On the left, you see a CA Glue finish. This is pretty common in the pen turning world, but I’m not the biggest fan of it. You have a very limited amount of work time and once you’re done, the pen feels plastic. Which makes sense, but what’s the point in a wooden pen if you can’t feel the wood?

I do make CA finished pens, but they will be less common.

CA Glue finished also have a risk of “shattering” with large temperature or humidity changes, or if dropped. I don’t mean shatter like an explosion, but shatter like you hit a car window with a hammer. At that point, the finish can flake off and you’ll be left with raw wood that will hold every speck of oil from your skin and piece of dirt on your hands. I can not fix this without completely taking the pen back to bare wood. That’s doable if something happens, but there will be a charge.

On the right, you see a Burnished Finish pen. I primarily use Doctor’s Woodshop Pens Plus finish. It is a mixture of Walnut Oil and Shellac. I typically put 4-5 coats which should provide a beautiful finish that will last, without making it feel like you’re holding a $0.12 BIC pen. (I promise I hold no ill will towards BIC.)

For people with Tree Nut Allergies: This pen should be safe for you to use, as the allergic reactions are triggered by the protein in tree nuts which are almost completely eliminated in the refinement process.

However, I’m not an allergyologist. If you’re known to be allergic to tree nuts or shellacs, reach out to me about making you a pen with a different finish!

You will also see and FEEL the grain and irregularities of the wood. If you look closely at the picture, you can see how the finish dips into the grain valleys. I COULD burnish over this until it was completely filled in and flat, but again, these are wood pens and I like to feel that I’m actually holding wood.

• Do not chew on these pens. I have not personally run human trials to know if they are safe to eat, so I’m going with a full tilt NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION label on all of my pens.

• These pens are not hammers, nails, tacks, darts, or anything but a writing utensil and conversation piece. If you do anything other than write with these pens, or show them off to folks, any damage they incur will be on you.

• I will repeat this section from the FAQs page: These pens are not rated for snorkeling, scuba diving, booger picking, for use as a hammer, planning world domination, or anything that requires a NSFW tag on reddit.

• I hope you love everything about your pen. However if something isn’t right, please reach out to me before doing anything else. If it’s damaged through no fault of your own, we’ll get it sorted out. However if you used it as a flaming arrow at Helm’s Deep, well that’s on you.