Sort of reminds me of black palm, which is what I use for all my display pens... that way clients could concentrate on the choice of pens and not the blanks... the choice of blanks came later.... (damn, that close up shot revealed some left over sanding marks undetected by normal eye... gotta downgrade the camera or upgrade my sanding).
Only 12 coats of CA??? This black palm cigar has been in my top pocket mostly for the last 14 years, The gold plating has worn off and I've only buffed it up once in all those years... I use 20 coats... those extra 8 coats got me an extended 5.6 years of shine (according to my slide rule calculations). Don't care what those naysayers say... plenty of coats of CA, properly applied, gets plenty of years of longevity.
If your first cut is too short... Take the second cut from the longer end... LBD