Roller Latches for Stunning Door Handles

A tubular latch is used to hold a door or double door closed. The latch has a tongue that is thrown into the door strike when the lever is depressed, or knob is turned. A roller latch performs a similar function but does not require a lever or knob to be activated which is an attractive option where you have stunning door pulls and do not want anything to detract from their beauty.

Roller latches come in a variety of configurations some perform a simple closing function and Imperial Lock makes a series that also will lock a door. Whatever the configuration they share a simple roller that is a metal ball which projects into a recessed hole in the strike when the ball is sprung. Well-designed rollers are adjustable, and you can decide how far you want the roller to project out from the edge of the door using a long projection to create a tighter closing door that will require more force to open.

Roller latches vary as to how difficult they are to install. To fit a mortise roller latch you will need to cut a substantial rectangular area into the door to house the mortise box which is a job best left to a skilled carpenter or locksmith. In the photos shown here we installed a much simpler roller latch for our bedroom double doors so that our Hedgerow tree pulls could be shown in their full glory. The roller latch only required a shallow small rectangular area for the face plate which was done using a router and a smaller round hole for the roller which was easy to drill out.

Creating A Custom Appliance Pull Using the Lost Wax Process - the Wax Stage

We are currently working with a local designer who has specified many of our Willow cabinet pulls but who also needed a taller version of our Willow Sprig for use as an appliance pull. The client’s kitchen, not surprisingly, only required 3 large pulls and did not warrant the cost of a new patterns and mold. As our work is made using the lost wax method, we were able to create 3 new pieces by hand and by combining wax models.  Please refer to our earlier post to see how the new pull was designed using a left and right facing Willow Sprig.

Step 1

A total of 3 Willow sprigs were created in wax. A left and right wax sprig were made for each end of the new piece and a section of a second left sprig was used to make a connector between the 2 ends. Picture below shows melted red art wax made by Westech being poured into the sprig mold, the wax has a relatively low meting point of 160 degrees.

Step 2

The mold is held together until the wax has cooled and solidified at which point the mold is pulled apart and the wax pattern thereby released.

Step 3 and 4

The section to be used as a connector was cut from the wax sprig using a heated blade and then further heated with an air torch so that it could be bent to the correct shape.

The ends of the left and right sprig were cleaned and refined with a hand chisel.

Step 5

The ends of the left and right sprig were cleaned and refined with a hand chisel and then joined to the connector using a heated blade which melts the wax enabling it to be melded together to form one continuous piece.

Shining Light On 2020 by Taking Stock Of Interesting Hardware Pieces

The end of the year means we literally must take stock of all our products and this in turn hopefully gives us a clue as to what to focus on in 2020. This necessary accounting nightmare does have a silver lining and counting turn pieces, door levers, roses and back-plates is almost a therapeutic chore akin to clearing out the hall closet. What we found in so doing was quite an assortment of odd items that we rarely make which I thought I would share with you to see if you could spot their function.
Take the picture below and hazard a guess as to its use.
The length of the willow sprig provides the clue to its function as a window lever used for a custom residence to open and lock a window which was situated high at arm’s length reach.

Willow Window Lever

The size of the lever below and the child sized back plate do not help identify this piece as a lever and escutcheon for a lift and slide locking window which we first came across in Venice and which was ordered recently for a San Francisco residence.
The slim back-plate and the position of the lever to hardware buffs should make this trim’s use for a multi-point door obvious. For those not familiar with multi- point locks they are frequently used on French doors and tall doors to latch the door into the frame at several points and thereby provide added security. The multi-point lock runs the full length of the door and the lever’s acts to release bolts into both the header and sill of the door and to lock the door in place.

Willow Multi-point trim for French Doors Willow Trim for Lift and Slide Window

The pieces below may look like head wear or fashion accessories, but they are very small 2” castings used to secure the top and bottom of a sliding willow bolt used in a similar way to the multi-point above but decidedly less mechanical in function.

