Bob,
I think it probably a fair assessment to say that I make more than the average number of pens, and my methods are more commercially orientated, ie if it isnt perfect it doesnt get fixed it gets binned. I put three, sometimes four coats of CA, neat, on to a blank sanded once with 240 grit rotating as the lathe slows and then with the grain. I dont use cones, I dont polish bushes or put wax on them. Because I only put three or four coats on the glue doesnt get excessively thick across the ends of the blanks. Many here would disagree with me but CA glue isnt very good, it doesnt stick to metal very well at all. I simply hold the bush in a pair of pliers and a slight , very small bit of presure cracks the glue over the bushes. The only wood that I dont do this with is Cocobolo, being very oily the adhesion to the blank is not as good and the glue is not as consistent breaking over the bushes, on this occasion I use a knife blade to score the glue and that works.
Polishing with Silvo after micromesh is without doubt a retrograde step. Silvo has a grit value quite course relative to the top micromesh grades, which incidentally are not graded on the same scale as normal sandpaper so never sand to 1200 with wet and dry and then start out with 1500 micromesh, you are going backwards, 1500 micromesh is somewhere between 400 and 600 grit sandpaper scale.
Paul is spot on about the delamination near the top, the likely cause is incorrect alignment when assembling the pen.
You Tube should come with a public health warning, literally. Theres some really good stuff but also a lot of crap.
