Lathe applied finish

While I don't know how well it would work on pens, I have got some fantastic results from applying shellac while a piece is on the lathe and turning slowly. How fast it dries will depend on the cut, but it will be fast no matter what- a really thick cut (3lb.- which is how it comes in the can from the store) will take about 10 minutes to set up enough to sand and recoat, but a thinner cut will dry much more quickly. A 1/2 lb cut will be dry almost before you're done applying it to the entire piece.

I let it continue to spin while drying (again, *slowly*) to prevent any large drips or runs. Spinning it fast when drying will cause an orangepeel effect on the surface that you'll need to sand out.

Sand with 320 between each coat, and build it until you're happy with the finish. To shine it up, I usually burnish with a paper bag at a reasonably high speed.

You can put wax over the top of that, if you like- though it does not seem to add much to it if you've really polished the shellac.

There are two downsides to this (always has to be a catch, right?) First, it's really messy. Cover the ways with some paper towels or whatever, and make sure you don't care much about what you're wearing. Second, sanding and burnishing fresh shellac smells like a wet dog.

Another really good thing to note is that you can sand to insanely fine grits- and while this is more work than it may be worth for a lot of things, it will start to look like it's made out of glass by about

1500 grit with no finish at all. In that case, a single coat of just about any top coat will do. Deft is a decent one if you are a fan of laquer (and it smells better than shellac!)

get some carnuba wax and melt it into a solid lump (let it cool and harden). Get the work spinning Good and fast onthe lathe, and apply the lump of wax until it generates enough friction to melt a thin layer onto the piece. Let it cool for a minute, and apply a soft rag (or similar buffer - use appropriate cautions to keep the fingers attached), and buff it up. Glass like, hard finish that can be applied as fast as you can move the hunk of wax. I use this for all kinds of work - bowls, wands, pretty much anything that ins't going into a larger piece.

another method of application (if you're carefull) is to take a largish rag, and fold it up into a fairly narrow band. Sprinkle carnuba wax flakes into the rag as you fols it, so that the inside of the folds are full of wax flakes. Once again, apply the rag to the spinning piece, and the heat will melt the wax and it will seep through the rag onto the work......

note that Carnuba wax has a fairly high melting point - I don't know what it is, but its high enough to be markedy uncomfortable if it drips on your hand when liquid......

--JD

About 80C or 175F. If it's pure carnauba then when it gets hard it's harder than concrete.

I remember my first encounter with it--I expected it to be, well, _wax_, not something with the general demeanor of a rock.

Hello JD,

Chemistry is a bit of a hobby for me and I noticed your post about Carnauba wax. This is a bit of info from one of my articles on waxes that is on point:

Carnauba wax is the hardest natural vegetable wax, with a penetration of only 2 dmm at 25 degrees Centigrade and only 3 dmm at 43.3 degrees Centigrade. It is brittle and non-tacky with a melting point of approximately 84 degrees Centigrade. This wax produces a very high gloss and is frequently used to increase the melting point, gloss level, durability and lubricity of other waxes.

If you would like to read the complete article (very comprehensive article on various waxes), point your browser to the following:

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Thanks and all the best to you and yours!

With just shellac I have found the finish to gum up and become uneven. That is, if you try to work the finish for more than 20 seconds. Try 2 parts shellac to 1 part mineral oil..... It's basically motorized french polish. The oil gravitates to the top and lubricates. The shellac migrates to the bottom. You can keep working it while the shellac sets up. Just wipe off the oil after the shellac has hardened up.

It will give you a very quick (minutes) very glossy finish (if that's what you want)

-Steve

I also am mostly using the CA and Boiled Linseed Oil (CA/BLO) approach for pens. The durability is good and its relatively easy to do. I've also had decent luck with Behlens Woodturner finish which is even easier, but might not be as long lasting as the CA/BLO approach. Either way I finish up with a wax. Carnauba is good, but Renaissance seems to be a bit better.

Sorry if the shows up twice.... I waited a day

With just shellac I have found the finish to gum up and become uneven. That is, if you try to work the finish for more than 20 seconds. Try 2 parts shellac to 1 part mineral oil..... It's basically motorized french polish. The oil gravitates to the top and lubricates. The shellac migrates to the bottom. You can keep working it while the shellac sets up. Just wipe off the oil after the shellac has hardened up.

