Shipped! Stoked! Tired.
almost 3 years ago
– Fri, Apr 30, 2021 at 02:49:10 PM
There are few things as satisfying as a full mail truck exiting my driveway. Those are your rewards in the back of that thing! They shipped all over the world this week: Japan to Arkansas to the Netherlands to just down the road from me in Eagle Mountain.
What an incredible, exhausting project! Thank you all again for backing it. A few notes:
- We packed orders until midnight every night last week. I don't function well after 10 p.m., so if we missed something on your order, I take full responsibility. Shoot me an email ([email protected]) if I need to correct anything.
- Windex is great for cleaning titanium. If you want to remove fingerprints from your ruler someday, that's the way. Or let it live its best life as a tool and leave it grubby.
- The titanium rulers are now available on our website, and they'll be shipping to dealers all over the world. Feel free to give them as birthday and bar mitzvah gifts.
- There were 7 backers that paid, but never sent us your addresses. We assumed you took up sailing and you're halfway between San Francisco and Fiji with the wind at your back. Good on ya' amigos! Please contact us if you'd like your ruler forwarded to your new beach house.
The last thing on my list for this project is outlined in the timeline:
I learned a heap on this Kickstarter project, and I'm already setting up plans for the next. But I'm also tired. The side hustle has been intense, and the learning curve has been steep. So, I'm going to take a snooze-- a little breather. I'll catch you on the next round. Thanks friends.
A Slight Delay - New Ship Date April 28
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Mar 24, 2021 at 11:59:20 PM
Amigos! There's been a delay of game. A road bump, if you will. Not a roadblock, no. But we're having a slight setback. Here's what's happening: our ruler supplier, Jill, in Taiwan let me know yesterday that their original ship date of March 10 will now be a ship date of March 30. They've had Covid delays and Chinese New Year that pushed back their timeline. I knew this was a possibility when we started down this road, so I'm not super stressed about it.
However, their delay will domino into our plans. We're going to miss our original ship date of April 8, 100% guaranteed. Once we receive the rulers, we will do quality control on each, bag them, and pack them up for shipping. There are 443 of you beautiful people on the Titanium Ruler Train, so shipping is going to take a minute. I'm anticipating a new ship date of April 28, and I appreciate your patience in the process.
We're in the homestretch on this project, and we're thrilled to ship out your rewards. Thanks for believing in our wild ideas!
(As a funny little side note, our original project timeline shows us shipping in April... I guess we're still on track, but I said specifically we'd ship on April 8 because that was the my best friend's birthday when I was a kid. Seemed like the right arbitrary day at the time. I'm sorry we're missing your birthday, Riley! ;) )
Mid-Flight Update
about 3 years ago
– Wed, Feb 10, 2021 at 06:29:12 PM
I'm one of those people who kinda' dislikes when the pilot jumps on the intercom mid-flight and says, "*Phsshhhh*. This is your captain speaking. We're [inaudible] 35,000 feet and [inaudible...] seatbelts. Thanks for [inaudible]." You feel me there? I was just starting to doze off with my head bobbing against the very uncomfortable passenger next me! Anyway, here we are mid-flight on the Titanium Ruler project, and you're welcome to sleep through the announcement if you like. Just make sure you wake up when the snack cart comes around again-- you don't want to miss your ginger ale and pretzels. ;) Speaking of snacks, 95% of you have filled out your backer survey. Excellent! If you're the 5% that haven't finished the survey, check your spam box or send me a message and we'll take care of it. Thanks! Now for an update:
I just picked up the anodized versions of the titanium ruler last week. Take a gander at how they turned out:
I ended up loving the gold much more than I thought I would. It definitely pops. The purple is pretty muted, but I think the purple-collecting folks out there will enjoy it. Next steps with the colors is to clean them all up with Windex and get them packaged. (Pro tip: when you receive your ruler and get your grubbies on it, the easiest way to clean titanium and make it pop again is with window cleaner.)
The official Knafs boxes are still in production, with minor delays happening from Covid. This won't affect the delivery date to backers at this point, but I figure some people will find it interesting that corrugated has had slowdowns from the virus. Flight tags have arrived, and they'll ship when the other rewards are ready.
As for the primary batch of rulers, our supplier in Taiwan told us they're on track to ship the final group of natural titanium on or before March 10. We're getting there! If you're getting anxious about the timing, take a look at the previously planned timeline here:
I'll send another update in a month or so as the final batch of rulers arrive and we're getting close to shipping rewards. Thank you all for believing in my little project and sending it airborne. I'd fly with you all again any day. Which reminds me:
We have another exciting knife poster project launching next week with a few knife industry friends. If you want to get in on it, sign up for our email list here.
Surveys Are Out. And Colors!
over 3 years ago
– Tue, Jan 05, 2021 at 10:39:50 PM
Yeehaw!! We just sent the surveys to the whole backer crew. Check your spam if it didn't arrive, then please let us know if you still haven't received it.
We are planning to lock orders on January 20, 2021. Please fill out your survey before then.
Colors! I didn't mean to add complexity to the project, but then I saw these sweet colors to anodize the rulers, and I couldn't resist. I accidentally added 4 new, beautiful color options:
You will be able to select the color of your ruler in BackerKit during the checkout process - no extra charge. I had someone ask why I didn't do this during the campaign period. Long story short: I ordered about 400 more rulers than I was originally planning to hit a pricing tier with the supplier. Not a huge deal, but I figured colors would be a nice way to diversify the line long-term. And it seemed only right to give you all the chance to be first to choose colors. Enjoy!
Note: we found a glitch in the Survey Setup after sending, and there were about 88 of you that filled out your surveys before free color options were available. You can still go back and change your survey to a different color if you'd like. Let us know if you need any help with this.
I'm sure we'll have other wild adventures in the coming months as we get this project tidied up. I'll keep you posted as we roll through the rapids. Thanks for your patience in the process.
-Ben
30 Mind Blowing Days. Thank you all.
over 3 years ago
– Mon, Dec 21, 2020 at 02:54:22 PM
And that's a wrap! Whoosh! What a ride! Thank you to all 443 of you who funded my project. I'm thrilled to have you all on my team. I didn't know what to expect with crowd-funding, but you all exceeded my expectations, blew my mind, and made me feel incredibly grateful for the kind support. Thank you.
Let's talk about next steps on this project:
Backer Survey and Schtuff
- Your credit card will be charged shortly.
- Within two weeks, you will receive a Backer Survey email from "Ben Banters" (check your spam folder!) with instructions about your reward. We'll need your shipping address and info. You can also add any of my other Knafs products to your order-- 10% off regular price for Backers only.
Fulfillment
- Making: We'll place the order for the Titanium Rulers in about two weeks; they should arrive within two months. The Flight Tags are finished. Our packaging will be finished January 26th.
- Packing: 400 orders will take us a couple weeks to organize, pack, print, and label. We'll send you an update when this process is rollin.'
- Shipping: We're still on track to ship out backer rewards by April 8, 2021-- maybe even sooner.
Thank you all again for your generous support on this project. It's been an incredibly fun ride, and we're looking forward to shipping out the goods. Stay tuned!
