August Pens are made from natural wood, and as such contain all of natural wonder of grain and the imperfection that come with this. We try not to use any artificial finishes, instead we use natural oil, (tung or danish oil predominately), then over this we coat with a shellac for a rich gloss finish, then to top off, numerous coats of waxes. Certain woodtypes require a lacquer or polyurethane finishes these are only used with wood that has a tendency to flake, such as Palm Wood which has a grain almost like blades on grass overlaying each other which tend to delaminate if we don’t use an encapsulating finish.