Slowly starting up again

It's been quite a while since I posted so here's my first cigar kit. Blank is from Rockler - my first attempt at back painting the blank using white enamel.
Question: The 1st pic shows a nice straight light reflection, but in the rest of the pics the reflection lines have a ripple. I was wondering if the barrels were perfectly straight & checked with a straight metal edge. Would appreciate any comments.

Great looking pen.

Beautiful work! I really like the blank you used.

As for the reflection, that can only be caused by variations in the surface. I am still very new to this and still learning how to make a perfectly straight cut with lathe tools.

Until then, when I start getting close to the bushings I use a sanding block to touch the pen and it will highlight the high spots, I then clean up with my skew.

Sometimes I still cant get it right and part of the finishing process is using a sanding block until it is even, then remove the scratches and continue with my normal finishing routine.

Obviously this only works with blanks which are intended to be level.

The pen looks great. For unevenness you should be able to feel with your fingers

Nice. I expect that is one of those blanks that looks amazing turned and on a pen but when looking at the raw blank you kind of wonder.

Very nice looking pen!