Finishing pens

[plantagenon]

I put this post on the Finish Forum but didn't get a response, bar one. Therefore I will move it to the pen making forum.

I am after a bit of advice please.

I have been finishing pens with CA but getting a bit sick of the plastic look so I thought I would experiment a bit with finishes.

I am presently trying a Liberon pure Tung Oil finish, slow as it may be. I will apply 4 coats of Tung oil over 4 days with a 0000 steel wool sand in between coats and give it 2 weeks to dry properly - bearing in mind the pen blank timber is very thin after turning.

I saw an earlier post on here where Neil suggested EEE to give the tung oil a final cut after it dries. I will try that too. However, I was thinking about a coat of Carnauba wax at the finishing product to give the timber a shine. Would this be the best way of going about getting a hard finish to the blank so that it is protected against daily pen use?

As I mentioned, I know CA is great but I am after a little more natural yet hard protective finish.

I have also tried one pen with French polish, dried for a week and then a coat of Carnauba wax over the top. I haven't tried it for wear and tear yet although the timber colours came out nice and it has a natural looking gloss on it.

Thanks for any advice or ideas

Greg

[Perfect Pens]

Greg,

Not sure what you are going to find what you are looking for? but as indicated in your previous thread, you will find it very hard to get an oil, wax or polish that will give you a hard protective surface that will last every day use. CA and very few other finishes like poly will give this but you will have to live with the glassy / plastic type finish if you want the hard protective coating.
Not sure that there is too many other options with this one mate.

Cheers
Tony

[Les in Red Deer]

Greg,

If you want a fast, hard, and durable finish in either a gloss, semigloss or satin finish give MINWAX Polyurethane a try.
The nice thing about polyurethane is you can rub down the gloss finish for example, with extra fine steel wool to get a nice warm wood feel.
I use it to finish all my wood pen barrels and works great for me.

http://www.woodworkforums.com/f207/less-pen-finish-dipping-method-151717/

Les

[Scott]

+1 for Les's pen dipping method, especially using WOP. Using satin WOP may give you then finish you're after.