Slim Steel Pocket Pen, Engineered to Last

A quick update on progress.

We're pleased to report that production is now nearing completion, and our focus is increasingly shifting towards packing orders and preparing shipments for collection by our courier.

Here are a few photos showing completed pens and accessories as they make their way through the final stages of fulfilment.

Fulfilment Schedule Update

Firstly, we'd like to apologise for the unforeseen production delays and thank everyone for their continued patience and understanding. While production has taken longer than we originally anticipated, we're making good progress and are now firmly focussed on completing fulfilment.

Here's where we currently stand:

• Approximately 25% of all orders have now been fulfilled. For some of these shipments, we are still awaiting tracking information from our shipping partner. Once received, the tracking details will be uploaded to BackerKit and affected backers should automatically receive an email notification.
• By next Friday/Saturday, we expect to dispatch a significant batch of orders to our shipping partner, taking us to approximately 75-80% of all orders fulfilled.
• The remaining orders are currently scheduled to ship by 18th September. These will consist primarily of Titanium and Brass editions, which have taken longer to complete due to the additional manufacturing processes involved.

We're continuing to work as quickly as possible while ensuring every pen passes our quality control checks before leaving the workshop.

A small number of orders require clarification before we can complete fulfilment. If your order is affected, we'll contact you directly.

A Small Request for Some Backers

As we've been preparing orders, we've noticed a small number of surveys that may contain conflicting selections or incomplete information.

Some examples include:

• A no-loop pen ordered with a lanyard cord or carabiner, which can only be attached to a loop version.
• A fountain pen ordered alongside rollerball refills, which are not compatible.
• Monogram engraving details that are incomplete, unclear, or do not specify which pen should be engraved.

We've also found that some backers have not provided a telephone number with their shipping details. Our courier requires this for shipping purposes only, particularly if there are any delivery, customs, or address-related queries.

If we need clarification regarding your order, we'll first contact you via Kickstarter direct message. If we don't receive a response, we'll follow up using the email address associated with your BackerKit survey.

If you receive a message from us, we'd greatly appreciate a prompt response so that we can avoid any unnecessary delays to your order.

Outstanding Surveys

We also still have approximately 30 backers who have not yet completed their BackerKit surveys.

If this is you, please check your email inbox (and spam/junk folders) for survey reminders and complete your survey as soon as possible. Without a completed survey, we don't know your preferred pen configuration or shipping details, and therefore cannot fulfil your order.

Thank You

Thank you once again for your continued support and patience throughout this project.

We're working hard to complete and dispatch orders as quickly as possible and look forward to sharing another update very soon.

Thomas Slim Team

We wanted to share a quick production update and let you know how things are progressing behind the scenes.

Production Progress

We're pleased to report that production is progressing well.

The vast majority of pen components have now been fully machined and completed their finishing processes. We're currently carrying out quality control inspections on the parts and have begun the final assembly stage of production.

Here are some pictures so you can see the progress for yourselves - 

A Closer Look at the Pocket Pen

We thought it would be interesting to give everyone a closer look at the precision-made parts that go into each pen.

The image is missing a few parts, such as the nitrile rings and one additional mother of pearl disc, but otherwise shows nearly every component that makes up a finished pen.

Shipping Update

We also wanted to provide an update on our expected shipping schedule.

Our original goal was to begin shipping orders in early August. While production itself is progressing well, we're now expecting first shipments to commence around 20th August.

The delay has been caused partly by the amount of machining, finishing and quality control work required, which has taken longer than we originally anticipated. However, the biggest impact has come from delays with our packaging supplier.

We had expected to receive our pen boxes and packaging by the end of this week. Unfortunately, our supplier has recently revised their delivery schedule and is now estimating a further two-week delay.

This news was a significant setback to our timeline, and we sincerely apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience this may cause. We know many of you are eagerly awaiting your pens, and we're doing everything we can to keep the project moving forward.

As soon as we receive further updates from the supplier, or if anything changes, we'll let everyone know immediately.

BackerKit Survey Reminder

Thank you to everyone who has already completed their BackerKit surveys.

At the time of posting this update, we have approximately 40 surveys still outstanding.

The majority of these appear to be linked to failed Kickstarter payments. If this affects you, BackerKit may allow you to complete your order using an alternative payment card during the survey process.