Happy New Year from Idyllwild

We have enjoyed the Christmas break in Idyllwild a short 2 hour journey from Los Angeles and one recommended to anyone needing to recharge their creative battery. Idyllwild is a small town that enjoys a diversity of terrain and climate. The altitude ranges from 4,000 to 7,000 with snow covered mountains on the northern front and dessert dry chaparral on the south.

Located in the San Jacinto mountains there are plenty of trails for exploring the habitat and we chose the Perimeter and Hillside trails in Idyllwild Park to spend our first day knee high in snow.

For a change of scenery we took the South Ridge trail which is on the southern Hemet side and which offers the hiker a steep hike over sandy rocky soil surrounded by Manzanita trees and shrub oaks and holly bushes. While the trail was dry there was enough moisture for the lichen and moss to take root on rock surfaces to form a variegated green collage.

The trail was deserted but paw prints and scat marked the path traversed by the native coyotes.

The trail was deserted but paw prints and scat marked the path traversed by the native coyotes. If you compare the photos here it is clear that the Manzanita berries are part of this coyotes diet.

Small red brown remnants of the manzanita berries

Bright red berries before consumption

Other indications of the wild life could only be appreciated by our pit bull Iris who savored the scent of the local population with her hovering focused snout.

Our oak leaf cabinet pull is based on the leaves of the Live Oak the inspiration for which came from the wine country of Paso Robles.

New Morphic Door Pull - One Size Does Not Fit All

When designing a cabinet pull the smaller size of cabinet drawers and doors requires that the pull be appropriately scaled. The size of the pull should not over-power the cabinetry but at the same time must not appear wimpy.
When we began designing our Ergo collection of contemporary hardware the designs for the cabinet doors were very different to those for the entry and interior doors. However, over time our small 12” cabinet pull has undergone substantial scale revisions and is now available as both a 35” and 54” entry door pulls. The demand for different sizes of this piece continues and we are currently designing a 25” piece. To the untrained eye this may appear to be a simple revision but in reality, the new size will require a three-dimensional pattern to be made so that the newly proportioned piece be as fluid as the original design. The sketch here shows how the scale of the new pull when compared to the 54” pull will look on tall 7’ 5” closet doors.

Left: Doors New 24” High Ergo Pull Right: Doors 35” High Ergo Pull

Our Morphic cabinet pull also lends itself to scale modifications and is currently being re-designed as a 24” door pull. To function well as a door pull, we are modifying the outer edge and straightening the curvature so that it will fit on narrow door stiles. The back of the pull that attaches to the door is a mere 2 ½” and the decorative curved face is 3 ½’.

Search for Longer lasting compact batteries for LED door handles

Our illuminated door handles were designed for the hospitality sector and are often used on exterior and interior doors where their color changing ability and organic design create a dramatic statement.
As public areas receive greater use than would be the case in a typical household we designed these pieces to function as hard wired handles connected to low voltage wiring and thereby capable of providing continuous light for many months with the lifespan being limited only by the durability of the LED components. Most of our commercial projects are either new construction or major remodels where new doors are designed to carry low voltage wiring.

Some smart newly constructed homes will have wiring built into the door frame but if not trying to get power into an existing door can be a challenge. For the commercial sector, frameless glass doors are also unsuitable for hard wired handles and so find ourselves searching for a battery alternative. Can any reader suggest a battery that would work?

You may find our quest surprising, but the problem always comes back to finding a battery that is small enough to fit into a 1 ½” x 4” cylinder and that has a long-life span. Our single-color white spot uses 350mA and while this is a small amount of energy so too is the life capacity of smaller batteries. Batteries are measured in part by the Ah or amp hours so a 1Ah battery can power a 1Amp device for 1 hour or power our white LED spot for just under 3 hours.

Some small batteries have an 8.5Ah which would power our handle for 24 hours and make some sense if the light were not constantly on but motion triggered for short 10 second bursts.

Re-chargeable batteries are another option especially for exterior use where a small solar panel could be attached to the cap of the handle.

We will continue to search for battery alternatives and will be exploring both motion and light activated uses as well as rechargeable batteries and welcome any thoughts from readers.

