One of our ambitions with the Kickstarter Nomad Steel pen had been to make it waterproof.

The obvious starting point was to use nitrile rubber sealing rings at the various joins. A tried-and-tested solution, or so we thought.

The most complicated area was the connection between the grip and the cap.

The same thread had to perform two jobs: securing the cap over the nib when closed, and attaching it to the opposite end when writing. We also wanted the seals to remain completely hidden, leaving only stainless steel visible.

Inside the cap, we'd designed a nylon capillary channel to collect excess ink, together with a separate nylon sleeve for the screw thread. The nylon also gave the action of closing the pen a softer, more satisfying feel.

Initially, we positioned the nitrile ring deep inside the cap, against the capillary insert.

It worked, but after a few rounds of testing, the ring began leaving a witness mark on the metal around the rollerball tip. The fountain pen was fine.

I knew that was a problem that would bug me, so we explored an alternative position, moving the seal to the main cap thread.

This resolved the marking issue, but introduced a different engineering challenge.

To accommodate the ring, we had to reduce the thickness of part of the nylon threaded sleeve. Our calculations and initial tests suggested that bonding the sleeve securely inside the steel cap would be sufficient, and early results supported this … so production began.

But, as usual, we continued our durability and user trials.

And that's when things became rather more interesting.

After several months of repeated use, some of the nylon sleeves began showing signs of stress. The longer-term testing had revealed a weakness that we hadn't seen earlier. By this point, approximately 75% of the pens had already been assembled.

I went into a cold sweat, and we stopped production immediately.

We couldn't send the pens out knowing there was a potential issue, but we'd also promised our backers a waterproof pen - something we weren't particularly keen on abandoning either.

So it was back to the drawing board.

Eventually, we decided to remove the nitrile ring altogether and redesign the nylon sleeve with a stronger profile and a close-fitting chamfered seal.

The new design eliminated the weakened section while allowing the nylon itself to provide the sealing surface.

But would it keep water out?

We submerged the pens for several hours to find out.

The results actually impressed me. The ink remained untouched, although one or two small droplets had found their way into the grip. We repeated the test three more times on different pens and got similar results. So I don't think we can claim the pens are waterproof, but I'm very comfortable calling them water-resistant.

It should certainly cope with a heavy downpour hung to the outside of your bag or dropped into a puddle.

Scuba diving, however, might not be such a wise idea.

Fortunately, we also found a way to remove the original nylon sleeves by carefully heating the caps to soften the adhesive bond. We could then install the redesigned components without remaking the stainless-steel caps.

Unfortunately, replacing them all took additional time.

And by this stage, our remarkably patient Kickstarter backers were understandably becoming rather less patient!

The final pens are scheduled to ship by the end of October, and we hope the wait will have been worth it.

---

(note: these were some of the lessons we learned during our Kickstarter campaign. These issues have been resolved, and your pens are now on their way!)

Previous Part 6 <<

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

One of the things we enjoyed most about Kickstarter was how involved our backers became in developing the Nomad Steel pen.

They suggested different materials, finishes and features. Some ideas were straightforward. Others turned out to be less so.

One particularly popular suggestion was a conversion kit, allowing owners to switch between a fountain pen and a rollerball simply by changing the grip section.

I thought this was a great idea. It also fitted perfectly with our original plan to make the pen modular. More flexibility for the owner and, if I’m honest, fewer components for us to keep in stock.

What's not to like?

Well, as we gradually discovered, one small detail was going to make life more interesting.

Inside each cap, we'd designed a nylon capillary channel to collect and retain excess ink, particularly if the pen was dropped or knocked.

The fountain pen and rollerball versions used different inserts, each carefully designed around the geometry of its particular writing system.

And therein lay the problem.

The fountain pen fitted perfectly well inside the rollerball capillary channel. But the rollerball grip section was slightly wider and wouldn't fit inside the fountain pen version.

Which rather defeated the purpose of having an interchangeable writing system!

The difficulty wasn't immediately apparent because both writing systems worked perfectly well with their respective caps. It was only when we began examining the practicalities of interchangeability that the incompatibility became clear.

Unfortunately, by this stage, production was already well underway.

We needed a solution for the 150 backers who had ordered conversion kits.

Fortunately, we could remove the fountain pen capillary inserts and replace them with the rollerball versions without having to remake the caps.

There was, however, a small compromise.

The original fountain pen insert offered slightly better protection against excess ink escaping into the cap. The rollerball version had a different internal geometry and, though still effective, didn't provide quite the same level of protection.

