Titanium Updates (PLUS “Behind The Scenes” Video)

Titanium Updates (PLUS "Behind The Scenes" Video)

Righty-oh, a few things to cover today...


First up, updates (on late projects):

Current (Late) Projects

I'll be honest here...

Over the last three weeks we have made SIGNIFICANT progress on getting caught up with late projects.

The TiVaults are now 85% machined. 25% of them have been shipped ...and the remaining 75% WILL be shipped over this coming week (starting Thursday) and into a few days next week. They will then be 100% shipped.

The PillPots will be starting after that (these will now we the latest project we're catching up on as the TiVaults will then be finished).

We're machining the CandyCans right now and so they should be shipping soon (they are late - but not as late as the above projects).

The ClickShift pen is late - and this main reason for this is that we're improving the mechanism because, as I mentioned in a previous update, it's achieving less than 10,000 "clicks" before it's starting to get become less smooth - which I'm not that happy with to be honest. (EDIT: Since writing this paragraph yesterday and finishing this blog post today ...we've just blown right through 10,000 clicks ...woohoo!! Will update on this soon.)

The knives I will do an Update on soon (apart from Project ZERO Knife as those customers received a private update the other day).

Again, I really (REALLY!) appreciate your patience if you've been waiting for any of the above products. We really are almost these in catching up (and, hopefully, I actually learn the lesson(s) from this mistake of getting behind!).

One More *Limited Edition* SlideClick...

Recently I started experimenting with anodizing titanium (and actually did a short, limited edition run of Titanium SlideClicks with anodizing)

I did another *Limited Edition* version with a pattern I did just purely for my own amusement. The "squiggle" pattern is a direct contrast to the rest of the knife and it's straight edges...

I call the above pattern the "Squiggle" pattern. As I write this there are eight available and you can check them out by clicking here (towards the bottom of the page).

Utility Blade Storage (5 x Blades)

We released this NEW titanium product a few days ago (and it's been selling VERY well).

It's called the SlideCache™ (click here to check it out) and it stores 5 x standard utility blades in a super-compact size.

"Behind The Scenes" CNC Machining Of The SlideClick™ Utility Blade (Part 1)

I've been wanting to do this for nearly a year...

But we've been so far behind on projects I could never justify it.

However, as I mentioned above, we've being making huge progress and smashing through late projects lately ...and so I thought I could justify making this video.

This is the first part of the making of the SlideClick™ Titanium Utility Blade Knife:

SlideClicks (Limited Edition)

This is not a general update post (I'll do one of those shortly).

This post is ONLY about *Limited Edition* SlideClick - Titanium Utility Blade Knives.

I've made a short video talking about them:

If videos are not your thing, then here are some photos of the two *Limited Edition* Titanium SlideClicks available:

The few I have available have been machined and tumbled. I am currently doing the anodizing and sanding of the flats ...so they will be shipped before the end of the week (maybe even tomorrow depending on how early you get your order in ...and if there are any left!)


Here's the link to the product page:


CLICK HERE to view the *Limited Edition* SlideClicks


P.S. If you're one of the 24 customers who are waiting for a standard SlideClick to be shipped to you (ordered in the last couple of weeks), then they will be shipped tomorrow morning.

Updates and Other Titanium Stuff…

Updates and Other Titanium Stuff...

Okay, a bunch of stuff to cover today. Some of it interesting ...and some of it "meh" (just being honest :-D).

First up, some updates:

TiVault Storage Cache

These have been going very well. We started shipping the first batch last week. We will be shipping the remainder of that batch at the start of next week (around 45 in total).

We took a step back in the way we were making the "keys" for the TiVault (unavailable just now sorry). They were coming off the machine too slow and so we've just finished a new fixture to make eight at a time - this is going to speed us up hugely!

Here's the new fixture:

PillPots

These will be made after the TiVaults are finished.

For anyone waiting on these... I am, again, sorry these continue to be immensely late. I have to make the TiVault first as the that project is even later than the PillPots.

The good news is that the TiVaults are progressing very well and we've been churning them out every day recently. The PillPots will be starting soon.

ClickShift

This ClickShift Titanium Pen is a new-ish project ...and, yes, it's already late.