Seasonal Colors for Door Hardware

While the seasons may appear elusive in this sun- shine state, the slight chill in the air reminds us that autumn has arrived and with it our sense of color naturally drifts to the rich colors of autumn.

Visitors to the wine country in Paso Robles will now be able to see the wide variety of reds, yellows and brown that color the vines of their favorite varietal.
For the less fortunate we hope that our custom hot patinas when applied to our plant pulls will provide a reminder of what this season brings.

For our vine cabinet pull we used green, red and brown dye oxides applied as liquid patinas to create a gradation of colors to the hot surface of our bronze pull. To ensure that the pigmented liquid adhered to the surface we sand blasted the casting prior to heating. As the patina is translucent the golden hues of the bronze still shine through.
The dye-oxides we use are available through SculptNouveau who also offer a full range of sealants suitable for most metals.With our pear and oak leaf cabinet pulls we omitted the pea green dye oxide.

View fullsize

In our earlier career as furniture makers we used a similar technique when creating our japanned vine leaves. The iridescent quality of the leaves was achieved by applying gold leaf to the motif before adding successive layers of translucent color.

View fullsize

Custom Designs Made by Adapting Existing Cabinet Pulls- Pragmatic Considerations Part 11

We are currently adapting our large Willow cabinet pull so that there are fewer fanned leaves at the ends. The request is to make the piece to be visually lighter while retaining the integrity of the design.

The design adaptation raises the question whether to make a new mold or whether to modify each piece. Our door and cabinet handles are cast in the lost wax method, meaning that each bronze casting first took shape as a wax model. The wax model is made by pouring melted wax into the cavity of the mold which is left to cool and then extricated from the mold. This process is like the way one makes jelly rabbits and other shapes using melted gelatin and inverted animal molds which are refrigerated so that the gelatin sets. The molds we use are typically made in 2 snug halves that are tightly clamped together so that the wax will remain in the hollow cavity until it is solid, the 2 halves are then de-clamped and removed leaving the wax replica.

In the image you can see that the red wax willow pull has been modified so that there are fewer leaves than is the case with the standard bronze pull. The image shows the original pattern that was carved in wood and then painted with a grey coating to fill in the wood grain or pores. As we did not want to permanently modify our one pattern, we chose to modify all 37 waxes so that we could then cast 37 bronze pulls.

The bronze castings made in the lost wax method are essentially the third generation of a design, moving from carved pattern to wax replica to bronze replica. With each generation there is a subtle loss of detail and size and both aspects need to be factored into the making of the pattern. The pattern needs to be larger than the proposed piece as shrinkage occurs at both the wax and bronze stages. Undercuts and design lines need to be sharper and deeper in the pattern as these will be less defined in the wax and bronze.

Color by Light or Powder - the different types of colored door handles

We have a variety of door handles that are illuminated, and these are often ordered by those in the hospitality industry looking for accent piece for public areas. This was the case when we were commissioned to create custom large door handles based on our Morphic door pull design.
The client chose a very specific shade of blue which was their brand color, and which reflected the watery environment of their resort. Sea creatures were the inspirational basis for the custom Serpentine and Scroll pulls we designed and fabricated for the resort. The blue background of this piece is created by skillfully powder coating just the interior and by careful masking the face.

Our Coral and Fish illuminated pulls are colored by color diodes that are contained inside the LED light strips that are housed behind the face of the design. The advantage of this form of color is that the different color diodes allow the panel to be programmed for a variety of different color cycles. While the LED panels offer a wide range of color the door must be one that has been constructed with a hollow channel so that wire can be passed along the channel and connected to the panels wiring.

The photos below show these two methods for adding color. The Scroll pulls on the left were treated with an adhesive on the inside only, the face of the handle was masked with a releasing agent and the powdered handle was baked at a high temperature. The coral and fish pulls have color changing diodes and can be set for a specific color or programmed to go through color cycles.

.

Limited Edition Door Handles

Limited Edition Door handles
We are a limited production company making finely detailed hand-made door hardware but our grapevine heroic door handle is a limited edition and here we examine both concepts.

