I can try to post some info on how I've been using them. Not too long ago, someone shared a video of a guy who created a little pen buffing tool that makes it easier. I turned one of those, and its made buffing pretty much a breeze. There isn't all that much to it, basically hold and rotate the finished blank against the wheel with a moderate amount of pressure, and buff until you are satisfied. There is some technique, and you'll get a feel for it once you start doing it, and over time you'll get better and better. Overall, though, its primarily about buffing against teh scratches (so if you sand with the lathe on, then you'll have radial scratches, so you want to hold the blank such that the length of the blank is in line with the wheel, and you'll clear out those remnant sanding scratches in a jiffy). Keep the blank moving, rotate it, adjust the angle a bit here and there, keep it moving, and you;ll end up with a brilliantly crystal clear shine in the end.
I try to use three wheels: one loaded with WD (white diamond), a white bar rouge, the next loaded with blue rouge (ultra fine finishing rouge), the final an unloaded (clean, no compound) for cleanup and final shine. Buff with the WD a bit, then the blue, then clean it off and your good to go. This little tool (I'll get some pics tomorrow) is super handy, and makes it so much safer and easier to buff (effectively eliminates the risk of the blank getting ripped out of your hands by the wheel when you catch the top edge, which is all but guarantee to be a blank ender!) For your kitless pen designs, you might need to think about the exact design of how you might want to turn such a tool, but its an easy turn. I just bought a cheap $2 dowel at home depot and made it out of that.
as well as a pic I took this morning using original wheels. I would apologize for the sloppy work area, but all my work areas are this sloppy. 