Here's the truth (in one sentence):

I'm re-designing the internal mechanism because it's not staying smooth for enough clicks.

How many clicks does it do right now?

Somewhere between 8000 and 10,000. I don't think this is enough.

I'm not clicking the pen by hand this many times (although I did initially). I built a testing jig with an aluminium construction set, Arduino electronics and some pneumatic air cylinders. I'm not sure if I posted a photo or video of this jig yet - but I'll post one soon.

The main issue is that the titanium ultimately starts to "pick up" or "gall" as it finally rubs against itself and the mechanism is not smooth (unless you push the lever in while you click it ...but I feel you shouldn't have to do that).

We've been working on it a lot lately and done a decent amount of tweaking of the geometry of the ball. Here's one half-way through being made:

SlideClick

We offered some SlideClicks a while ago. If you missed them, we have a few left from that recent run (we've just about finished the shipping of them if you're still waiting for one that you ordered recently).

Fountain Pen

I recently became a little obsessed with a fountain pen I bought. It was the first fountain pen I've ever used ...and man I have been missing out!

I always assumed (wrongly) that a fountain pen would be inky ...you'd have to wait for the ink to dry ...it would leak in your pocket ...etc.

I thought they were "old tech". And, to my absolute shame, I was wrong on every count.

The fountain pen I bought is smoother to write with than any other pen I've ever tried. It does not leak in my pocket. And ink does not get over my fingers. In short: I'm an idiot (but you already probably knew that).

Long story short:

I designed and made my own minimalist Titanium Fountain Pen.

Not only that, but I went all-out and am offering it in various Titanium Damascus options. Here are some of the options:

KNIVES!

I'm going to do an update on everything knife-related in the next blog post (which I'll be posting soon after this one goes out).

Lots of progress and I'll be covering all three of the late knives in this next post (Project ZERO, Magnatron and Fliptility).

MEGA Update and Products (IN STOCK)

It's been a while since the last blog update.

These are the three things we're going to talk about:

  • Current (and late) projects
  • Some NEW surface finishes I experimented with over the holiday season
  • Products IN STOCK (which we've not had in stock for a while) -- we found them after having a bit of a New Year tidy-up

(IMPORTANT: you might want to skip down to the products-in-stock part of this blog post right now ...because they're going to sell fast (only a handful of each available). You can come back and read the rest of the blog post later.)

Okay, so first thing to discuss current (late) projects:

Current Projects

The good news is we've caught up on a number of projects since the last blog post.

The click pens, pencils, writing sets and Bolty (bolt action) pens we mostly shipped just before Christmas (with a few stragglers being shipped just after the Christmas/New Year holidays).

We're working on fulfilling the next two projects right now... the TiVault and the Fliptility Knife.

The Fliptility knife we were actually working on before Christmas (where we finalised the scales). This week we should have the final production blade finished.

The PillPots will be what we work on next after the TiVaults are finished.

We have three (smaller) projects that were meant to be shipping in January (i.e. this week or next week) - but they are going to be delayed. There are the Titanium dominoes, CandyCans and ClickShift pens with Titanium Damascus Clip. I'm just planning how best to get these done and will do an update on these soon.

NOTE:

Although the projects we are working on now are late (VERY LATE) ...they were not as late as the projects we have just finished working on (i.e the various pens, etc.).

For example, the TiVault™ is over a year late ...but I had to get the pens done first because they were even later!

As I keep mentioning... I screwed-up ...really badly! It's taking a while to work through and get the late projects fulfilled (while at the same time keeping the rest of the business going ...which included offering other/newer products). If you're waiting for a product, then keep in mind you can get a refund if you've had enough of waiting (which, I will admit, a number of people have).

The price is likely to be higher if you come back later to buy though. For example... now that we're making the TiVault™ ...we have realised the price we initially charged was too low (around $200) because the CNC machining time involved is a lot higher that we thought (we outsourced the initial prototype but are making the production version in-house). The price on the website is an additional 50% higher now unfortunately - but that's what it needs to be.

Here are some photos of the progress of the TiVaults™...

It was taking 30 minutes to cut each blank billet for each TiVault™ from the round bar when we were using the band saw.

