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Materials and Finishes
Most of our hardware is either cast or machined from metal. There are various types of metals used in these processes and for different reasons. Some of the hardware is made from natural products such as stone or wood. Much of the time the finish is a different color or has a different property than the material the hardware was made from. For that reason we are able to sort our hardware by both material and finish.
Materials:
Zinc - Zinc is a common material for casting it is easily molten and cast is lightweight it makes a good base for a variety of decorative finishes. Because the material is softer, most of the zinc hardware has threaded brass inserts for installation of screws.
Pewter - Pewter is a jeweler quality metal with a beautiful patina in either a brushed or polished finish. Traditionally pewter is a metal for cast products, but it is quite soft and contains lead. The pewter used in our hardware products is actually a lead-free pewter alloy that exhibits the patina and design qualities of pewter but is more durable and is non toxic.
Brass - Brass is a jeweler quality metal that can be used for casting and machine fabrication. Many knobs are labeled as solid brass, and have the advantages of brass. Others are called brass finished, brass coated or have finish names such as antique english, these pieces are generally a zinc alloy cast ( you can check under our material sections) and finished with a brass coating. The advantage of solid brass is that it has a heavy feel and can show sharper detail with cast or fabricated techniques.
Resin - A solid polymer material that casts well and is durable and not brittle, used primarily for artisan designed and hand-painted items.
Wood - Both finished and unfinished in soft and hardwood varieties. Wood is used for a base on some handpainted knobs, as solid wood (usually with a brass insert for the screw) and as wood accents on metallic knobs or pulls.
Ceramic and Porcelain - Ceramic and porcelain are both a natural clay product that has been fired for a durable hard finish and is usually glazed in white of another color or can also be specialty painted and fired. Porcelain is a little more expensive type of clay, a little finer texture and has a slightly translucent appearance (like fine china). Ceramic is more common in the decorative hardware industry, it makes a durable and lustrous finish to many hand-glazed designs- Porcelain and ceramic hardware generally utilize an imbedded brass insert for installation of screws.
Glass - Glass is a common material for knobs of all sorts, it is fragile and care must be used with installation, it can be broken by dropping or by over-tightening the installation screw. Once installed a glass knob has a beautiful character they are usually faceted, and they are quite durable. There are many glass knobs still in use today that were installed in the early 1900's.
Acrylic and Nylon - Acrylic and Nylon are synthetic materials that are extremely durable (not like plastic that can fracture when dropped or fatigue with use) and can be clear or tinted in a wide array of colors. These are usually less expensive and very durable and fun for accent coloring.
Finishes:
Specialty finishes are used on many of the cast and fabricated knobs and pulls to add character and color to the hardware. There are so many options that we will not list them here. Each company has a different name for their specific type of finishes. If you know of a company's finish name that you particularly like you can sort by finish in our hardware database to see all the hardware in that particular finish. If you don't know the name of the finish but you know the color that you like you can get a cross section through all the companies by sorting with color.
Examples of finish: antique english, distressed antique copper, oil rubbed bronze, verdigris bronze, hand tinted pewter, bright nickel, satin nickel?
Examples of Colors: Pewter, copper, brass, antique brass, verdigris, chromes?
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