CRUCIAL - the Chatwin heirloom chef knife collection

Happy holidays and Tutorials
over 6 years ago – Wed, Dec 06, 2017 at 11:23:40 AM

Dear backers,

First of all, I'd like to thank you for all your support over the past year. It's been an incredible year full of surprises, small successes and exhausting moments. 

Many of you asked me for a video on how to sharpen the CRUCIAL knives, so I made you a couple of videos. Voilà! Please let me know if it works, post your comments and questions in the YouTube video comment sections and I'm happy to help and add new content if interested.

Sharpening video: http://bit.ly/crucial_sharpening

Wooden knife handle care: http://bit.ly/crucial_care

All knives have shipped as of yesterday, including new orders of the new shopify store, which you can visit at chatwin.co

If you really like your knife set, I would love to ask you to write a short review on the shopify store site with your comments and feedback. For any issues, please email me first at [email protected] so we can resolve it directly.

The Chatwin online store is slowly picking up momentum, and any recommendations help, especially now before the holiday season. I'm assembling and boxing a new batch since yesterday, and can currently only ship to the US and Canada for new orders. Due to the weight of a parcel (5lbs / 2.270 kg) international shipping will be too costly in my opinion (between $60 and $110, depending on country) , since I'm currently shipping from Kamloops, BC, Canada, and you're most likely to get slapped with import duties and fees, too. I'll let you know once I have more inventory back in Luxembourg for international shipping. I'm working on it.

I've also noticed that some of you who received the knife sets had broken hinges in them. I tracked down the issue, and have to confirm that Customs in various countries opened the boxes and inspect them rather brutally, breaking the hinges off. This is a Customs issue, but in any case, I'm happy to send new hinges to anyone who encountered this issue, and will post a short video on how to exchange hinges (which only takes 3 minutes).

That's it for now. Back to the workshop, boxing up for the holidays, and once again a HUGE Thank You for all your support, and happy holidays!

All the best,

Philippe Schlesser

Batch #2 Shipping: Canada & USA
over 6 years ago – Wed, Oct 11, 2017 at 10:10:13 AM

Dearest backers, Batch #1 has shipped from Luxembourg to EU countries and international last month. Most of non-US & non-Canadian backers should have received their knife sets by now, or this week. Please email me at [email protected] if your knives haven't arrived by end of this week, and I'll look into the matter.

All Canadian backers should have received a tracking number from Canada Post yesterday (Tuesday). They're boxed, labelled and after posting this update, I'm dropping them off at the Canada Post branch to send them out to you. You can start tracking them tomorrow.

Yesterday, I also started creating UPS shipping labels for our backers from the US, and will continue doing this today and tomorrow. It's a bigger batch, so it'll take a couple of days to print labels and fill out individual customs forms for each backer. Please check your email and spam folder for tracking number emails. UPS is scheduled to pick up US backer shipments on friday this week. All backers should get their knife sets by end of next week, depending on where they live (or a bit later if you're further away from a UPS hub).

Attached are a few pictures of the current batch of Canadian backers knife sets shipping out this morning from my improvized shipping station and quality control station where all knife sets are assembled and boxed.

Thanks again, I look forward hearing your Chatwin CRUCIAL stories using the knives. If you post anything on social media, you can use hashtag #mychatwin or #chatwinstories . You can find Chatwin on most used social media platforms, usually under chatwin.co , chatwin_co or just chatwin.

That's it for now. I'm heading out to the Post Office. Woohoo!

Best, Philippe

CRUCIAL instructions video
over 6 years ago – Tue, Sep 26, 2017 at 01:16:26 AM

Dearest backers,

While I'm packing and preparing shipment batch #2 for our US and Canadian backers, I took your insights to heart and created a basic instruction video on opening your CRUCIAL knife set and first time use. It's different than any other knife set you've ever used, and I prefer explaining the design details and user interface.

Here's the link or watch the video directly below:

http://bit.ly/OpenCrucial

Please let me know if you have any questions or issues, I'm always happy to help.

Thanks!

Philippe Schlesser

IMPORTANT: unboxing
over 6 years ago – Thu, Sep 21, 2017 at 12:08:48 PM

PLEASE READ THIS: Dearest backers, Some of you who received the knives already reported that the hinges block or broke due to an unexpected resistance while opening. As I mentioned earlier - please read the instructions! The two magnetic knife sheaths don't open all the way, in fact the hinges act as a stopper so the knife holder can hold the open position while standing without doing the 'splits'. The hinges are very strong and should resist a lot of force, unless you try opening the knife sheath all the way. Please watch this video - at the beginning you see me open the knife sheath and remove the knives. THIS IS AS FAR AS IT OPENS (and should open). I hope it makes sense:

https://youtu.be/QQNeWiz_2yw

For those who broke it already, I'll send you replacements. But please, be careful and gentle. Thank you so much!

All the best, Philippe Schlesser

Batch #1 shipped
over 6 years ago – Wed, Sep 20, 2017 at 10:51:22 PM

Dearest backers,

On monday, the first batch of CRUCIAL knives shipped out. This shipment goes to all EU and international backers. Some of you reading this in Luxembourg already have their set and have been chopping away. Parcels are under 2kg and are sent as letter parcel with no tracking (due to some Post issues, but that's a long story). Once you get the knives, open the black box gently, read the instruction manual and slowly remove knives. Please be careful, they're VERY sharp (for most of you, anyways). Every knife set is hand made with natural materials. This means that every knife set has its own wood grain and possible tiny imperfections. I checked sets throughout for Quality Control, but can't open them all. If you should find an issue, please email me first at hello(at)chatwin.co with details and a picture of the issue, and we'll figure things out. I'm always happy to send you a new knife set if yours isn't as expected.

I started writing this update at Luxembourg Airport on Tuesday, and now am in Vancouver, heading to Kamloops BC to send batch #2 to Canadian and USA backers. Batch #2 will have tracking numbers and will be sent by couriers - different countries, different shipping approach. Since all knives are shipped from BC, and shipping products under $800/day in value to the USA are not taxed, you should all be fine and pay no fees. In fact, I hope no backer will have to pay an import fee or tax based on how I've approached shipping (especial UAE and Brazil... you know it).

Once you familiarize yourself with your knife set (watch your fingers!) and decide to either have it free standing on your counterspace, hang it on the wall or bring it in your campervan, I'd love to hear from you if you get your story on how, where and when you used it. Your happy CRUCIAL story. And if you want to post them, please use hashtag #chatwinstory and or #mychatwin , and I'd love to see, read and share them.

Attached are a few pics of loading batch #1 into our van and leaving our little Château de Wintrange, drop them at the small local post office, fill out all customs papers by hand for each box (my penmanship started off good and deteriorated soon after) who did an amazing job sorting through this pile of boxes. I'll start working on batch #2 - Canadian & USA backers, here we go!

Thank you so much. It's been a crazy ride shipping these babies, and still is. Until the next update,

All the best, Philippe Schlesser