All of our hardware is made using the lost wax method of casting and each piece is always chased by hand and finished by hand, which is a production process that simply does not work for industrial manufactures making 100’s or thousands of door handles. As artisans we are able to focus on smaller quantities which ensures that we can produce high quality unique and we hope more interesting pieces. In this sense our work is similar to that of the boutique or small winery who by virtue of their size are able to put more care into their craft than larger wineries.
Continuing the analogy the Grapevine Heroic door pull is akin to a small celebratory edition of wine where the number of bottle is limited to a few cases. The door pull was designed as a statement piece for wine collectors and is scaled for large wine cellar doors. The pull is made with the same care as any other piece but it’s scale, design and complexity warranted the added value of a finite edition of 100 pieces. Being 42” high and with 3 intricate sections the waxes are made personally by Martin Pierce who shapes and refines the smallest of details so that each piece is truly unique. Each piece is numbered and signed by Martin at the wax stage and we are currently at number 15.

Our hardware designs evolved from our work as furniture makers where we offered limited editions for the Vine Highboy (100) Aspen Buffet (30) and Aspen armoire (50).
The small number of the edition and the price point ensure that the edition will take several years to complete with each piece being fresh to the artists eye.

Using a heated scalpel and hand chisel Martin removes small imperfections from the wax

Custom door handle spindles for very deep doors

Our door handles are made to order here in Los Angeles. Once a door handle set has been cast and before any patina is applied the pieces must be machined and assembled according to the door specifications. While previous posts have explained how back-sets and handing affect the choice of components little has been said about how the thickness and material of the door can impact the choice of door spindle.
In the context of door handles and accessory door hardware the spindle is a metal rod that passes through the door and can be used to perform different functions;
a. Act as a connector to connect the 2 knob/levers of the handle set and to turn the tubular latch.

b. As a connector to a turn piece that will pass mid-way through the door to turn or throw a latch bolt.

c. To connect door knobs/levers where there is tubular latch that can be locked or unlocked using a pin that is pushed in or pulled back. In this instance, one half of the spindle swivels so that when turned the knob or lever will unlock the door typically from the inside as would be the case in a powder room. A half swivel spindle also enables a door to be opened where a mortise lock is used, in both these cases only half the spindle swivels otherwise the door could be opened from both sides. As a side note to keep the knob or lever on the swivel end taught an auxiliary spring is trapped at the end of the spindle and placed under pressure part way into the center of the spindle, this keeps the knob in place despite the frequent rotation of the spindle.

I am reluctant to ever use the word “standard” in any hardware context, but interior doors are often 1 3/8” or 1 ¾” deep and we would use respectively a 2 ½” and 3 ½” spindle.
A Hedgerow passageway knob set has just been ordered for a 5” thick door and so we are making 2 custom spindles, one at approximately 8” for the knob set and the second at 6” for the turn piece described above which is shorter as it will only be passing through half of the door. The door is unusually thick as both sides will be upholstered adding a pliancy element to the equation that may impact the final door thickness. As the upholstery is likely to contain soft padded material the installer may need to shorten the spindle, so the fabric is compressed slightly around the escutcheon so that the knobs are sufficiently tight.

Dragonfly beauty with efficiency

We now have a water feature at home so Martin spends a lot of time taking shots with his zoom lens of insects that it attracts and this weekend he was able to capture 2 mating dragonflies and the resulting beginnings of their progeny.

Martin uses a 28-200mm zoom lens and the details he caught of this dragonfly couple were not fully seen until they were uploaded onto his iPad. The couple mated on the wing for a brief couple of minutes and then the female dipped her ovipositor into the pond to disperse her eggs. The speed of the mating and egg deposit took us by surprise and we are impressed by the staggering efficiency of this reproductive cycle.

When the pictures were uploaded on Martin’s iPad we could appreciate the intricate beauty of this flying red wonder. The wings look like fragile window- panes

View fullsize

Having mated the female hovered over the pond and selected a location to lay her eggs.

She then deposited her eggs into the pond with her ovipositor which she also used to disperse her eggs.