So we made a dedicated fixture for the water-jet cutter to cut the bar ...and managed to get it down to 2 minutes per piece. Here's the fixture:

Here's some of the titanium blanks:

And here's the main body of the TiVault™ after the first CNC operation:

NEW Surface Finish (Experiments)

I have been experimenting with what I'm calling the FireAcid™ surface finish.

It's called fire acid because it's a magical combination of heating titanium with a flame (that's the "Fire" part)  ...and then dipping the heated part in Ferric Acid (that's the "Acid" part).

It's not a complicated process. I'm not the originator of it either (you can find people dipping heated titanium parts in acid on YouTube).

FireAcid™ is simply my in house name for the process (because, let's be honest, it's more catchy than calling it: "blowtorch-heated-titanium-then-dunked-in-ferric-acid" surface finish).

Anyway, enough talk, here's some examples of the results you can get (oh, and by the way, it's a form of anodizing - and I've found it to be fairly well wearing for general use):

IN STOCK Products

We've been having a bit of a tidy-up since coming back from the holidays and we've found a handful of each of a few products.

There are not any of each - but if you can add them to your Cart then you can buy them (otherwise it will likely be a long time until they become available again).

Here's what is available:

4-Card Titanium Wallets (4 x of these)

CLICK HERE

Titanium Folding Tweezers (7 x of these)

CLICK HERE

Titanium SlideClick™ Utility Blade Knives (11 x of these in Right-Hand Version)

CLICK HERE

'The One™' - Titanium Capped Pen (5 x Matte, plus 1 x Black)

CLICK HERE

And that's all I have for you today!

Titanium Pens ​And EXTREME Pen Testing

Titanium Pens And EXTREME Pen Testing

A few things for you today...

In terms of late projects - some products are still delayed (we continue to work through them though).

In terms of products that are actually shipping:

The Titanium "Click" pen should start shipping next week (they may even all ship next week - will see how it goes).

The Bolty bolt-action pen will start to ship soon after the click pen mentioned above.

Extreme Pen Testing

I've wanted to do this for some time...

While our two CNC machines have been flat-out running (late) pen parts I've been spending some of my evening and weekend time setting up a testing station for our pens (and ultimately other products).

Using a mash-up of Arduino electronics and pneumatics I've been able to create a pretty damn robust testing station for the automatic clicking of the "click" pen.

Here's a super short video:

I don't yet have any solid or consistent numbers on how long the click pen mechanism lasts until it starts to fail.

However...

I do have some initial numbers - and, if I'm being honest, I'm a little disappointed in them.

The first pen I tried started to fail at around 20,000 clicks. I was hoping for more than that.

So I'm going to look at improving this mechanism right away (or at least before we make any more ...which will not be until early next year at the earliest).

Black Friday Deals

As you may know (because I talk about it in almost every blog post)...

We're late on a number of projects/products and catching up on these as best as we can (while at the same time making sure the business is still making sales).

Unfortunately this has meant we really don't have much in stock because most of our machining time is going to the late projects.

Our plan for this Black Friday time of year is to offer your some solid discounts on a few different products we don't currently have in stock (but keep getting asked for ... a LOT!). There will likely be (up to) a few weeks before shipping on these - but it's best we can do right now (which I think is better than nothing at all).

So keep an eye on your email over the next few days - I'll be sending out some solid deals for you.

NEW Titanium Pen On Kickstarter

As you may already know - I'm a big fan of Kickstarter (it's what allowed me to get started in this titanium business!).

We still continue to run Kickstarter crowdfunding projects (although less frequently than we used to).

The last project was for a utility blade knife back in April around 8 months ago.

We're about to launch another - which will likely be scheduled for delivery in April of this coming year.

Truthfully, I'm fairly excited about this project as it's for a NEW titanium pen that has a unique, never-before-seen mechanism.

I'm going to send out another one or two emails about this pen before we launch it (launch should be later this week).

In the meantime - here's a little preview of the internals of the mechanism:

Clearance Bargains (Old Stock Must Go!)

Clearance Bargains
(Old Stock Must Go!)

Okay, here's the deal..


We're steadily getting caught up on old projects and products. And, in line with that, we've been having a bit of a "tidy up" on a couple of shelves in the store room.

While doing this we've come across various products we did not realise we had (yeah, I know, how do you simply "mis-place" high-end titanium products, right?).