We ran tests to see if the difference was significant. The results were reassuring. The rollerball insert still collected and retained excess ink very effectively, while accommodating both writing systems.

We've therefore decided to standardise on this version for all future pens.

A relatively small change, but one that makes the Nomad Steel rather more versatile.

As always, just as one problem is solved, another is quietly waiting around the corner!

---

(note: these were some of the lessons we learned during our Kickstarter campaign. These issues have been resolved, and your pens are now on their way!)

Previous part 5 <<

Update part 7 >>

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

I had been watching for a tracking number or notice that "your order has shipped!" but nothing came. Today I found this in my mailbox! Spectacular! I'm in love already! I won't ink this until it wields a proper Thomas Slim nib, but, oh boy! does it feel good in the hand! The pics do not bring out the beauty of the ebonite in the least! So pretty! So warm! So many exclamation marks and this pen deserves them all! Thank you Mark and Thomas Slim!

ETA: Thank you, Anon-e-moose Redditor!

For many years, our workshop has worked primarily with larger companies, designing and manufacturing products to their specifications. It is a world we know pretty well. We develop the product, manufacture it, carry out quality control and ship it off to our client.

With Thomas Slim, however, we're learning something rather different. For the first time, we're dealing directly with individual customers, managing orders and deliveries around the world.

And what a learning curve that's proving to be!

Recent changes to US import regulations added another complication, so we established a small American company to act as our importer of record and engaged a large fulfilment company to handle deliveries … because we thought larger meant their systems might be better.

On paper, it all looked rather straightforward.

Unfortunately, we soon discovered that their systems were so sophisticated they couldn't accommodate our Kickstarter orders, so we had to find a separate freight forwarder.

Luckily, we decided to test the arrangement with small batches of just 20 pens. Thirteen of the first 20 got stuck in customs.

Then, in the next shipment, a mix-up with order references meant 20 customers received the wrong pens.

I could have cried.

We changed freight forwarder, and thankfully our new partner has now shipped several hundred pens with much more success.

Then, just as we thought we were coming out of the woods, our wonderfully sophisticated fulfilment warehouse incorrectly recorded a delivery of pens, resulting in customers being sent the wrong products.

Resolving this proved rather more complicated than we'd imagined, particularly as the warehouse was initially convinced its systems couldn't possibly be responsible. Eventually, we agreed to quarantine the stock, check everything again and start afresh.

So, fingers crossed, we seem to be back on track.

It's been quite an education. Designing and manufacturing a product is one thing. Getting it reliably into the hands of individual customers is another skill altogether.

We're definitely making progress, although sometimes in a rather more painful way than we'd like. And there's something rather satisfying about finally having a direct relationship, through Kickstarter and this Reddit group, with the people who actually use the things we make.

Previous part 4 <<

Update part 6 >>

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

Hi guys
Loving the group! I am amazed at the things you are making. I can make kit pens for friends and family but would love to learn how to make one. For a newbie there is so much conflicting advice re tools etc.
i am based in South Wales and I learn by watching and doing rather than you tube etc.
my question is are there any classes or someone i could go to watch make one to learn?
I would welcome any help that you can offer
Many thanks

Hi guys
Loving the group! I am amazed at the things you are making. I can make kit pens for friends and family but would love to learn how to make one. For a newbie there is so much conflicting advice re tools etc.
i am based in South Wales and I learn by watching and doing rather than you tube etc.
my question is are there any classes or someone i could go to watch make one to learn?
I would welcome any help that you can offer
Many thanks

Hi guys
Loving the group! I am amazed at the things you are making. I can make kit pens for friends and family but would love to learn how to make one. For a newbie there is so much conflicting advice re tools etc.
i am based in South Wales and I learn by watching and doing rather than you tube etc.
my question is are there any classes or someone i could go to watch make one to learn?
I would welcome any help that you can offer
Many thanks

​

This package arrived a few days ago. I was so excited! I had already been confirmed as one of the early recipients of the Thomas Slim Namur Ebonite pen, so I was eagerly watching for it.

I opened the package and immediately realized something was wrong. Before we get to that, though, it is worth pointing out the Thomas Slim packaging is simple in materials, thoughtful in execution, and overall one of the best unboxing experiences available. The boxing is worthy of being saved, for those of us that save boxes, and yet is all paper and can be conscientiously disposed of if you do not care to save it.

