Possibly more aimed at Phil as he seems to be the main man for melamine finishes, or Walter, but having tried to get a good finish with melamine on my last few pens, I'm still struggling to get that perfect finish. One thing I've noticed is that when disassembling the newly melamine coated blank from the bushes, the melamine on the ends is a little stick and wipe offable...which shows just how long this stuff can take to go off.
I'm in no rush to make some pens, so my thought is to follow the Phil method and get the best possible finish. Apparently this stuff takes 28 days to fully cure so I'm wondering if perhaps after 28 days it can be put back on the lathe for a little de nib work, possibly with the micro mesh?
When using ca I get an unbelievably smooth shiny finish...but mainly after sanding to 12000 grit. This isn't possible straight away with the melamine as it's too soft initially. I'm therefore wondering if 28 days after applying it could be put through the same micro mesh process as the ca...but having little experience with melamine I've no idea if this would actually work.
Be interesting to get a few thoughts on this...I've simply no idea what the difference is between freshly applied melamine and 28 day old melamine is.