80% of these we will never make again (possibly even 100% of them).

Not only that, but...

There are some amazing deals to be hand here because I really want to get the store room "cleansed" of any older stock.

One last thing...

EVERYTHING has been discounted (and in some cases a LOT lower than the usual price) because I really want these gone! 🙂

Some Dominoes

We have just five of these.

They are:

3 | 5
3 | 6
1 | 2 (2 x of these)
6 | 6 (2 x of these)

There is a drop-down menu at the bottom of THIS PAGE where you can select from the above number combination.

Nerve Spinner

Just two of these available in standard Matte finish.

CLICK HERE for these.

Flixx™ - ORANGE/WHITE Titanium Friction Folder

Just one of these available - CLICK HERE

(This one will definitely not be made again - guaranteed).

TiBricks

Eight of these little beasts - really not sure how we missed these beauties.

CLICK HERE

TiBiner™ – ‘T60D’ Double-Ended Titanium Carabiner

These are the odd one out of everything on this page. I knew we had these (they've been in a drawer for years) - but there was some machining that had been missed.

So we've just cleaned them up on the CNC and they're good to go. I think there might actually be 15 of them available (but I do expect them to sell fairly quick).

CLICK HERE

Tank - MokuTi Titanium Bottle Opener

There are JUST TWO of these available - CLICK HERE

Mr Pry – Titanium Pry-Bar

We have done three different prybars over the years.

This was the second one we made. And, out of interest, the first one we ever put our name on. BUT... it's was the old business name (in case you're new we used to be called "Cogent Industries" and changed to "Magnus Industries").

That's why it has 'COGENT' engraved on it (also you may have noticed that we often ship out products with the old name on the packaging - it seems a waste to just through the packaging away so we're working through it).

There are 8 of these - CLICK HERE

​Titanium Updates, Dominoes and Pen Machining

Titanium Updates, Dominoes and Pen Machining

It's been a while - so let's cover updates on late projects/products first...

While we are making progress - it's still slow-going. We have definitely processed quite a few refunds lately - which is absolutely fair and I'm sorry I've screwed-up that badly. I appreciate those of you who are holding on and being incredibly patient. Thank you.

Let's get the worst (and by that I mean least progress) two out the way first...

TiVault - still late and not shipping this month (as I said they would).

PillPots (the larger 36mm and 45mm ones) - also not shipping yet.

Knives - These are taking lesser priority over the above two projects (because the above projects are later).

Somewhat less depressing projects...

TiWallets - 35% shipped and the rest over the next few working days.

Click Pens / Pencils - The buttons and clips (which are the last parts we're waiting on) should start coming off later this afternoon and continue over the next couple of weeks like that. We will be shipping a batch every few days.

Bolty Pens - 70% of the clips have been machined over the last week or two. The internal parts are about to be started on the lathe (we were waiting until the clips were done so we could start these). The Bolty is different to the click pens/pencils above in that we have to wait until all the parts are made (and so cannot ship them every couple of days unfortunately).

This sums up where we are right now. Any projects/products I have not mentioned above are finished and shipped.

And again, you will continue to see me offering other products for sale (even as we're late with these!). I really have made a mess of things -- although we have managed to get caught up a lot recently -- and we need to balance production of late projects together with making sure there is money coming into the business to keep the lights on and the machines humming. I wish I would click my fingers and start the last three years over ...but it is what is it.

Titanium Domino Set

A long time ago we made some titanium dominoes (we called them 'TiBones').

They are kind of popular - but not compared to many of our other products.

The strange thing was ...we had quite a lot of interest from people wanting to buy a full 28-piece set (rather that just a single domino).

We did agree to sell one set as a pre-order ...but told them it would be quite some time as we really wanted to make an aluminum case to go with it.

Anyway, long story short:

We finally made it ...and we finally shipped it. BUT, we also made another ...which I've taken photos of.

I mainly want to show you the photos (but, if you're interested, this specific set is for sale - but it is only this one set).

We actually machined and press-fitted titanium "feet" on the bottom of the aluminium case...

Even though the case accounts for most of the weight - the whole set still weighs in at a hefty 1738 grams (or 3.83lbs).

The economics of making this set doesn't really work well for us. Even though the price is high compared to most things we make ...it just takes a long time to make them (quite a lot of hand sanding and finishing to get the dominoes coming out flawless).