View fullsize

Click and enlarge to fully appreciate the intricate detail of these window-pane wings that we cannot see with our naked eye.

View fullsize

Our bronze dragonfly maybe a poor facsimile of nature but we have tried to capture as much detail as possible in our bronze cabinet knob that weighs a hefty 2 ounces and that is colored with a hot red brown patina.

What is the best medium for door hardware patterns

There is no correct answer to this question, but your choice will depend on your method of designing and your skill sets. The broad choice is between creating a pattern using traditional carving or modeling techniques versus 3D designing and printing.

Traditional techniques -

You can create a solid pattern by modelling the design in clay and by adding and removing clay to obtain the desired shape. We are sculptors by training and create our patterns using wood or jewelers wax or high-density rigid foam. Basswood carves well as it is a close grained soft wood but the grain is distracting, and its directional nature means you have to be an adept carver changing direction with your chisels as you follow the grain. When the wood pattern has been carved, we typically coat it with a matt grey primer which both fills the grain and helps us see any imperfections that need to be carved out and sanded. While Jewelers blue wax is dense and one can achieve good detail it is not as strong as basswood and is more brittle which makes it less ideal when creating fine deep lines. Moreover, even though free of grain it has a uniform color that has a pronounced sheen both of which make it difficult to see what has been carved.

As both wax and wood have drawbacks, we find ourselves increasingly turning to high density rigid foam a product often used in the film industry by set designers to create props. This medium is light weight, dense, grain-less and matt and carves beautifully. It is available in blocks and easy to cut and glue and moderately priced.

The Hawaiian bird pulls were ordered recently by designer Christina Hilt in Florida in warmer tones to compliment the golden burl wood in her client’s closet. A dark patina accentuates the detail in a piece but if the pattern is carved with a deep relief carving then these details will still be seen even where there is minimal patina and minimal tonal contrast as was the case with Christina’s order.

Pattern in high density foam with foam block

Contemporary 3D pattern making

 If you are adept in digital designing, then you would begin by designing your pattern in illustrator or Painter or other 3D program. On completion the design would need to be output as a STL file which could then be printed as an SLA print which is a photo polymer

Custom designs made by adapting existing cabinet pulls - a pragmatic alternative

In previous posts we have explained why creating one-off custom pieces is expensive as it requires a 3-dimensional pattern to be made and then a one- or two-part mold, all of which takes considerable time and expense.

However, don’t be too downhearted as there is a pragmatic alternative, that is if you like one of our collections and have a creative mind.

Our hardware collections reflect a theme and while each collection embodies the same style the pieces are not simply smaller and larger versions of one pattern, but artistic adaptations of the style honed to fit a particular function and scale. A good example of what I mean can be seen by comparing 3 willow cabinet pulls, while all were designed for cabinet doors and drawers and all have flowing leaves each of the pieces is different and distinct and reflects a holistic approach to design.

Sometimes we find ourselves thinking like the pizza chef who is called upon to add extra basil but hold the anchovy. Using my culinary analogy and realizing that taste is obviously subjective I was presented with the challenge of making the large willow cabinet pull but with fewer extraneous leaves and with a concentrated leaf arrangement akin to the smaller cabinet version. We were also asked to see if we could grow the willow sprig so that it could be used as an appliance pull with a span of 16”.

Below you can see how we cut and pasted a left and right willow sprig at the wax stage and how we then melded the sections together to create a longer piece. At this point a minimal amount of time and expense has been spent on creating a new piece and if approved we will use this new wax pattern to create a bronze casting. Since this will be an appliance pull, we do not expect the order to be for more than a few pieces and for each casting we will go through the same cutting and pasting process. If the order had been for many units then we would have created a new permanent pattern from which a mold would have been formed so that hundreds of subsequent waxes could be made.

By making a left and right willow sprig in wax we were able to fuse the 2 to create a hybrid piece.

Nature inspired cabinet pulls

The yellowjacket wasp was the model for our open and closed wing wasp cabinet pull and was originally designed for the Ascot Highboy a furniture piece made by our sister company Martin Pierce Furnishings. In keeping with the yellowjacket we finished these pieces with a yellow oxide which we burnished along the wing veins to expose the golden bronze beneath.

