http://www.pipendoge.de/Blowfish_info.htm

1. Sand to 220 on the wheel. 2. Wet the pipe. If there are still scratches, return to step 1 and repeat. If there are no scratches move on to step 3. 3. Sand with 400 on the wheel. This wheel should be soft and leave few to no facets. 4. After sanding on [...]]]> http://www.pipemakersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=5029&hilit=shellac

1. Sand to 220 on the wheel.
2. Wet the pipe. If there are still scratches, return to step 1 and repeat. If there are no scratches move on to step 3.
3. Sand with 400 on the wheel. This wheel should be soft and leave few to no facets.
4. After sanding on the wheel with 400, sand by hand with a worn out piece of 400 (or you could use 500).
5. Apply the dark stain until it’s basically opaque.
5. Buff the dark stain off evenly using brown tripoli. If there are any remaining scratches, buff them out now.
6. Sand again using the same piece of worn out 400. You should be wearing a cotton glove on your non sanding hand or the sweat from your hand will reanimate the stain dust and put color back on the pipe. This is the most important step to achieve high contrast, so sand carefully and evenly.
7. Stain over the dark stain with a lighter stain (I usually use Yellow) and try to do it in one single pass. Do not overlap your strokes if you can avoid it or you’ll lift the dark stain and create one uniform mottled color. You don’t want that.
8. Take the same pipecleaner, dip it in a little shellac that’s been cut with alcohol and apply a single coat of shellac to the pipe. You can let it set up and dry, or you can wipe it off. If you wipe it off, though, you’ll lighten the color significantly.
9. With a different tripoli wheel that’s very lightly charged with compound, buff the pipe lightly. You should not remove any color, here. It should just give the pipe a nice even shine.
10. Buff with white diamond.
11. Buff with wax at around 650 RPM’s. If you buff at a higher speed with wax, you’ll need to buff with a clean wheel afterwards to even the finish.

*Steps 8-11 must be done while wearing gloves or you’ll never get a deep glossy finish.