It will give you a very quick (minutes) very glossy finish (if that's what you want)

-Steve

Hey Steve, Both the same with me. Shellac neat tends to gum up and sometimes I wait a day and don't know if everybody else but me got my post or what. I thought it was just WebTv, but I guess not. :)

Turn to Safety, Arch Fortiter

I think it's a teranews thing ....what do you want for nothing but a $4 setup fee. I may have to get out the wallet crowbar.

I had been using newsguy, but they moved facilities over the holidays and apparently had quite the worst-case scenario. They were down for a week and hobbled for nearly a month. As an IT guy, it was a bit like watching a bus crash (I had to look). My subscription has since lapsed.

So I have found teranews to be a pretty good backup for the price.... but really finicky on posts.

-Steve

I use CA over BLO (no need to wait for it to dry, just soak, wipe, polish and CA, then polish at high speed to 12000) and carnauba wax over that. Shines like fine crystal and the finish on the barrel will outlast (for me, anyways) the finish on the metal parts.

YMMV but that is what seems to work best for me.

Bill

Thanks for the information fellows. I haven't been ignoring you as I've been reading the replies 3 or 4 times a day. I have a U.V. outfit for putting on a finish but the U.V. will not stick to phenolic without an epoxy sealer so that takes longer than spraying automotive finish. When building a cue I don't mind having to take a few days or a week to apply and rub out a good finish but often people come in just to have a shaft made or a butt cap replaced and this repair work needs a finish on the end of the shaft where it meets the butt of the cue. It needs to be fairly durable and look good, quickly. I know those words don't fit together, good and quickly. I have been using thin CA for a finish on these shafts for some time but as a little time expires this finish seems to break down badly. It turns white and chips and peels badly. Maybe I'm using the wrong CA or my technique is wrong but I have quit using it and that's the reason I am looking for a substitute. Thanks, Dick

That's something worth trying, but one thing does immediately come to mind- how old is your shellac? I did find that when it was very fresh, it works great, but the can that I have had for a year or two now no longer will set up properly at all, and becomes gummy and uneven just as you've described. Could have been old shellac- but if that *is* the case, the mineral oil is a superb tip. Being sort of on the poor end of the income spectrum, finding a way to rejuvinate my

3/4 full can of shellac would be great.

Ahhh...

Yeah, stay away from shellac for pool cues, of course. Maybe it's different in your neck of the woods, but around here, pool is a drinking game, and alcohol will dissolve that finish in a matter of seconds.

Give a can of Deft a try- you'll need to clean up with laquer thinner, but I've found it to be not only quick, but reasonably attractive as well- and it has a long shelf life. I don't know exactly how long, but there was a can in my basement when I bought my house over two years ago from a 90 year old lady, and when I tested it out, it's still working well. Odds are the stuff is thirty years old or better. (I'm only the third owner of the place since it was built in 1946, and all political correctness aside, I can't see that nice old lady down in the basement clearcoating stuff with laquer- she was still pretty spry, but there was obviously some arthritis going on when we signed the closing papers.)

Oil won't rejuvenate partially cured shellac. All it does is lubricate the rag. Old shellac is useful for tack cloths, but not at all as a wood finish.

Prometheus could end up with a lot of tack rags! But George is right, old shellac is otherwise useless as side pockets on a pig.

IIRC, the traditional way to check shellac is to spill a bit onto a flat surface and let it dry overnight. If it's hard in the morning, it's still good. If it's soft, it's old.

Hmmm. Maybe I'm a can of shellac. I'm getting a bit soft and just turned 50 a couple weeks ago. ;-)

...Kevin

It's not an old shellac issue. The gummines comes bcause the finish dries too fast ... not to slow. IME, when I put just shellac on a spinning turing, the finish starts to cure in about 15 seconds. Inside of a minute, it's thick and sticky. This stickyness causes more friction, and consequently heat, which causes the finish to firm up even faster.

The problem is with the "sticky" property. I find that it tends to clump up the shellac, the opposite of having it flow out. The result is thick and thin bands of finish around the axis of rotation. It's basically a violation of the "keep a wet edge" rule of shellac application. But keeping a wet edge on a spining object tends to spray shellac everywhere (my low speed ain't that low).

The solution is to add mineral oil to lubricate, just like a french polish.

-Steve