Pen Finishing - A Few Thoughts....

[Corey Hallagan]

I have been thinking lately about long lasting finishes and have read some of the other threads here on pen finishes etc. I want a shiney slick surface on my pens, doesn't have to be a hgh gloss, just a shiny surface that lasts.
Last night I got to thinking about burnishing. Pen makers try to burnish the surface with different polishes etc. I got to thinking what about burninshing with another piece of wood. So I tried rubbing two of my practice pieces together and instantly burnished a slick spot on them.
So this morning I went down and chucked up two of my practice pieces, set it on high speed and burnished one with the other letting the lathe spin and run the wood from one end to the other. The result was a slick highly burnished finish on the wood. I then took the Shellwax and applied a coat of that to the wood on a paper towel. Then I took the other wood piece and burnished it again on top of the shellwax. Not sure that this made any difference after burninshing.
Been sitting here playing with it now for 3 hours or so. Once you burnish wood this way, it doesn't go away. It is not a super high gloss finish, just a very silky smooth finish that feels like a piece of wood, I think it could only get better with the oils from your hands. This is something I am going to experiment more with. keep in mind, these piece weren't even sanded, only roughed out and smoothed out with a skew chisel. This piece of Cherry is just really nice feeling, even more so than the Walnut piece.
Just thought I would share my findings here, anyone else tried this?
Corey

[John Hart]

I've tried it Corey with the same results. It seems like cherry is a very good wood for burnishing like that. The ones I did ultimately got some beeswax.

[Corey Hallagan]

Yeah, the walnut slicked up nice to but the Cherry was best. I wonder how the exotics would do. Anyway, going to try it on a couple of my first pens anyway. The wife picked out a nice rosewood blank for her choice. It will be the first pen! It kind of suprised me she picked a dark wood. I thought women like light colored vs. dark woods!

Corey

[John Hart]

..... It kind of suprised me she picked a dark wood. I thought women like light colored vs. dark woods!

Corey

It's been my limited experience that women like rich colors...Whatever color that may be. They like 24KT Gold and they like the pen to be heavy but not fat. Cocobolo...Rosewood...Bloodwood...Ebony...Rich Burls with flashes of color...Bubinga...Purpleheart...etc.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hey Corey when you get those pens done, I would like a picture of them. I did that to a walnut one. I burnished the wood good, then put Myland Friction polish on it. It turned out awesome. It wasn't a jump out and get ya shine but a good one. I would take a picture of it but my sister nabbed it on the way out. So I am going to burnish the wood good again on two pens of the same wood. The I will apply Friction polish to one and then just either carnuba or beeswax. Then see how they turn out and hold up.

[Corey Hallagan]

Definitely will do that Bernie. I just like the silky smooth finish it left. Feels like wood!

Corey

[Bob Noles]

The ones I did ultimately got some beeswax.

John,

I'm still trying to figure out how you talk those bees out of their wax :eek: :p

[Bernie Weishapl]

Hey Bob, VERY CAREFULLY:eek: :eek: