We are at the final stage and, as in any bespoke project, it is always the details that matter the most. For this project we wanted the pieces to have an aged appearance while maintaining the fine details so we had to carefully decide what areas to darken and what areas to leave bright. This was one of the most time consuming aspects of the process and one that could not be rushed. We broke it down into three areas we had to deal with: the goblet; the figure and the shield. To begin, we polished all three areas and then separately tackled each individual component:
- Goblet - We needed to make sure that the French scripts remained visible once the aging was done. The script was recessed but we wanted the ribbon to be darker than the rest of the goblet. To accomplish this we first masked off the banner from the rest of the goblet and applied the darkening agent. Then, to make the script re-appear, we painstakingly went over each letter with a fine engraving dremel that buffed off the chemical to re-expose the bright polished bronze.
- Shield- We had almost the opposite challenge with the shield. We wanted most of the shield to be bright but with dark lettering and filigree. We again masked off the shield and applied the darkening agent. We applied it twice to achieve the color needed. Once it was dry we carefully removed the color from the shield with a fine scotch brite buffing pad.
- Figure – We repeated the process used for the goblet by applying the darkening agent and then painstakingly removing the color with a fine engraving tool.
- Each handle was then oiled and finished with a hand-applied black wax. This finishing part of the process took many hours but we feel the finished product was well worth it!
These handles are numbered and signed and part of a limited edition of 50. Each handle has 16lbs of bronze so now we understand the true meaning of investment casting! To view our entire collection of custom architectural hardware, please visit our site at www.martinpierce.com.