When I was carving it, my plan was to leave it virgin because I thought that would look sweet with the cumberland mouthpiece, but now that I'm done, I'm not really liking it that way.
Being as this is my first blast, I have a few questions:
- Is it too late to start staining now?
- If not, what is the process for post-stain polish and wax? Do I still hit it with red tripoli and white diamond, or just proceed straight to wax?
- How do I get the buffing compound and/or carnuba down into the nooks and crannies of the blast? And then once it's down in there, how do I make sure that it spreads around and doesn't cake up in the valleys?
- If I skip the polishes and go straight to wax, I'm guessing that I probably want to use a lighter stain than I would on a smooth because I won't be rubbing some of the color off on my wheel. Is that a sound assumption?
My feeling is that I probably want to skip the polishes since it would likely round down some of the craggy-ness of the blast. As for the waxing stage, my best idea so far is to work the wax deep into the stummel by pushing the it into the waxed wheel with a good amount of force, then hit it with the heat gun before proceeding to the buff. Crazy idea, or good solution?
Dan
