656 piece segmented pen

[John M. Smith]

Here is a picture of a segmented pen I finished turning today. It is made up of 656 pieces of walnut and maple, with a CA finish. C & C welcome.
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[Rick Markham]

Wow! That's awesome John. How did you cut them so small? By hand?

[Rodney Walker]

Looks fantastic. No way I would have either the patience or the eyesight to tackle something like that. My hat's off to you.
Rodney

[Mark Hubl]

Crazy! Man it is like there are segmentalists and then there are really really really small segmentalists! Nice.

[John M. Smith]

Rick, I first ripped long strips at 11.25 degrees. I then glued 16 strips into a long cane. I then cut 5 inch pieces off those and bored them for the pen tube. Then i set up on the table saw and cut .061" slices of the cane pieces. the I stacked up the different pieces on a mandrel to glue them together. Should have taken more photos i guess.

[Michelle Rich]

super segmentation..quite skillful

[Doug W Swanson]

Wow. That's super cool!

[Bernie Weishapl]

That is just to cool. My eyes and patience would be tested.

[Greg Just]

That's cool but Not for the beginner!

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Awesome. The only negative? Only we woodworkers/turners can appreciate how difficult and skillful this is!! The ordinary "Joe" just says, "yeah, nice pen." Argggh! Great job John, incredible patience and craftsmanship.

[James Combs]

Awesome. The only negative? Only we woodworkers/turners can appreciate how difficult and skillful this is!! The ordinary "Joe" just says, "yeah, nice pen." Argggh! Great job John, incredible patience and craftsmanship.

+1 for what Jeff said.

[Steve Schlumpf]

That is amazing! I can not image working with pieces that small... let alonne creating the pieces in the first place! I have seen some of the segmented pen kits out there but this is a major step above! Very nice work!

[cal thelen]

Wow simply unbelievable. that is one cool pen.

[Jim Burr]

There is no way to comprehend the effort to make that...my hat is off to you John!!

[Grant Wilkinson]

I thought that I had done some neat segmenting. I am well and truly humbled. Incredible!

[Scott Hackler]

Very cool indeed!

[Sid Matheny]

Holy eye strain penman!!! Very very cool!

Sid

[ray hampton]

+1 for what Jeff said.

just reading about this Pen make me so tire

[John M. Smith]

Thanks for all the compliments. I had the design for this done months ago. Finally got some time this week and got it done. I only wish I had taken more pictures. It's not as hard as it appears. I will take more pictures on the next one I do. I already have an idea in mind. Hope it doesn't take me months to get the next one started. I will start a step by step thread when I do that one.

[Eric Gourieux]

"Incredible" doesn't do this justice. I'm looking forward to your step-by-step. I don't do much segmenting, but it would be an interesting process to see.

[Donny Lawson]

That's what you call patience. I don't have that much. Great work.

[Mike Golka]

That's some really great segmenting, well done.

[Scott Lux]

Amazing! Just amazing.

[mark ravensdale]

Wow that's real nice!!!
i make a pen blank last year with over 500 pieces but just in a checker-board pattern and I thought that was finicky/tedious to make, if I was wearing a hat right now I would take it off to you ;-)
not turned the one I made yet (too scared of breaking it ;-)

[John M. Smith]

Thanks again everyone. This was a very fun project. I am already designing my next one!

Mark Ravensdale-500 pieces in a checkerboard pattern!!!!!! WOW!!!!! That really increases the difficulty to align all the joints up. Mine is laid up in a brickwork type pattern. Helps to hide any misalignments. I wouldn't worry about turning it, mine turned like butter as you are turning always with the grain.

[Ken Glass]

John,
Amazing work. My fingers ache just looking at it. You must have great patience......

[John Terefenko]

Rick, I first ripped long strips at 11.25 degrees. I then glued 16 strips into a long cane. I then cut 5 inch pieces off those and bored them for the pen tube. Then i set up on the table saw and cut .061" slices of the cane pieces. the I stacked up the different pieces on a mandrel to glue them together. Should have taken more photos i guess.


Hello John

I tried to get you to answer some of these questions on the IAP site. I see you did so here so I am hoping you come back to the pen site and show us more of your work. If you do a photo tutorial of your next one that would be the place to post it. There is now a segmenting forum setup just for work such as this. Hope you do join in there. Pens are what we are about there.

With that said, I do not know your terminology. When you say cut on an angle I am assuming these are staves??? What size are the staves??? I am looking for a jig to do this for some time now. Also you mention cane. What is a cane??? Sure wish you did take more photos. Thanks for showing.

[Curt Fuller]

That's an amazing pen! And thanks for the explanation of how you did it. I can somewhat understand the process, but the tiny size is what blows my mind. I'm trying to visualize what kind of saw and jigs, etc that you use to cut .061" thick pieces or even more the process of cutting the strips to create the tube that you cut the rings from. I would call that just shaving a hair off and the piece would disappear in the breeze created by the saw blade.

[John M. Smith]

Curt, I used a full size table saw with a Forrest 40 tooth blade. When I cut the strips, the piece I wanted was actually the piece I cut off. I rally should have taken photos. i have a hard time putting what I do into words. Been working with wood for my full time job for 30 years so a lot of this comes pretty naturally for me.

[Kim Smith]

I have an amazing Husband who is very skillful in his craft! I've always said he could turn a piece of wood into Gold if he wanted to!