Some like their pens slick and gleaming.  We are not big fans of highly polished pens, especially since recourse to the buffing wheel has left too many pens looking like melted popsicles (see our cautions in Pen Repair Don'ts ). Nonetheless, a bit of polishing can do a lot for the appearance of many pens, and in most cases best results come from doing it by hand.  Popular polishing compounds include metal polishes such as Simichrome and Wenol, though plastic polishing compounds such as Novus (available in auto parts stores) may be a better choice in most instances.  If a pen has deep scratches, it is best to start with a medium-fine grade of abrasive paper, moving step by step through ever finer grades until the final polish is achieved.  If the same treatment is attempted using just one grade of abrasive (as with a buffing wheel), laminates and other multicolored materials may develop an uneven, rippled surface due to differential removal of harder and softer materials.

In recent years, many collectors have embraced waxing of pens. While this would appear to offer net protective benefits for hard rubber and casein-based plastics, the situation is less clear for celluloid.  A relatively impermeable layer of wax would help exclude moisture, but would also restrict free venting of the acidic byproducts that aging celluloid naturally produces.  On balance, it is likely that waxing of celluloid pens will do more harm than good when it comes to long-term preservation.