics that I've turned and never had a bad reaction. As Mike said, be careful of auto products.
 
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