Kevin writes:

I have got my little paws on some nice black walnut and I have been
considering buying the Beale (or some other) set of buffing wheels but
am unsure of when to use. My bowl making procedure when I have a
REALLY NICE piece of wood is:

Turn to shape.
Sand to around 240 to 320.
Watco Danish oil (or not)
Wet sand with 320 and some Watco. Let dry.
Wet sand with 400 and some Watco. Let dry.
Wet sand with 500 and some Watco. Let dry.
Apply shellac.

When the wood is somewhat less than ideal, I sand to 320, oil, let dry
and then shellac.

I am guessing that the buffing would not come in until after all
sanding is complete (duh!) but before the shellac. Comments
appreciated.

The three wheels a coarse polish, fine polish, wax.

If you're going to shellac, you can use the first two wheels between
sanding and shellacing, but I suspect that's a waste of time - the
shellac would have covered up any defects that buffing would buff out
anyway, and you want to make sure you don't leave buffing compound on
the wood. Plus, you don't want to get buffing compound in the pores
of the wood, then seal it in with shellac.

So, IMHO, shellac then buff/wax.

Also, make sure the shellac is DRY. I mean hard dry, not finger-touch
dry.

Also, you should practice on a piece of scrap wood. A flat chunk
about 2" wide is sufficient.