The guilloche (gee-oh-SHAY) is applied to the pen barrels by hand cranking a Neuweiler and Engelsberger straight line engine turning machine. Here you see the tube mounted and the bit carving out sterling. The entire tube moves up and down and left and right as a guide follows the pattern. So one cut is made from the top to the bottom of the barrel  (mechanical stops mark the beginning and the end of the cut). The barrel is then rotated 1/96 of a revolution and another cut is made.  Notice too that the consecutive cuts shift a bit up or down where 8 shifts are actually required to do a pattern. So eight cuts then form the pattern that is then repeated 12 times around the pen. 

Rich is making a cut. His left hand is rotating a wheel that moves the barrel up down following the pattern. His right hand applies pressure to the cutting bit. Once a pass is complete, the small lever on the upper right rotates the barrel.  96 cuts later the barrel is done.

Note that the shavings are packaged with your pen. It is yours after all!

The cap follows the same manufacturing process as the barrel. Mount it in a different fitting in the engraving machine.  Set the top and bottom stops and begin to make a cut. The cap uses the same pattern but we have left some areas bare sterling. This design decision, we feel, ties the barrel to cap in a free flowing way and also allows the beauty of the Conway Stewart sterling to be more pronounced.