Parson
Member
A while back I saw a thread by Kaspar (now closed) that said the pen he made was homage to Gisi, which I didn't understand until I googled Mark Gisi and found his web site and saw the complexity and precision of his pen making.
Some viewers of that thread stated they thought Gisi's work is too busy but I thought it was downright amazing and wanted to make similar pens immediately! I've always thought that the more complicated the project, the more satisfying it would be when I successfully completed it.
So, I set out to make a similar design to the one that Mark made and posted called "Arts and Crafts."
The pen pictured here is what I completed over the weekend with my friend Dan in his wood working shop. We did not use modeler's tools, but now see the need for them with this kind of intricate laminating and segmenting.
It's a sterling silver Sedona kit from arizona pens and the wood is amboyna burl (bought a chunk of it off eBay and ripped it down). We used three types of diamondwood (CS USA) and a mixed resin from exoticblanks.com. The white bits are from a yard sign (beware of dog) and the black segments is pick guard from a guitar supply store I found online.
We calculated that there's about 40 man hours in this pen and the use of a table saw, ban saw, sander, chop saw, radial arm saw, vice, lathe, digital calipers, lots of sandpaper, and we finished it with boiled linseed oil and medium CA glue.
If it were not for my friend Dan and his patience and thousands in equipment and knowledge of their use, I'd still be looking at catalogs and wishing I could get into this hobby. Dan and I both turned our first pen in January 2009 by the way.
Some viewers of that thread stated they thought Gisi's work is too busy but I thought it was downright amazing and wanted to make similar pens immediately! I've always thought that the more complicated the project, the more satisfying it would be when I successfully completed it.
So, I set out to make a similar design to the one that Mark made and posted called "Arts and Crafts."
The pen pictured here is what I completed over the weekend with my friend Dan in his wood working shop. We did not use modeler's tools, but now see the need for them with this kind of intricate laminating and segmenting.
It's a sterling silver Sedona kit from arizona pens and the wood is amboyna burl (bought a chunk of it off eBay and ripped it down). We used three types of diamondwood (CS USA) and a mixed resin from exoticblanks.com. The white bits are from a yard sign (beware of dog) and the black segments is pick guard from a guitar supply store I found online.
We calculated that there's about 40 man hours in this pen and the use of a table saw, ban saw, sander, chop saw, radial arm saw, vice, lathe, digital calipers, lots of sandpaper, and we finished it with boiled linseed oil and medium CA glue.
If it were not for my friend Dan and his patience and thousands in equipment and knowledge of their use, I'd still be looking at catalogs and wishing I could get into this hobby. Dan and I both turned our first pen in January 2009 by the way.
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