Service Medal Ribbon Pen

[spilperson]

Folks,

my dad asked me a few months ago to make a PSI Civil War pen for one of his buddies who is a Vietnam vet. I wanted to make it special. My first idea was to make the whole length of the pen a replica of the service ribbon, but when I laid it out in SketchUp it looked a little over the top.

So idea two was to scale the service ribbon colors down and put it in between some nice wood. I had some nice redwood burl blanks, so I used one of those. The result is attached.

When I get a few more minutes I will write up a page long guide that gives the widths of the bands, etc.

I would also like to try the same for some of the more recent military activities - we have no lack of them it seems. Different pen kits, too.

Anyway, comments appreciated!

Frank

 

[renowb]

Nice job! I like military related pens.

 

[Atherton Pens]

Frank,
I would be interested in the measurements and materials. I'm a Vietnam Vet and would like to make something similar. Great looking pen. I guess in some ways the Civil War pen and the service ribbon are "related". I'll bet the vet will love it!

 

[navycop]

So that is a segment? Looks like a decal.

 

[spilperson]

So that is a segment? Looks like a decal.

Hmmm, not sure if that is a compliment or what!

But yes, it is a segment. I ordered some of the solid color blanks from PSI, sliced off the required thicknesses, and glued it back together, then tacked on a chunk of lumber at each end.

I will post something with the exact dimensions this weekend. If I have the info for any of the other ribbons I will include it.

By the way, if you look closely it seems to me that the two narrower yellow sections in the center picked up some of the red color. I don't know if that is real or an optical illusion, any ideas welcome.

 

[spilperson]

Frank,
I guess in some ways the Civil War pen and the service ribbon are "related".

This particular guy is a gun lover, and my dad originally just asked for a Civil War pen after he saw one I made for someone else. I happen to know that the person is also a vet, so I just thought it was a good fit. For all I know the guy may not like the idea! Somehow I am thinking he will, though. I did offer to make it a bullet pen or a shotgun pen, but he (my dad) wanted the CW pen. Now that I have the practice I will branch out though.

By the way, the dimensions are taken from the service medal description on Wikipedia, scaled in half.