Pen Update, New Sliders and more...
ClickShift Pen (about the lateness...)
I have a bunch of things to share with you in this blog post.
But first, I'd like to cover the very (VERY!) late Titanium ClickShift pens. Here's a video update for those of you who are waiting for the 27-day pre-order ClickShift pens:
If you didn't watch the above video (or simply don't understand my accent :-D), then here's what I covered:
-- The pens are late and I am really sorry about this!
-- The main reason was the pens were coming off inconsistent with the steel mechanism - so I changed to a zirconium mechanism. This has been a massive improvement (with every pen coming off excellently).
-- The pens are being produced right now - but they are still going to be later than they are now. I am not going to give a specific date (I have been late on projects before and, if I pass this date and they're not shipped, people start to get irritated - and rightly so!)
-- What I will do is give you constant updates (at MINIMUM once a week here as a blog post) of where we're at
-- I have no excuses for the lateness and I can only learn as best I can from this going forward!
"V8" and "Sandwich" Sliders
I also did a pre-order on the "V8" Sliders. These are going well and will start shipping out tomorrow morning (or perhaps this morning by the time you read this).
The "Sandwich" sliders pre-order is still on track too.
Trying Brass Plates (Again!)
Two years ago - when I first got into designing and making sliders -- I started with brass plates (which in and of itself was new and novel as pretty much everyone from were just gluing magnets in and not putting them behind a plates).
Brass plates had two issues:
-- Most people (but not all) would get black fingers from touching the plates. This didn't bother a lot of people ...but it certainly bothered me
-- The plates would get an oxide layer building up on them over time and they would become a little slow and sticky (which was another thing that bothered me)
The ultimate solution was two different types of plate material. One material was Zirconium (which took me about a year to really get dialed-in and consistent) ...and Telfon.
But here's the thing:
I still get asked for Brass plates often. I never totally gave up on them. I tried making them in the same style as our flat, dimples plates we make the Zirconium and Teflon - but I just couldn't seem to get it to work.
However, a few weeks ago, I designed a new plate shape where there are no dimples ...but, instead, there are four very low "peaks" (one on each corner) ...and the rest of the plate is smooth.
The results so far seem very promising. The plates do get a little scratched looking - but it doesn't seem to affect the smoothness at all.
The clicking is VERY nice and when you rotate the slider around (or "laddering" as it's called) it's super-fast.
The only downside (to my mind at least) is that your fingers can still get black from the Brass. But, like I said, some people don't seem to care about this.
Here's a video about the Brass plates:
NEW Slider Design
A NEW Slider Designer/Maker I'd Like To Promote
Life and Quotes
for what could be more fitting?" - Marcus Aurelius
It has been 10 days since any update on the ClickShift Pen. Will you please provide us with an updated Blog Post?
Thank you.
Julian’s first slider (which is destined to be a collector’s item) is beautifully designed, innovative, and well thought out and uniquely his own but I can see your influence in it as well. The time he spent with you learning, iterating, pursuing his vision of what he wanted to create, he undoubtedly was learning values from you that will guide him for the rest of his life.
It’s hard enough to create something from a vision and I imagine it is even harder to do it in the shadow of his dad, a recognized master craftsman in the fidget genre, but Julian’s Vertex slider stands on its own.
Julian, at 13 years of age, creating a fidget of such high quality and bringing it to market; not only demonstrates technical skill beyond his years, but shows the discipline, perseverance, integrity, confidence, and accountability he has learned working with you. He’ll be successful at whatever he decides to do, be it fidgets and beyond!
The time you have spent guiding and encouraging Julian resulted in a tangible representation of the special bond of trust, love and respect between a father and a son to the benefit of us all.
Unfortunately for me, his fidget is already sold out so I can’t order one, perhaps taking too much after Dad! I prefer a two-click, but for Julian, I will make the exception and hopefully I can score one of his inaugural fidgets during his next drop!
Anyway, seeing this made my day – congratulations to you both!
Look at how big Julien is! And he’s got his own website and is designing! You must be so proud. Well done for raising such an amazing young man!