Today I received a few things from Tryphon, including their 1 oz. Polish Kit. I've got a few pens that needed some sprucing up, and I didn't want to buy a vat of polish that I'd never use.

The kit includes a scratch remover, an lighter polish, and a cleaner-protectant. I decided to work on an Esterbrook J and a Parker 45. Both were in pretty good shape to start with -- only a couple minor scratches and some surface wear.

I started with the scratch remover. I removed the cap ring from the 45, as I didn't want to polish off the plating. The directions say to wipe on, let dry for a few seconds, then buff off. I did this about 3 times with each pen, spending maybe 20 minutes total.

Then I used the polish. I did pretty much the same thing, spending maybe 10 minutes with this step.

Finally I used the cleaner to shine them up. After a few quick wipes, both pens were looking great. The cleaner really did bring out the shine, especially on the metal parts. You can still see a couple scratches, but just barely. I think a bit more time with the scratch remover and polish would fix this.

I should note that I used a microfiber cloth with the polish. I expect you could get faster results out of some sort of polishing wheel, but I'm a bit wary of "too much tool for the job".

I was pretty impressed with this kit. For $15, it seems like a decent deal to me. You don't get tons of polish, but it'll be a long time before I need more. Polishing anything is mostly an exercise in patience, but these seem like decent products. Tryphon's shipping was cheap and swift. (The usual disclaimer applies; no affiliation with the seller, etc.).

I'll try to get some pictures posted, but my meager photography skills might not show much.

There is a discussion in the repair forum about wheels. I think the punch line is that they are too fast. You need a low RPM wheel unless you really know what you are doing.

Did Tryphon send you an XP Polish sample? That is really good stuff!

So, the cleaner is used after the polish?

No, this kit didn't come with any. I've read that it's pretty good. Is it very aggressive? The scratch remover in this kit seems fairly mild. If you had serious scratches, I think you'd want something that cuts a bit faster.

XP is mellower than the scratch remover.

Here are some pictures. This is the entire kit, shown with an Esterbrook J.


Here are the pens after polishing. Not much good without a "before" shot, but trust me, they look better.


Close-up on the 45:


Bonus shot of the pen rack I cobbled together, with most of my current collection:

That's what I did. The cleaner seems to remove oils and dirt, and rubs off cleanly to leave the surface shiny. I expect you'd only need the scratch remover and polish if you actually wanted to smooth the surface.

I am far from an expert, however.