The Ascot tallboy was a limited edition of 100 which was closed at number 78 in 2013. The piece was made using quartered English brown oak, selected for its rich brown amber hues and for it’s dark “leoparding” a term that refers to the darker spotted figuring. The open and closed wing wasps were patinated to compliment this distinctive wood.

Several years ago, on a road trip to Idaho, we stayed at Lake Pend Oreille and came across the bald-faced hornet which is a relative of the yellowjacket but being much larger it is referred to as a hornet. The black and white markings of this insect are why it is referred to as bald-faced rather like the way we refer to the “bald” eagle.

Our memory of the hornet’s markings influenced a recent order that called for a simpler black oxide patina. By restricting the black patina to the head and thorax and by burnishing the wings we were able to create a dramatic statement using a simple patina on a small piece.

The wasps are cast in solid silicon bronze and are part of our insect and animal collection of cabinet knobs.

The latest addition to our wine cellar hardware collection

Cabinet Pulls for smaller spaces – latest addition to the Grapevine Collection

Our holistic approach to door hardware is one of the reasons we like to design complete collections that allow the consumer to continue a theme from entry door, to interior door to cabinet pulls and bathroom accessories. It also means that we are constantly adapting designs to give the designer a more complete range of hardware to chose from.

Our collection of wine cellar door handles led us to design a vine leaf cabinet pull which at 6"W x 3"H x 1 1/2"D works well as a drawer or cabinet door pull. However, for smaller confined spaces we saw a need for a smaller piece and have just added a new complimentary vine loop pull. The loop pull measures 2 ¼”W x 1 1/4”Hx x and projects 1 ½”x making it easy to grip. The pattern for this petite piece was carved by hand from a block of blue wax which is typically used by jewelry artists to sculpt ring patterns. A simple rubber mold was made and then used to create red wax replicas which went through the casting process from shelling to pouring to chasing and were finally finished with a light antique oil rubbed patina.

We mounted the larger vine leaf and the new loop pulls on cabinet drawers that were made using a cherry wood for the frame and myrtle burl cross hatched with wenge for the panels.

Wine cellar cabinet hardware

These images below show the fine hand- carved details of the wax pattern. For smaller pieces blue wax is a good sculpting option and you can achieve quick results with good eye hand coordination.

The Design Process for Door Handles

Creating door hardware is a balancing act where artistic inspiration is balanced and refined to meet the practical demands of functionality.

Continuing from last weeks post I want to share some of the initial designs that were submitted to designer Debbie Zylstra for her client’s home in Kailua-Kona. Debbie was in the process of designing a home entertainment center in Koa wood and wanted to incorporate dramatic door pulls for sliding doors. The cabinet was grand in scale at a height of 9’ and the lizard heroic handles were considered as a possibility. These pieces are extremely realistic, and the client wanted something more stylized and original but in the reptile family so, pencil in hand, Martin sketched out the iguanas. Martin designed 2 interlocking iguanas which give the illusion of being 2 different pieces, but which use one iguana that is inverted to create a pair. To get a sense of proportion he then reduced the scale and inserted the design into a scaled drawing of the cabinet. The body and head of both iguanas project out from the cabinet door by 4” and the underside of each projects 1 ½” so that there is enough clearance for the hand to grab either the head or tail of each iguana to slide the pocket door open. The angle of the head, legs and tail were made so that the pair would interlock comfortably but leave sufficient space so that fingers would not be pinched.

Below are the original sketches for the first large reptile sculptures that are the central pieces in the Lizard collection. Given their realistic design Martin felt he needed to create a left and right facing lizard so that he could more naturally capture the movement of a pair of lizards. The pair was designed so that the head of the right lizard protrudes beyond the slate back-plate allowing the thumb to then be extended to depress the butterfly thumb piece and thereby release the door latch.