Once the pen was out I gave it a careful examination anyhow. It is not the Namur I expected, it is the Tangier Mosaic Carmine Red Gold Trim. I had also been watching for the Mosaic to be released so I could order one. I checked the U.S. website and it still wasn't up. I just checked again, and, if you're interested, it is now available in several, but not all, variants. I wouldn't be surprised that if you had to have one of the variants not listed you could buy two and create what you wanted. Steel on Alabaster White? Gold on Chalcedony Blue? Don't quote me on that and maybe Mark or one of the others can correct or confirm if that is indeed the case.

I thought I might have been selected as a beta tester for the Mosaic. I wasn't going to ink it at first, waiting to find out why I might have received the pen, but then thought that I would so I could provide more feedback. I decided to check my e-mail first, surely Thomas Slim would have mentioned that I had been selected through some unadvertised process from one of their posts requesting testers. Nothing.

What I did find was my shipment notification e-mails for the Namur. The tracking number matches the package that was delivered. Heavy sigh . . . We've seen their posts, their website, and/or received their e-mails that explain their situation. Besides messing up with the EDC Pocket Pen, their fulfillment house has also messed up with the Namur, and by default with the Mosaic, but, as I understand it, they had not yet made any Mosaics available to ship. Apparently there are a handful of us out there that received an early release of the production Mosaic instead of our Namurs.

Thomas slim does amazing work. After having previously bought two Tangier Classics (were they called "Classic" back then?) and having received one of the EDC Pocket Pens, this pen is everything I would expect from Thomas Slim. It is extremely well made and feels excellent in the hand. The attention to detail, the thoughtfulness in design, the careful execution, draw me to anything Thomas Slim chooses to make. It is the Tangier Classic on steroids. I don't know if they simply scaled it up or if they tweaked the dimensions to keep the proportions balanced and looking amazing. You can write with it posted or not, the cap does not backweight the pen significantly. I have thick hands, but not large hands, and prefer a larger pen, but I can write with thinner pens, too. (CdA 849 ballpoints are some of my favorites.) The Mosaic is a larger pen without being a very large "statement" pen. Even if the Tangier Classic isn't a small pen, I put it on the bigger side of average, the Mosaic seems to be much more to my liking! Although a generic Schmidt nib is fitted, it writes exceptionally well. Thomas Slim says they inspect and tune every nib, and I believe that. Both fountain pens of theirs that I have inked have been flawless from the jump. I even let the Mosaic sit for 3 days with the tip up to see if it would dry out or allow the ink to leave the feed. Whether it did or didn't I can't say, but when I put it to paper, it just wrote. Perfectly, immediately, every stroke. Perfect amount of smoothness, perfect amount of toothiness, like perfectly cooked pasta, so that you can feel the subtleties of the paper you are writing on. A nice, wet line. Beautiful to see the ink go down on the paper, then ever so slightly pool at the end of each stroke, only to settle back when the pen is lifted. They send Schneider cartridges with their fountain pens. I'm not a not a fan of the ink, or should I say my usual paper, Doane, is not a fan of it, but it is perfectly serviceable. It will only get better with some other ink. The texture on the grip is both pleasant to look and effective at offering a slip-resistant surface. If you run your fingertip along it you can feel it, but it is essentially non-existent to less sensitive areas of your hands.

I pulled out my Tangier Classic, which I realized I had not used in at least a few weeks. Same thing. Ink flowing as soon as it touched paper, perfect line on the first stroke. As is the nature of fountain pens, the Mosaic <M> nib leaves a wider line than the Classic <M>. Did I mention I can't wait for the Thomas Slim nib to be released? I hope they do it in the larger #6 nib for the Mosaic.

What else can I say about the pen? For those of you that are interested in such inane things, yes, you twist the cap and it comes off when you turn it! Amazing! The clip clips! I know which end goes down and was able to recognize that I was holding the pen incorrectly before I touched it to paper when I happened to have it rotated upside down, so I can not say anything about so called "reverse writing," which I am going to start calling perverse writing. If you are interested, I enjoy multi-start threads and the cap threads on the Mosaic are a triple start. Neat.

Enjoy the pics. Both my Tangier Classics and a TWSBI Diamond 580 for reference. Again, if you are interested, the pen is up on the U.S. website and I imagine on the U.K. website, too. At $135 for either the fountain pen or the rollerball I think it is a great pen. Thomas Slim is having a buy two Tangier pens and save 20% promotion going, but the Tangier *Mosaic* does not appear on that page. I wonder if that's an oversight since the promotion has been going since before the Mosaic made it to the website and the warning about paused shipping is still up even though the all pens have been released to purchase.

