Advice please on pen finish with tung oil and wax

[plantagenon]

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

[Christos]

I think this could be interesting discussion on the results you get. I will keep my eyes open to see what people think.

[JohnnoM]

G'day Greg,
I've only made a few dozen pens, but always finished with Ubeaut Shelawax cream. This stuff is fantastic. Just rub a bit on slowly with a rag and then turn the lathe up to full speed and with a fair bit of pressure on the rag, you sort of burn the finish into the wood. There's a little bit of heat generated, so keep plenty of rag under your fingers. The whole process takes about 1 minute...max.I finish with the lathe still on full speed with a clean bit of cloth to just polish the finish very lightly for about 5-10 seconds. Take the barrels off the mandrel and assemble as soon as you like. The finish can be handled straight off the lathe and has a nice hand rubbed wax finish. I've had pens in circulation for a few years and they look as good today as they did when I made them
I love this stuff...good luck.
JM

[plantagenon]

Thanks Johnno

It is all about experimenting for me at the moment. I will certainly try the heat application as I have a bottle of the Ubeaut Shelawax cream. Problem is when I bought it 2 years ago I didn't apply it with fast speed to build up the heat. Since then I have learnt a bit and am still learning. What I was after was almost a CA shine but without the plastic covering that CA, Nitro or MinWax gives you. sanding.

Its only an experiment at this stage. I applied the Tung Oil for the third time today - this time without 0000 steel wool. The polish/shine is reallly building up. One more coat and then I will leave it to dry.

I also read a bit about French polish and mixing my own shellac. It apparently hardens well if not coming from a pre-mixed bottle and can be polished after.

Maybe someone who has tried all this might give me some advice.

Thanks again

Greg

[ubeaut]

Use Shellawax or Shellawax Glow for pens. Shellawax Cream is basically for bowls and as an extender for Shellawax and Glow for BIG stuff.

I will be at the Brisbane, Timber & Working With Wood Show in about 6 weeks, Come and see me and I'll show you how they work properly.

We will be doing on demand demo's throughout the weekend along with structured demo's and some hands on.

Cheers - Neil

[plantagenon]

Thanks Neil

I will see you at the Brisbane show. I will also bring along a couple of the Tung Oil finishes.