Polynesian Inspired Cabinet Knobs

I recently stumbled upon early drawings that Martin Pierce did when commissioned to create a series of Hawaiian door and cabinet pulls for a residence in Kailua-Kona. In this post I will focus on how he developed the Double Headed and Single headed bird knobs.

When commissioned the scope of design for the cabinet pulls was to create 2 types of knob one 6”W x 2”H for the drawer fronts and the other 2”W x 2”H for the cabinet doors in a style loosely described as “nature based Hawaiian”. There were no other parameters which left the creative field open for birds, fish, people and plants as design starting points. Martin decided to proceed in 2 directions with a plant theme and a bird-animal theme, the former resulting in the orchid collection and the latter with 2 bird head knobs. For the bird knobs Martin turned to surfing the web looking for examples of Polynesian folk art and what he came away with was an image of highly stylized geometrically detailed work. With these thoughts he focused on the heavy beaked Takahe bird found in New Zealand, the most southern point of geographic area that makes up the Polynesian islands. This ground living bird has a rather thick head and thick beak and using this as the end of the drawer pull he designed geometric semi circles spreading out from the eye to depict swells of feathers that also look like breaking waves.

With the cabinet knob the beak and eye remain the focal point of the design but here a spiraling sea shell is used to form the birds tail.

Post Oak Hotel -Custom Door Handles from Design to Casting

In an earlier piece we described how we were commissioned to make custom door handles for the landmark Post Oak Hotel. Here we give a brief preview of what is discussed in our newly created News section.

We were contacted by Gensler Architects to design handles for the shower doors for the luxury suites for the new Post Oak Hotel in downtown Houston. The handle needed to be 12” in height, round in shape, comfortable to grip and made in a durable alloy. As inspiration we were sent a photograph of a chain bracelet and Martin Pierce reinvented this as a metal braid which he sketched and used to create the first maquette.

As alternative design he sketched a piece which loosely resembled a chain of vertebrae or building blocks which he named “Segment”.

These drawings became the basis for the first patterns, molds and ultimately the prototype handles which were cast in stainless steel. For the braid handle he made 2 alternative ends, a soft rounded crown and a more contemporary flat version and it was the latter that went into full production.

Pattern making –

To create the Braid pattern Martin wove 3 stands of electrical wire into a tight braid which he used to create a simple mold so that the braid could be reproduced in resin. Seven sections of resin braid were made and individually fitted to the surface of a wooden dowel. The pattern was then tooled by hand to remove imperfections and to fill any small voids. The round ends were turned on a wood lathe. The Segment handle was assembled from different diameter dowels that Pierce cut at varying angles and then jointed to form a continuous length.

Too read and see more of this process please check out our News page.

Luxury Door Hardware is Defined by the Details

By choosing the lost wax method of casting and by casting only in silicon bronze or stainless steel we have by virtue of the casting method and type of alloy created door handles that are expensive. However, our focus on hand finished details from “chasing” the bronze castings to skillfully and slowly adding patina justifies the price tag. As a case study I have photographed the wine grotto door handles that I mentioned in a prior post.

When assembled each escutcheon plate with lever weighs 4lbs and measures 4” W x 14”H and all of it is silicon bronze not a precious material since it is not exactly rare, but certainly an expensive quality metal. Bronze is an alloy that flows well, and this makes it a perfect medium to capture the fine details and undulations of vine tendrils and leaves of this back-plate and lever. Once cast the bronze pieces need to be refined by hand to remove any debris or surplus metal that has attached to the surface and this done by using metal chisels and grinders through a process called “chasing”. After the larger imperfections have been removed the entire back-plate and lever are buffed with series of buffing tools with the grit of each becoming progressively finer until the bronze is free of abrasions and tool marks. The pieces are then ready to be immersed in a cold patina which reacts with the bronze to oxidize it and turn it black. The degree of darkness is determined by the length of time the piece is immersed and once achieved the piece is then neutralized in water to halt the chemical process.

Marked in Green Areas to be Chased Final piece after refining and with patina

Now the true artistry begins as we rework the piece to create highlights by buffing the surface in select areas thereby sanding through the patina to re-expose the golden bronze.