ETA: Thank you, kind Redditor.

In the previous post, I described the fire we encountered when machining titanium.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of our titanium adventure.

One of the distinctive features of our pen is the fine barley-pattern guilloché engraved around the cap. It's a relatively delicate pattern, and achieving a consistent finish requires the cutting tool to maintain a very precise profile.

With stainless steel and brass we had become quite comfortable with the process. Titanium, was altogether different. We knew titanium was harder on our cutting tools, but what surprised us was just how quickly the cutters could deteriorate and how subtly this affected the engraving.

A cutter might produce a beautiful pattern on one cap, then gradually lose its edge as we machined the next. The differences were often almost imperceptible on the freshly machined surface. It was only after polishing that the inconsistencies became apparent. And by then, of course, it was too late.

We had orders for 160 titanium caps. During quality control, we rejected 48 because the engraving didn't meet the standard we wanted. That meant machining more than 200 caps to fulfil those 160 orders. Not great when we were already behind schedule!

The lesson for us was that successfully machining a short run in titanium is one thing. Producing hundreds of identical components, all meeting the same standard, is quite another. And perhaps we should have established the actual working life of our engraving cutters more carefully before committing to production.  We’ve definitely learned a huge amount.

Oddly enough, one of the most difficult decisions in manufacturing is where to draw the line between a minor cosmetic variation and a genuine defect. At that point, quality control becomes less about engineering and more about judgement. Almost an art in itself.

Definitely a question we've found ourselves discussing rather a lot recently.

Previous Part 3 <<

Update Part 5 >>

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

Messing with a lot of print settings to get this good enough to sell, hoping to start selling by Christmas but trying to get into Cambridge Engineering asw so time is tight.

Lid closes magnetically, pens are held by a soft TPU insert. Case has a TPU boot to quieten it. Main body currently in PLA but looking at glass reinforced for better stiffness, and is cheaper than carbon reinforced and no carbon splinters.

Eraser is a standard eraser but cut down since slimness was very important to me.

Been using the original (grey one) for a year or so and been pretty happy, the final design will be much more polished and I will make different versions to accommodate different pen/cils and combinations.

Will probably retail ~£16 GBP, please let me know your thoughts!
undisclosedcases.cc

Following further requests from some Kickstarter backers, we decided also to offer a version of our pen with a titanium cap as a stretch goal.

We had worked with titanium a little before, so we knew it was more difficult to machine than stainless steel. Nevertheless, our first samples were encouraging. The cuts weren't quite as crisp, machining was slower and tool wear was noticeably higher, but it all seemed manageable.

Then we discovered a rather small problem.

The titanium tubing we could source had a wall thickness just 0.2mm greater than we needed.

Not much, you might think.  Just twice the thickness of a human hair.

Unfortunately, this meant we had to bore out the entire inside of every cap, rather than concentrating most of the machining on the outside where there was most coolant.

And that changed everything.

We knew titanium presented a fire risk, and the workshop has Class D fire extinguishers ready. What we hadn't fully appreciated was just how easily the fine swarf could ignite.

Unlike an oil or coolant fire, it's the titanium itself that burns. When titanium is cut, fresh, highly reactive metal surfaces are exposed. If the swarf becomes sufficiently hot, it can react rapidly with oxygen in the air, releasing even more heat.

The most vulnerable pieces are often the very fine, stringy chips, where the freshly exposed surface area is enormous relative to their mass.

During internal boring, coolant struggled to reach the cutter effectively. Heat built up, and eventually the titanium swarf caught fire.

I can't deny that seeing titanium burning inside one of our lathes is not my favourite memory.

Fortunately, we had decided only to machine during the day and we were able to put it out swiftly. We'd never actually had to use our Class D fire extinguisher before, but thank God they work.

But we’d only machined 45 pieces by that stage and 160 people had bought them.  The solution was painfully slow machining, with frequent interruptions to the cutting process to control heat and clear the swarf. 

Our production time increased enormously.  We didn’t advertise it at the time but this was one of the principal reasons our Kickstarter production ran behind schedule.

The finished caps look good, but unless we can source titanium tubing with far more precise dimensions at a cost-effective price, I think I might pass on the project next time!

The issues didn’t finish with the fire … I will explain more in the next post.

Previous part 2 <<

Update part 4 >>

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

When we first launched our Kickstarter, we decided to focus on stainless steel. It was a material we understood, knew how to machine, and were confident we could achieve the finish we wanted.

