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Mark Three: A Minimal and Durable Mechanical Pencil.

Created by Dan Provost & Tom Gerhardt

Mark Three is a custom machined mechanical pencil with a ceramic based exterior coating for long lasting durability.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Mark Three officially launches today!
9 months ago – Tue, Jun 20, 2023 at 09:23:52 AM

Hey folks, 

Just a heads up, Mark Three is officially launching on our website today! We can’t thank you all enough for the initial support of getting this off the ground. If for some reason you have not received your Mark Three yet, please email us ([email protected]) and we can look in to it. 

Since you all have been using your pencils for a while now, we would love if you would take a second to write a review. It really helps, the page is looking quite lonely with no reviews at the moment. You can write a review at the bottom of the page.

Last, along with the Mark Three, we are launching a new version of our walnut Pen Tray that can hold two writing instruments. It’s pretty nifty; the geometry turned out really cool, kind of an inverse of the single version. We created a discount code just for Kickstarter backers (please don’t share): use the code KSPENTRAY at checkout to get 25% off the either version of our pen tray. 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer, and thanks again! 

Tom & Dan

Monthly Update
12 months ago – Tue, Apr 04, 2023 at 09:46:05 AM

Hey Folks, 

Back with another production update. To date, we have shipped nearly half of the orders to our Kickstarter backers. The copper PVD endcap issue from the last update has been resolved, but we are now having problems getting the white Cerakote bodies coated correctly. This is kind of a head scratching issue because we’ve done white bodies many times in the past, but our supplier is having an issue with them. We are confident we will get these done one way or another, just frustrating that it’s taking so long. White cerakote has always been tricky, for what it’s worth.

We have a small batch of white bodies that we will be processing and hopefully shipping out this week, but we likely won’t have the rest needed to fulfill the rest of the Kickstarter orders for a couple more weeks. As always, we appreciate your patience.

In other, better, news, those that have received their pencils already seem to really be enjoying them! As a reminder, if you opted for the 0.5mm replacement mechanism, here is a video showing how to replace it.

Until next time, 

Tom & Dan

Monthly Update
about 1 year ago – Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 10:03:31 AM

Hey Folks,

In the last update we talked about having a hiccup with the Cerakote coating process, and hoped it will be the only one. Well, no such luck, sadly.

When we began assembling pencils with the copper end cap, we noticed the coating was starting to come off in a subtle and strange way. We sent the end caps back to our PVD supplier to have them recoated. We were supposed to have them back by now, but the second attempt at recoating failed, so they are taking another crack at it. This isn’t concerning to us; it’s happened before with our pens and they eventually get it right, just frustrating because of the time delay. They are telling us they will be able to ship them back to us on March 1st, assuming this third attempt goes well.

So, we’ve basically been in a holding pattern for the past few weeks. The Cerakote bodies are also taking longer than we’d like, though we are expecting a big shipment of those next week. Our plan is to assemble pencils in their entirely except the end caps, and then pop those when they arrive.

So far we’ve shipped about 150 domestic orders, and another 100 international orders should ship in the next few days. Knocking on wood that once we get the bodies and knocks it will be quite quick to get the rest shipped out.

Thanks as always for hanging in there!

Tom & Dan

Monthly Update
about 1 year ago – Thu, Jan 12, 2023 at 11:27:02 AM

Hey Folks!

We had been knocking on wood that production had been going smoothly, with no major hiccups. Well, we finally hit one! Thankfully, we got it figured out and are back on track. Here is what happened:

We sent the bodies to our Cerakote guy in Dallas to be coated. This is the same guy that does our Mark One bodies, which is similar in size but not exactly the same as the Mark Three body. They thought that they had everything figured out in terms of how to mount the bodies properly to be coated, but they discovered after running a batch that they were getting some “ghosting” around the end near the back opening. So, it took some trial and error to get the correct fixtures set up to eliminate this problem. Thankfully, it now seems to be resolved, and we just received the first batch of 300 bodies. They look great! We've started to assemble pencils and it's going smoothly so far.

So as they continue to coat the rest of the bodies, we can work on getting the pencils assembled, packaged, and shipped to backers! We are thinking the first small batch will ship by the end of next week, and we will be doing rolling shipments for the next several weeks until we get everything shipped.

We just locked the addresses in Backerkit, with a 48 hour notice. You should receive an email about it, please verify that your address is correct. If not, you can follow the link in the email to update it.

That’s it for now, thanks for hanging in there. We suspect this will be the last and only hiccup along the way.

Until next time,

Tom & Dan

The first batch of assembled and packaged Mark Threes. Whoo!

Monthly Update
over 1 year ago – Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 09:04:38 PM

Greetings Backers! We hope everyone who celebrates had a restful Thanksgiving. Got another good Mark Three update for you:

  • Last we spoke, we were coordinating shipment of all the production parts to us. They all arrived safely, and we have sent the bodies off to our Cerakote guy and half of the end caps to Pennsylvania to be PVD coated in copper.
  • Our Cerakote guy should be sending us the first batch of bodies this week (!), which means in theory we could start to begin shipping pencils to backers in the next couple weeks (!!!).
  • As is usual for a project like this, it’s going to take several weeks to get every last Mark Three shipped, so we appreciate your patience. We do rolling shipments as we assemble them rather than waiting until all ~1000 pencils are done before shipping. And FYI, your backer number has no bearing on when you might receive your Mark Three, we batch shipments based on the coated parts as they come in.

On that note, we are going to be locking addresses in Backerkit, and charging credit cards if you ordered any add-ons. You should receive an email from Backerkit to confirm your address is correct; if it needs to change there will be a link to edit it.

That’s it for now! We’ll try to post some assembly process photos and video to our Instagram If you want to follow along there.

It’s happening!

Until next time,

Tom & Dan

Some parts and packaging patiently waiting for the coated bodies to return.