Consider that the best finish for these personal items may be none at all. We are already sanding to 2500-grit, or to 12,000 on the Micro-Mesh scale. After that, the natural wood will develop a patina and a polished oil finish from use and exposure to our body oils. It may not be a shiny as the film we could put on it, but there will be nothing to wear away. Instead, it is maintained and enhanced by daily use and handling. We can use a wax such as Perfect Pen Polish (PPP)® by Hut Products as a temporary protection on the highly polished natural wood surface. The wax will be removed by wear and replaced with body oils after a short time of regular use, and the transition is unnoticeable.
The “Secret” to a good finish is that the wood be a highly polished gloss before the wax is applied. Sand the pen barrels through at least 1500-grit. I usually sand dry to 320, and then wet sand with 400-grit using the Watco® Liquid Finishing Wax as a lubricant. Any good quality finishing wax can be used instead of the Watco® product. That is followed with the finer grits up to 1500 or 2000. Additional wax is not necessary because the residual wax from the initial application with the 400-grit will be sufficient to lubricate the finer grits. Then I run the lathe as fast as it will go, and burnish the wood with a piece of grocery-bag paper (2500-grit). Reference: The SlimLine Pen, Sanding
Many woodturners will prefer to use the Micro-Mesh products rather than sanding with conventional sandpapers. Recognize that the grit designations are different, and that the 2500 grit of the grocery bag paper is the same thing as the 12,000 grit on the Micro-Mesh scale. Micro-Mesh is easily damaged by heat, but slower sanding speeds and a technique that keeps the abrasive moving on the wood surface will be helpful.
You will now have a highly polished natural wood surface. We would normally consider that the wood is now prepared for application of a finishing product. For the Bare Wood Finish, it is now "finished". If you use the PPP, it will have a temporary wax protection. It may not have the most surface gloss now, but it can be the best looking after several months of daily use.
FINISHING SECRETS… No.4
Pens, Watches, and Small Personal Items
Everyone has their favorite finish for pens and similar items, and they all are very willing to expound on the superiority of their finish. The description of these finishing schedules approach a recipe for witchcraft and magic, with a mixture of incompatible finishes and waxes, and unnecessary steps. The result is what counts, and some of these concoctions do get good results. This article will describe several simple finishing techniques that will give good results as they are described. I will leave it to the reader to make them complicated.
Various sources have described the “best” finish as a friction polish, lacquer, shellac, CA glue, epoxy, and other materials. The truth is that all of them will look good when new. Some of them will last longer than others. Some of them will outlast the 24k plating on the fittings, and some won't. A few may outlast the Titanium-Gold plating on the premium pen fittings. None of them will last forever. All will succumb to the wear and contact with perspiration and body acids from daily use.
Wax is the least durable, and CA glue is the most durableof the readilly available finishes. Most people have problems with shellac and friction polishes. Most have good success with lacquer. Varnish resins are a durable surface film, but very few of us are using them because they take too long. A very few are ecperimenting with Epoxies and waterborne lacquers. Others are having good usccess with waterborne polyurethane finishes.
We will try to discuss as many of these finishes as possible on these pages.
Plastic Pen Barrels
There are many acetate, acrylic, and celluloid materials, such as crushed Velvet, available for turning pen barrels. These plastic materials require somewhat different turning and finishing techniques from wood because of their low melting temperatures. It is an absolute requirement that NO heat can be generated during the turning, sanding, or finishing of plastics. Judging from the poor quality of the finish that I often see on these materials, many turners are not aware of this difference between wood and plastic.
Use a very sharp tool for turning, and watch the chips that are being formed. The chip should curl off the tool in a continuous flowing unbroken ribbon. If it is breaking up into little balls, the plastic is getting too hot in the cutting area and it is melting. Use a slower lathe speed or take a lighter cut with a tool that is honed to a keener edge, sometimes both are needed. If the problem persists, wipe the surface with a little kerosene before turning each pass. The smoke that is generated will prove that the kerosene is doing its job.
Sanding Plastic
Wet-sand the barrel, using a liquid wax or kerosene as the lubricant, at a medium lathe speed no faster than about 600 RPM. Keep the surface very wet at all times to prevent any heat from ruining the surface finish. Wipe the surface clean between every grit. The final surface can be burnished with the Grocery Bag Paper, but it must be lubricated to prevent heat damage.
Wipe the surface clean. If it isn’t highly polished, or it has circular sanding-type rings, the surface got too hot. Start over at a slower lathe speed, and use more wax or kerosene.
An alternate is sand up to a 600-grit, and follow that with a Crocus Cloth that is kept very wet with kerosene. Crocus Cloth is a jewelers rouge (900 to 1220 grit) that is deposited on a cloth backing. This will leave a smooth matte finish. The plastic can then be polished to a higher gloss with one of the specialty abrasives such as Novus, or the HUT Plastic Polish.
Cocobolo, Ebony, and similar very hard woods respond very well to the same sanding and finishing treatment as the plastic. Using kerosene as the lubricant may have a beneficial effect on Ebony by helping to prevent subsequent cracking of the wood.
The sanded plastic surface can be polished with any of the plastic polishes similar to either the Hut Products or Novus that is available from all pen kit suppliers.
Or, the plastic can be polished with an abrasive wax product such as the Perfect Pen Polish (known as PPP) by Hut Products, to polish the surface of the plastic. If you chose to use the PPP, use only the white (or light colored) stick. The dark wax has coarser abrasives that aren’t needed after using the crocus cloth. DO NOT use a hard carnauba wax stick such as Libron, regular Hut, etc. They are too hard and their melting temperature is so high that they can soften and “drag” the plastic surface before they start to flow. The white PPP has a lower melting temperature that will not damage the plastic.
For an awsome gloss on the plastic, we can polish it with "Brasso". Yes, it is a brass polish, and the same stuff you used to polish your brass when you were in the Army. It is a fine grit polish that works well on all types of plastic pen blanks. Apply and wipe clean with the lathe running at a slower (600 RPM) speed.
And, there is nothing wrong with buffing the plastic with a White Diamond compound on a buffing wheel.
A carnauba or Renaissance paste wax is always advisable as the final step to give some temporary protection to the surface.
Soft, porous, or cracked wood can be hardened and stabilized with thin CA glue after dry sanding with 320-grit. An applicator for the CA can be made by covering a strip of 1” masking tape about 1½” long with synthetic batting (available in any sewing supply store). Then wrap another piece of tape around the center, leaving a ¾” long applicator on either side of the tape handle. The batting material has no reaction with the CA glue, while the cellulose in either paper towel or cotton cloth acts as an accelerator. Then resume sanding with either 280 or 320 to remove all of the CA on the wood surface because it is being used as a filler, not as a finish.
CA Glue, As a finish
CA glue can be used as a finish when we build up a coat of glue ON top of the wood surface, rather than keeping it IN the wood as we did when we used it as a sealer.
One way to do this is to apply several coats of CA on top of the sealer coat that is described above. DO NOT use an accelerator. Any accelerator anywhere near the surface will make subsequest coats of CA glue cure too quickly. Sand with 320-grit between coats to removeany roughness in the glue surface. CA sands easilly at slow lathe speeds. It is a plastic and it will be easilly damaged by heat.
Another application of the CA finish is described by Michael Dresdner.
This finishing requires a slow acting CA glue, and the slower the better. Most of the “Thick” varieties will work the best because they will have a cure time of about 1-minute. The application of the finish is quick and simple, and takes about as long as for the CA glue to cure.
The result should be a very smooth surface with a soft gloss. A higher surface gloss can be obtained through either buffing with white-diamond, followed by buffing with Carnauba Wax; polishing with 25,000-grit Micro-Mesh or the grocery bag paper; or using a plastic polish such as that sold by Hut Products. Always give the CA finish at least 2-hours (overnight is better) to fully cure before doing any additional polishing.
1. Sand the pen to at least 600-grit, and wipe it clean with a clean paper towel.
2. Apply a liberal coat of the “Thick” CA Glue. Make sure it is a uniform coat that covers the entire pen.
3. Immediately apply a liberal coat of Boiled Linseed Oil with a separate rag.
4. Buff the finish with the wet rag that was used to apply the Linseed Oil.
5. When the danger of slinging the finish in your face has passed, increase the lathe speed to as fast as it will go, and buff the finish with a clean towel until it is dry.
6. Repeat all of the 5 previous steps several times for added filmthickness. I usually use 3 coats. Always sand with 600-grit between coats. Finer sanding is not necessary.
Lacquer
Any of the nitro-cellulose lacquers will leave a durable surface on the pen or watch, and Deft is ideally suited for our use. Besides being readilly available, it is also an excellent lacquer product. For our application, it can be applied by brushing, spraying, or dipping.
The first coat of Deft should always be brushed on and wiped off while it is still wet. This cleans the wood surface of all oils and waxes, fills the wood and acts as a primer coat for building the finish.
If the next coats are applied with a brush, it will be necessary to sand between coats to remove the brush marks in the film.
If the next coats are applied from a spray can, you can skip the sanding between coats. I apply three (3) successive spray coats while waiting only long enough for the surface to get tacky between coats. Then I leave it to dry several hours to overnight, buff with steel wool, and repeat the three (3) spray coats. Do this as many times as required to build the desired thickness. Two (2) times is usually enough if the wood surface was properly sanded.
Dipping a Pen in Deft
Deft is ideally suited for dipping because it flows out into a smooth surface, rather than dripping and beading like other finishes. It is fast, it is easy, and it is one of the best finishes we could put on a pen. IT IS NOT suitable for all shapes and styles. There will be problems with pens that have beads and other sharp edged or cornered features on the barrels.
Dipping is easy. Plug the ends of the brass tubes and attach a piece of wire for hanging the barrels. There should always be a bushing below the barrel so the lacquer will have something to flow onto. Then dip the barrels into a full can of Deft, remove and let it drip, and then hang it up to dry for several days to a week before handling.
One of the shellac based friction polishes can be used for a higher gloss and a more durable finish. It will wear longer than the wax, but it will still be removed by wear and exposure to body oils and acids. Therefore it is still necessary to sand the wood to the same high polish as described.
My favorite of these finishes is Shellawax, but there are similar products by Mylands, Hut, Penn State, and others. Remember to use a small amount and at a high lathe speed as described in Section 10 – Friction Polishes .