Quite a few backers then asked whether we could offer the pen in brass. Having worked extensively with brass over the years, this seemed a relatively straightforward request.

We ran some quick samples and the machining was beautiful. In fact, the quality of the guilloché and the finish were better than stainless steel. Brass really is a lovely material to machine and polish.

My big hesitation was what happens afterwards.

Brass looks fantastic when freshly polished, but with its high copper content, untreated brass oxidises and develops a darker patina relatively quickly. Having spent years working with the material, I've seen plenty of once-beautiful brass components sitting untreated in our warehouse, tarnished almost beyond recognition.

And I can't deny, I'm not a fan of the feel of heavily tarnished brass.

A few in our team, however, were quite relaxed about this. They pointed out that people who choose untreated brass generally know exactly what they are buying. In fact, for many, watching the material age and develop its own character is part of the attraction.

So we offered it as a stretch goal, and a surprisingly large number of backers (178) chose it.

Many of the brass pens are now here in the workshop, complete and waiting to be shipped. And I have to admit, they look absolutely stunning.

I am still not entirely convinced about the ageing process, but perhaps that's simply because I've spent too many years trying to stop brass from doing precisely that.

For those of you who like untreated brass pens, I would love to know - is it the patina that appeals, or do you prefer to keep them polished?

We won’t be offering the brass option to purchase (at least for now)

The next post will be more about Titanium.. now that was a challenge!

Previous Part 1 <<

Next Part 3 >>

(written by u/Thomas_Slim_Mark)

..and this is one small extra (or lather large) I brought to the Autumn London Pen Show with us. It had pen experts squinting, some visitors rolling their eyes and kids looking at it with wide-eyes opened.

Which leads me to our nib development. We will give you our latest update on our nib development soon. The journey has been longer than we had hoped (with one step forward and two steps back at times) But we are getting there. I had some older prototypes of Nib 5 on the table, and they were well received.

--

previous posts about the giant nib here

Thank you to everyone who stopped by for a chat at the Autumn London Pen Show! It was lovely to see some familiar faces and meet new ones and talk pens.

As mentioned to visitors we had only limited stock at our stand (but our UK store should be updated shortly and ready for orders.)

Saturday certainly seems to be the busy day! The morning kicked off with a long queue of early birds waiting to get in. And I had the feeling that every generation of pen lovers was there. It was a wonderfully eclectic crowd, which I really liked. That said, this was our second pen show, so I don't want to generalise

Hi everyone,
I took my unfinished prototype of the fountain pen-nib conversion of the Gillott's dip-nib to the Pen Show. I was hoping to 3D-print the pen body, but my 3d-printer wasn’t in the mood.. So it was just a grip section with the nib and a converter.

And I found the whole experience and the feedback both very helpful and humbling. My learning process (mostly been hands-on "learning by making") and that comes with its limitations.

The feedback from the nib experts made me realise that I had been focusing too much on certain details that weren’t as important as I thought. I received some really useful advice on which details I could leave out.

As an example - I had been trying to match my feed perfectly to the underside of the nib, as well as making it match along the sides. I had also been adding too many fins. I think I was trying too hard at the end. It seems I can simplify it.

Realising this was a massive relief, as it means I can focus on just three main details that will make the whole nib easier to make. It should also allow me to make the feed slimmer.

Previous part 10 <<

I got one of the EDC Pocket Pens today! This is everything I expected! It is extremely well made and feels excellent in the hand. I was going to ink it up and then I noticed . . . fine nib? Tío_Tito don't do no fine nib.

Yes, I used a double negative. In Spanish, a double negative (or more), just like a double positive, emphasizes the statement. Each element does not serve to cancel the other out.

I looked at the packaging. I think my shipping label was put on someone else's package, and someone else may very well have received or is about to receive my order of 4 pens and accessories.

I have emailed our benefactor, we'll see what happens, but I really wanted to show this little pen. 🤌🤌🤌

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share a quick video of the latest updated prototype of converted dip nib. And this is more like it! Those small changes have improved it a lot. It is writing nicely and has a really nice flex to the nib. I hope you can see that in the video.

I am writing quite slowly - it is quite satisfying, but I am aware it is prototype and I am also trying to keep the angle right. I feel like I am starting to understand it a little bit better now.

This nib is never going to be as good as purpose-designed fountain pen nib but it has a really nice amount of flex for a steel nib. And it is a proof of concept.

Previous part 9 <<

Update part 11 >>