If you're interested in this one-and-only set (it is sitting here ready to go), then you can order it here at the bottom of this page.

"Click" Pen Clip

The clip of the titanium "click" pen takes almost 30 minutes to machine - and, as you will see, there is quite a lot of wasted material.

I will do a video for you at some point after we machined and shipped the current late pens.

Here's what it looks like just as it's finished being machined:

NOTE: Both these images below are before we had it fully dialed-in (you should be able to see the various "issues" with each ...especially the top one!)

HangKeys + HookUp Clips

We hardly have anything in stock (and haven't had for some time).

However, we do have our classic (and arguably most popular products) HangKey and HookUp Clips in stock right now.

Updates And Other Titanium Stuff

Updates and Other Titanium Stuff

Okay, so, Updates on current (and late) projects...

The PillPots and TiVaults are still probably the most delayed projects. I had September and October marked down for those - but both those dates are pushed out 1 month now ...so they will likely be October and November respectively.

The SlideClick Utility Blade Knife is almost fully shippined as of right now. We have a few more to ship (which will be done at the start of next week).

Anything pen-related (Bolty, Pencil, Writing Set, etc.) will start to ship over the next two weeks or so (and will continue to ship for a few weeks). I don't have a specific order of shipment for any of these yet. They are all around 85% finished (the CNC Lathe work is done ...and now just the CNC Milling Machined to do work on them now).

The new "V2" TiWallet has started production (some of the production is an IndieGoGo crowdfunding project ...and some is website sales) and we're working through these. It's going very well.

The folding knives are still slow (and probably the latest of the bunch). The Fliptility knife is getting close - but the Magnatron and Project ZERO are still a while away. Reluctant to give specific dates on these as I've done that a couple of times and failed to delivery on those dates.

SaniTi - Titanium Hand Sanitizer

We've just finished shipping the first run of these SaniTi™ - Titanium Hand Sanitizers. We're about a week late on these.

The second run are being made now and should be fully shipped by the end of next week (which is pretty much on time). Will keep you updated.

Here are some photos of the work-in-progress of them I took last week:

Not Much Stock

We're putting most of our efforts into getting caught up with projects (as well as releasing some new products to keep the gears of the business turning).

So, unfortunately, we have very little of anything in stock. People get a little frustrated that most things are sold out.

We actually only have one product in stock right now. Most other products we have pulled off the website while we get caught up. The HookUp Clips are available:

Titanium HookUp Clips In Stock (click here).

Titanium Hand-Sanitizer (PLUS “Titanium Damascus” Key Holder)

Titanium Hand-Sanitizer (PLUS "Titanium Damascus" Key Holder)

Just TWO things for you today (but they are awesome things).

I'll talk about the Titanium Hand-Sanitizer in just a second - but first...

Titanium Damascus Key-Holder

I machined six of these plates last weekend ...and they all came out REALLY well.

The one in the photo is a good representation of what the rest look like. I have just THREE of them  available (and I'll tell you now they're not that cheap compared to the regular CoolKey™ - Titanium Key-Holder version.

I've put a lot of care and attention into these - and it seems to come through. Here's an even closer look:

Oh, and I've not done any "doctoring" of these photos ...this Titanium Damascus we've got really is visually mind-blowing!

Like I said... only three available... they're not that cheap (sorry, but it takes so much raw Titanium Damascus to make these) ...but, by god, are they one-of-a-kind!

Here's the link (scroll to the bottom for them): CoolKey™ - Titanium Key-Holder

Pocket-Sized Titanium Hand Sanitizer

These are not for sale yet - but hopefully will be soon (somewhat depending on what feedback we receive from this blog post).

Quick note: As I mentioned in the last blog post, although we're making progress catching up on late products/projects ...we still need to continue to make sales to keep the rest of the business going. And this Pocket-Sized Titanium Hand-Sanitizer is one such product.

A tiny bit of backstory:

Usually, for most of our products, we play around with concepts for many months (and often years to be honest) ...but this Pocket Titanium Hand Sanitizer is a little different ...only took a couple of weeks of "playing around".