We also have a number of backers who have started their survey but not yet completed checkout, as well as some who have not yet opened their survey at all.

If you haven't completed your survey yet, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could do so as soon as possible. Should you have any questions or need any assistance with the survey, please don't hesitate to contact us via Kickstarter messaging - we'll be happy to help.

Over the coming weeks, we will need to establish a final survey deadline. We completely understand that circumstances can change, and we'll give plenty of notice before any deadline is introduced. However, at some point we will need to lock and finalise orders so that production and fulfilment can be completed. Once this deadline has passed, changes may no longer be possible, and any outstanding or unresolved pledges will need to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis

We'll provide more information on this in a future update.

Thank You

As always, thank you for your continued support, patience and encouragement throughout this journey. 

We're excited to be getting closer to the finish line and look forward to sharing another update soon.

Thomas Slim Team

We're pleased to share our next production update with you.

Production Update

Since our last update, we've moved from purchasing raw materials and starting component manufacture, to producing a significant number of the pen components.

It's always exciting to see parts transition from drawings, 3D models, and prototypes, into physical production components, and we're really pleased with the progress being made.

We've now entered the next production stage: hand finishing and polishing.

Each component goes through a careful finishing process to achieve the quality and appearance we want for the final pen. This stage takes time, but it's an important part of ensuring every pen meets our standards.

Once the finishing and polishing stages are complete, including a QC inspection, we'll begin the next major milestone: assembly of the first batch of pens.

We'll continue sharing photos and updates as we move through these stages.

BackerKit Survey Update

We've also made great progress with survey completion -  88% of backers have now completed their BackerKit survey.  That leaves approximately 12% still outstanding.

There are a few different groups within that remaining 12%, so we'd like to provide some information that may help.

1. Backers Whose Kickstarter Payment Failed

The largest outstanding group consists of backers whose original Kickstarter payment did not successfully process. If this applies to you, don't worry - there's still an opportunity to complete your order.

BackerKit allows you to complete payment through the survey process, and if your original payment method failed, you can:

• Retry with the same card
• Use an alternative payment method
• Complete your survey once payment has been successfully processed

If you've received emails from BackerKit regarding payment issues, please take a moment to review them and complete the process as soon as possible.

2. Apple Private Relay Email Users

We've also identified a number of backers using Apple's "Hide My Email" / Private Relay service.

Unfortunately, these relay email addresses appear to be linked specifically to Kickstarter and only reliably accept messages sent directly through the Kickstarter platform.  Because BackerKit operates as a separate platform, emails sent from BackerKit - including:

• Survey invitations
• Reminder emails
• Project updates
• Confirmation messages

may not be successfully delivered through Apple's relay service.

To help resolve this, we've contacted affected backers individually through Kickstarter's direct messaging system and sent their unique BackerKit survey links there.

If you're using Apple's Private Relay service, please check your Kickstarter messages and inbox for our message containing your survey link.

3. Instalment Payment Backers

For backers who selected Kickstarter's instalment payment option:

Your remaining instalment payments are expected to be collected around mid-July.

Once Kickstarter has successfully completed collection of the final instalment, your BackerKit survey should be automatically generated and sent to you.  If you're in this group, there's nothing you need to do right now other than ensure your payment method remains valid.

Locked Surveys & Upcoming Charge Date

A notification for everyone who has already completed and locked their survey: We expect to begin charging cards for shipping, add-ons, and any outstanding balances this week on Wednesday 8th July 2026.

This charge will appear on your bank statement as Thomas Slim London Ltd.  Please make sure that you have the correct card information on file. If any issues arise with your payment you’ll receive an email letting your know to correct your payment information.

If you need to review payment information, you can return to your survey by clicking the link in your survey email or requesting your survey link under "Lost your survey?" on our BackerKit project page at https://steel-pocket-pen.backerkit.com/

Thank You

We're excited to see the project moving forward from raw materials to finished components, and we're looking forward to sharing the assembly process with you soon.

Thank you again for your patience, support, and enthusiasm. Every completed survey helps us plan production and fulfilment more accurately, so if you haven't yet completed yours, please take a moment to do so.

We'll be back with another update as soon as we have more progress to share.

Thomas Slim Team