Okay, I've not actually made any yet - but we are finally making the "blanks".

The material arrives in round bar form like this:

The shocking part is...

There is a lot of wastage (a LOT!).

Here's the usable area (in green) ...and what goes in the scrap bin in red:

In fact, it is actually worse than it looks ...because we also have to "slice" the bar as well as (more wastage!).

77% of the material goes in the scrap bin ...just to make the blank! And then we have to machine away another 60% of that remaining 23% ...I don't even want to think about it really. :-/

Not only is the SuperConductor material very expensive to import in anyway ...but only a small amount end us usable ...plus the CNC machining to get it into a usable "blank" ...and FINALLY, only then, are you able to start machining it into an actual slider. This is why SuperConductor sliders have to be in the $1000 area unfortunately.

We FINALLY have pens getting engraved again (after a couple of months of nothing).

We're starting with a more subtle version of the design - just the grip.

I put 16 up on the site yesterday and they all sold ...so people definitely liking them so far.

Okay, so here's a I-shouldn't-show-you-this-yet-but-I-am of part of this new "fancy" version of a slider (photo below).

Truthfully, I've maybe build it up too much now (and it's just going to be an anti-climax).

But, even allowing for that, I'm hoping it's going to turn out in real like how I have it visualized in my head. Weirdly, because of how we're making it, we don't actually have a 3D CAD model of it. So, yeah, I don't even know what it's going to look like until you do too. :-)

Here's the half-machined part: