It has been about 10 years that I've occasionally turned wooden pen kits. I got many helpful tips through this Forum. I am going to show a few of my own latest practices, just in case you all would benefit from those ideas.
I like to get interesting wood out of scraps. I usually get it to a rough-sawn prism shape, and I'm happy if I get 2 faces more or less perpendicular to each other. Once that's done, a cross-cut jig on the table-saw doubles as a perpendicular boring fixture for the Shopsmith "weapons grade" horizontal boring machine:
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Lately, instead of making octogons on the bandsaw, I just set the blank into a couple of pen-turning bushings, and spoke-shave it to a semi-round status in the vise. This saves wear and tear at the turning mandrel:
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At the point of rough-turning, you may note some oddities here. One is that the area is vacuumed frequently. This way, if a fresh blow-out happens, it's easier to find the wood fragment and glue it back on. Another is the small Channelock pliers there. Those are used to untighten the brass mandrel-nut quite frequently. When turning down a rough blank, the nut & blanks tend to "wind up" a lot. I like to loosen them and rotate them often to help with trueness and concentricity:
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Next, after sanding to at least 600-grit, I like to switch to EE Ultrashine for pumice/rottenstone fine polishing action. In the past, I would follow the instructions to the letter and use *only* Shellawax after EE Ultrashine. Lately, I just cleanse-off the EE Ultra Shine wax residue with mineral spirits. Then I can proceed to any other finish I like:
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My favorite finish in recent months is Doctor's Woodshop Pens Plus friction shellac (virtually smell-free compared to Shellawax). This shine thrives best if the application gets pretty warm, so I use 2000rpm at least.
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After final assembly, I like Angelus clear Shoe Wax. It's pretty slick and it doesn't have an irritating smell (I've really been trying to keep down the petro-odors in the shop lately).
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Happy Woodworking!
Chris