During that time we went through every possible option we could in terms of how to deliver the liquid/gel. We had simple-ish mechanisms ...complex mechanisms ...and we were even close to making our own version of a soap-dispenser pump (we dismantled one here in the workshop ...and, although fairly common, it's a really clever mechanism).

The problem is that I really wanted to keep this product super-simple and not have a dozen parts (because it would start to cost hundreds of dollars).

Long story short:

After a ton of thought and rejecting every imaginable idea (no matter how "cool" the mechanism was) ...we came upon an idea that is, as far as I can tell, the absolute simplest mechanism possible.

As with most of our designs.. we pretty much have to work our way through lots of different (and complex) solutions to finally arrive an something that is crazy simple. This concept is crazy simple - but it took a long time to get there.

Anyway, here's a video explanation and some photos:

I've not shown the function in the above video - but I can attest to it working really well with both very watery sanitizer as well as thick gels (and anything in between).

Would love to hear any feedback/thoughts/etc. in the comments below - thank you!

Updates and Other Titanium Stuff

Updates and Other Titanium Stuff

Let's talk about project Updates first...
Project/Product Updates

The TiVault and PillPots are still on target to start shipping in September. I'm not sure which we're doing first (or if we're making them at the same time) - I will Update you on that once we get closer.

The Magnatron, Fliptility and Project ZERO knives are progressing a little fast now because I have managed to hand over most of production to Yngvar (one of our machinists). I have been struggling to produce them while at the same time run the rest of the business.

ALL the pens (Click, Pencil, Bolty and writing set) are just a few weeks away from shipping. The Bolty pen main bodies are done and we're starting the rest of the parts this coming week. All the parts of the Click pen and Pencil are done apart from the clips and buttons (we've just started the clips in the last two days ...and the buttons will be after this). So, pens are not far off.

One more thing... (and feel free to skip this if you're already totally fed-up with my lateness and excuses and don't want to hear any more!)

A couple of things I feel need to mention again (and yeah, you've already heard me talk about this before).

You will continue to see me offer other products for sale (here on the blog and through email) ...some we've made before and some new. If you've been waiting for a late project (or even more than one project), then this probably looks like a crappy thing to do on my part. And I totally understand!

We're late on projects because I screwed-up (in a variety of ways). Although we are still behind ...we've caught up significantly since the beginning of the year. So we are making progress.

But here's the problem:

If we ONLY produce products that are late (and nothing else), then we will cease to be a business (because rent, wages, insurance, etc. etc. will not get paid).

If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would be in this position of delivering late on multiple projects, then I would have said it was "impossible". I would never have thought I would be disappointing so many customers.

While we have refunded many people who could no longer wait (and that is absolutely justified!) ...I really appreciate those of you who are excercising patience and allowing us to work through this. Thank you!!

How To: Titanium Key Holder Assembly

We shipped the first run of the CoolKey™ - Titanium Key Holders a week or two ago ...and the feedback so far has been tremendous.

We've had a lot of people happy that there is now finally a high-end titanium key holder (to go with their other titanium gear). Many of these customers previously seemed to be making do with cheaper, aluminum versions because there was nothing better on the market.

Here's a video showing the assembly and how it works (it's a little different to other key holders on the market):

I'm just finishing up a few more of these (literally Sunday morning here as I do this) and so there MIGHT be some left available here:

CLICK HERE --> CoolKey™ - Titanium Key Holder

Pen Progress

You know, it's nice to physically SEE progress (rather than just talk about it).

I talked about the pens above - but I thought I'd show you a couple of photos too.

Here's the Bolty™ Titanium Pen bodies:

(Oh, and yeah, that's the drill in the bottom of the photo that drills out the solid bar to create the tube for the pen)

And here's various parts for the Titanium "Click" Pen and the Titanium Mechanical Pencil:

It's nice to see rock-solid progress in finally getting these to you.

Back in Stock: Titanium HookUp™ Clips

The Titanium HookUp™ Clips are a funny one...

They are small and fiddly to make ...and we have tried many times to stop selling them.

However, every time we take them off the website, the emails start piling up asking when we're going to have them available again. I'm not complaining though. It's always nice to have people demand and pester you for particular products. 🙂

Anyway, we've just done another run of them and they're available again right now.

Titanium HookUp™ Clips

1 2 3 … 24
>