Thread: Another one while I was in the shed

Trev

Mate that is a awesome pen job well done and I love the sound of ur finish too

Ian

Beautiful ... !!!

greg

Another good one Trev. What is Tripoli and white wax?

Originally Posted by plantagenon

Another good one Trev. What is Tripoli and white wax?

Greg it says "tripoli & white polish with wax over the top"
Three step buffing system from McJings uses 2 polishes & a wax
1. Tripoli polish
2. Diamond white polish
3. Canuba wax
I think it is based on the beale polishing system though not overly sure.
What I am sure of is I love the results, I have even used it to finish other small timber projects.

Rumnut

Looks good to me, nice blank and another good option as a finish.

Does this finishing process give a shiny finish.

Originally Posted by Christos

Does this finishing process give a shiny finish.

The finish is not as "glassy" as CA but a shiny finish can certainly be achieved and it leaves a real timber feel to the pen as opposed to a CA finish which I believe has a plasticy type of look & feel to the finish. This type of finish may not be as hardy as CA but one common comment that I get when showing people my pens is "is that real wood or plastic wood". So when I put a pen into a prospective customers hand I want them to be in no doubt that is made from "real wood".

Cheers Rumnut

Greg,
Tripoli and white diamond polish are metal finishing compounds used to polish metal.
Adapted to use in pen turning you apply the EEE grade polish, (that’s its true grit in polish designations, three Es, or Triple E, also marketed as Tripoli) to a buffing wheel and polish the wood.

White Diamond is used to shine the steel and strop the wire edge off of sharpened tools, razors and such; it too is used to polish wood.
Both are used by furniture makers as part of the steps to get that "glass top" look to table top finishes.
White Diamond is used, suspended in a solution, to polish chrome and such, you can buy it as a wheel polish in most auto part, and Mothers Mag Polish is a perfect example.

Triple E is siliceous rock, Silica, found in the US, Spain and Italy.
E is very coarse, EE finer, and EEE is very fine.
It is a cutting compound, used to remove material getting rid of fine scratches.

White Diamond is Tin Oxide, has almost no abrasive effects, it removes very small amounts of material, which makes it a great final polish to get the mirror effect.

Now, to add to the fun, there are specific buffing compounds, or rouges.
Polishes are used to remove material, rouges are used to remove the micro fine scratches.

Rouge is a generic name, from the French word for red, because it is assumed the first buffing compound was made from a red iron oxide, which is red. No real or confirmable reason is known for the use of the word rouge for these buffing compounds.

Red, green, white yellow and blue colored rouges are used to put a final shine on certain metals and jewelry, gold and silver plating.
They have almost no abrasive effect, so fine you can’t feel the "grit" in them.
Very expensive, you rarely find them outside of lapidary work and jewelers shops.

If you are using the Beale Buffing System" and the Beale compounds, you are getting Triple E, (marketed as Tripoli) fine crushed silica and binder pressed into cake form, and White Diamond, Tin Oxide in a binder, also pressed into cake form.
The wax in the Beale system is Carnuba, which dries very hard.
It is "human safe" wax, and oddly, you most likely have injested it, as it is used to polish a lot of candies, M&Ms have a carnuba wax finish to give them the shine, and most fruits are given a spray on coat to make them more visualy appealing on the grocers display.

Caution should be used if you polish a light colored wood with EEE, it may impart a light red color to the wood, test first on a piece of scrap, and it can be an agressive polish, you can "cut" into the wood if too much pressure is used.

Keep in mind that you can only remove so much wood, unlike metals, the structure of wood negates using super fine rouges because the texture or the wood pores makes it impossible to get a perfectly "smooth" surface.

You can use rouges on "finished" wood, it will shine lacquer, poly and shellac and CA quite well.
Meguiars Swirl Remover or Hutts Plastic Polish will make even a cruddy finish look like liquid glass if used properly.

Coffee grounds and either CA or PVA have a strong presence in the shed for pens and bowls. (And its organicic). LOL.