Shipping, part 1
about 7 years ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2017 at 09:48:55 PM

Dear Backers,

It's March, and most of you are thinking 'when are my CRUCIAL knives shipping'? 

Well, your lovely CRUCIAL knives are leaving the manufacturer next week, and will be shipped to a fulfillment agency that takes care of boxing, labelling and shipping the knives to your mailbox. There are several steps and companies taking care of freight and shipping and it's a delicate job to get them to work together seamlessly. Over the past days, I've been working on structuring an inventory, and will be sending out surveys to confirm your address in the coming days. As for now, we're still on schedule, and hopefully you'll be able to start cooking with your new CRUCIAL set very soon.

In the meantime, I hope you're doing well, thanks again for backing this project, and I'll be in touch soon with more news.

Bon appétit,

Philippe Schlesser

CRUCIAL knives ready to slice.
about 7 years ago – Mon, Jan 30, 2017 at 09:10:01 PM

Dear Backers,

We had a great start into the new year, and everything is still on schedule. Here's an update on the knife set and its components:

Knives

The first batch of knives is wrapping up production and assembly this week. Personally, I'm super excited and happy with the first batch. They feel great, the finish is beautifully detailed, the materials all work well together to make them a sleek and super functional set of kitchen knives. I couldn't be happier. 

Knife Holder

Just like the knives, the knife holders are hand made and assembled. Even though they feel pretty sleek and look simple, their inner life is actually more complex to assemble than the knives. The interior of the knife holder is made up of layers of dense wood fibre coated with resin so the wood doesn't warp or expand when in a wet kitchen environment. The hardwood veneer has a beautiful hard clear surface coat that feel silky and has a semi-matte finish. The edges, which required a somewhat 'bump resistant' finish that wouldn't crack or chip easily, has a nice dark coating - the hardest coating we could find that would suit our product. You still have to be gentle handling them and not use the knife holder as a  cutting board (some backers ask me about this...), but it works great. Each of the two sheets of the knife holder have strong earth magnets embedded in them to hold the knives securely in place when sandwiched between the veneer sheets, or when used as a knife holder. 

Wall mount

The wall mount accessory is also finished, and works great. We won't ship any screws with it, since walls or hanging surfaces come in so many different materials, we'd have to ship a variety of screws and dowels or wall anchors of which only one would be used (and lots of waste), so we'll leave you to pick the right screw to match your interior and wall structure. Or you can just place it as a free standing knife rack on the kitchen counter.

Packaging

The packaging is also finished, a clean black matte cardboard box with a subtle black Chatwin screenprint logo. The inside uses a dark shaped foam wrap holding the knife set in place and a gentle magnet keeping the box closed. the design aims to be simple and offer that little 'Woooow' effect when opening it. It seems to work :)

User manual

This week, we'll be printing the user booklet that comes with the box, with a few maintenance and care instructions. We're also planning on a small series of online video tutorials on how to use the knives, sharpening instructions etc. If all goes to plan, the first shipment should arrive at our fulfilment center in the coming weeks, and you should be able to use your CRUCIAL knife set as planned in March. Once shipping starts, we'll post more updates as we go. The shipping part is all new to us, with a learning curve, so there may be a few bumps along the way. But for now, it all looks fine and we're right on schedule. Either way, when we know, you'll know.

We're open to suggestions and ideas of what you would like to see, learn and experience with our knives on our future website. Your ideas are more than welcome. If you have any questions, please feel free to message me.

Thanks again, and have an amazing day!

Philippe Schlesser

Happiest December: WE DID IT!
over 7 years ago – Tue, Dec 20, 2016 at 09:19:33 PM

Dearest Backers,

It's been a crazy month, and I'm sorry for the very late update. First of all I'd like to extend a huuuge thank you to all of you for supporting this project and making the Chatwin CRUCIAL knife collection real. As one of you backers mentioned, 'WE DID IT!'. 

Yes, we did it - together. And we could't have done it without you. THANK YOU!

Your pledges have arrived yesterday in our bank account from Kickstarter, production is on schedule, and the knives look amazing. We're so happy to have you onboard, and are excited to ship out this beautifully crafted knife set to your home very soon.

Here are little video updates, in various languages. It's more or less the same video, just in different languages for our international community. I'm sorry if your language isn't represented, I'll do my best to learn it next time :)

Thanks again, you're amazing and we're so happy you're part of our story.

Philippe Schlesser

A huge THANK YOU in English:

Ee ganz GROUSSEN MERCI op Lëtzebuergesch:  (Yes, Luxembourg has its own language)

 Ein grosses DANKESCHÖN auf Deutsch:

 Un GRAND MERCI en Français:

Meget STOR TAK på Dansk:

Velké PODĚKOVÁNÍ vám všem, na Česky:

Unboxing: CRUCIAL production models
over 7 years ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 11:48:49 AM

Dear You,

Right after we funded this campaign past 100% we launched the manufacturing process of your knives. This morning, we received the final production model before going into full scale production of our CRUCIAL knife set. 

As a designer and cook, I can proudly say that this is one amazingly well made product, visually appealing yet minimalist, made to be super durable out of excellent materials and just a great addition to any kitchen.

With 21 hours left on our campaign, we've shot a quick unboxing video this morning to see what you'll be getting in your mailbox soon. 

Wooohooooo! Thank you!
over 7 years ago – Thu, Nov 17, 2016 at 07:00:13 PM

My dear backers,

For the past hours, we've been glued to the computer screen at our little office, seeing the numbers slowly crawl towards the $50K mark and then, like a sudden explosion of joy, pride, happiness and crazy awesomeness, there it was: 

$50,000 *BOOOM*

I really can't tell you how amazing this journey has been until now, over two years of working on this project, long days, late into the night and early mornings, becoming a parent between all this, getting even less sleep, drinking more coffee, staying focused and believing in this one crucial project to get the Chatwin brand off the ground and now this - a wonderful, dynamic campaign of a product I personally love to use every day, am proud of shipping to our extremely supportive backers, and being so excited that it'll find a home in your kitchen or in a home of a beloved one. 

(Wow, that was a long sentence... did I mention we're excited?)

Thaaaaaank you!

Another 13 days to go. Lots more love to give. You're awesome, and I thank you for this.

Philippe Schlesser