Bronze or Stainless Steel Closet Door Pulls - making the right choice

We are always very grateful when clients share photos of our work installed in their homes  as we get to glimpse there use in real life. It can be a daunting task when choosing both the right style and the right alloy for a cabinet or closet door and the internet only helps if the user is savvy when searching the web and has a clear of what they like.

As a small company with limited advertising dollars we rely on the skill and tenacity of  consumers when searching for our products on the web. A recent search brought our work to the attention of a couple in the San Francisco area who were remodeling their master bathroom and bedroom.  

Original photograph courtesy of client

Both rooms were remodeled with contemporary clean lined cabinetry that would work equally well with the Ergo and Morphic styles. The client’s bathroom cabinets were made in teak a warmly colored and figured hard wood that worked well with the brown golden tones of the lightly patinaed bronze they chose as the finish for the Morphic cabinet handles. 

 A two- tone luster was selected for the Ergo stainless steel handles with polished and satin areas a finish that complimented the simple and neutral grey tones of the closet doors.  

Original photograph courtesy of client

Custom Designed Door Hardware some common misunderstandings

During the Covid lock down and after weeks of cooking and reading many turned their energies to drawing designs on their mobile devices and in their sketch pads.

This explains why there has been a flood of emails from consumers and the occasional designer who have an idea for a custom door handle they would like made. In the next few posts, I will be tackling the progressive stages involved from taking a design idea to creating a functional door handle or door pull. These 2 types of hardware are not synonymous as a door handle needs to be designed and engineered so that the knob or lever parts can turn and latch whereas a door pull has no moving parts.

So, let’s begin with the design process and see what needs to be considered.

One design still on the drawing board

Martin Pierce is constantly drawing ideas for door pulls and these typically start with a doodle or sketch done old style with a pencil and sketch book. Many of you will be equally skilled using your mobile device to create a digital drawing and we can consider these provided they are either pdf or jpegs. Regardless of medium the sketch will only be useful if it includes a profile or side view that shows the shape and curvature of the piece and whether it is suitable to work as a grip or pull for your hand (see the palm tree design above) . If you can’t visualize and accurately draw the profile, then it is time for you to re-think your hobbies. However, if you think your design does have potential then please make sure to copyright it even if this is the home version of mailing yourself a copy noting the date and with your signature.

For the ambitious who set out to design a handle they must also design the rose or back-plate. If the handle is to be fixed, then the task is easier as the rose/plate simply must be wide enough to be fastened to the door with screws that will attach both the rose and the knob or lever that will be welded to it. The back-plate and knob/lever are separate castings, and I will explain in a subsequent post why they cannot be created as one casting as well as what additional design drawings are required for a functional door set.

The scale and dimensions of your handle need to be added to your design including the depth for your profile. The depth or thickness of your design will have a direct impact on the weight of the cast handle. The heavier the piece the higher the cost as more bronze or stainless steel will be used in casting.

Making a door handle black - patination versus powder coating

Alloys like steel and bronze can be colored by immersion in a chemical patina such as the M20 chemical from Birchwood which is suitable for bronze or by baking on a layer of pigment powder to the surface of the handle. Neither method is superior to the other, but both have different benefits.

316 Stainless steel is better suited to powder coating as this type of steel is hard, dense and corrosion resistant making it difficult for chemicals to penetrate or to form a chemical bond with. Our Morphic and Ergo collections are typically cast in 316 stainless steel an alloy that lends itself to contemporary door handle designs.
Copper is the primary metal in bronze, and it will readily react and oxidize when exposed to acidic chemicals to form a new micro thin layer. The color that develops through this conversion of copper will depend on the chemicals used and the colors can range from blue greens to red browns to black.  To create black, we use M20 a product made by Birchwood Technologies and one that contains selenious acid which is the component that oxidizes the copper turning it brown or black depending on the number of applications and length of each treatment. As the depth of color can be built up over several immersions it is method well suited to a patina where you want a range of color and a more organic appearance. As the patina is micro-thin several layers can be built up and then sanded back to reveal a range of color. If a uniform effect is wanted then the handle can be immersed in a bath of this solution several times to develop an even color of the required darkness.

By comparison powder coating works well on 316 stainless steel as the pigmented layer is baked on to the surface of the piece and no penetration of the surface occurs. Powder coating offers a wider and more controllable range of color and luster with a wide range of standard colors and custom mixes available from companies like Prismatic who offer a choice of over 6,000 colors. https://www.prismaticpowders.com

Customizing a cabinet pull for a remodeled room

Occasionally I receive a call or email from a person looking for a cabinet pull to cover the holes that were unwittingly revealed when their kitchen or bathroom was remodeled.

 Our cabinet pulls are grouped by style in categories ranging from flying creatures to floral works to contemporary and futuristic pulls which can make it difficult when someone is looking for something merely to cover exposed holes. 

 The pages that were recently added to the cabinet hardware section of our site provide the center- to -center distance as part of the dimensional description and as a greyscale diagram making it easier to review which pieces will work or could be modified to work.

The mounting posts are inset from the top and bottom of the pull and their precise location depends on the style, weight and surface area of the pull.  As our work is made using the lost wax process some amount of customization is possible.

The mounting posts on the original pattern also act as gates through which wax and subsequently molten metal will flow. If the new center to center dimension is a little further or closer than our pattern we can modify the wax version and cut and re-position the posts so that their location will correspond to the existing holes of the cabinet. Such modifications are time consuming, and we would recommend a new pattern and mold be made for larger quantities.

A touch of color in time for Easter

As Easter approaches we wish you all a merry time and if you are lucky enough to live in Los Angeles then we hope you too will enjoy the wonderful warm days that are upon us.

The arrival of Spring has seen the arrival of colorful orders at Martin Pierce Hardware, and we wanted to share these lovely pieces with you.

The order shown here is an interesting collection of branch and flying insects all finished with an amber hot patina, applied by hand and at a safe arm’s length from the blow torch used to heat the bronze.

If you look closely you will see that the small butterflies also have dot eye markings on their wings a characteristic of many butterflies possibly used to attract a mate or deter a predator.

We have recently updated our website to show our unusual cabinet pulls form different perspectives and in 2 different finishes. The hot amber patina is available as a special-order patina.

All these pieces can be seen in our revised cabinet pull web pages and in our new digital catalogue.

Slim but Strong – using Cabinet Pulls for Closet Doors

The Ergo 12” cabinet pull is a slim curvaceous and very strong piece that belies its delicate features. It is cast either in 316 stainless steel or silicon bronze and both alloys perform well in terms of tensile strength. In other posts I have described how the chemistry of each, and the method of manufacturing impacts the strength, corrosion resistance and malleability of each alloy.
Tensile strength is measured in terms of yield strength and ultimate strength. The former indicates the metals’ ability to be stressed to the point where it is distorted or does not return to its original cast shape. Ultimate strength refers to the breaking point of a metal (see footnotes at the end of this post).
Recently the Ergo cabinet pull has been specified for use on closet doors and the customer needed reassurance that the pull was strong enough to act as a door pull. To demonstrate this, I used a heavy display board laden with several pieces and weighing a total of 40lbs and easily lifted it using the Ergo pull.

While an alloys strength is important if a pull is to be used for a heavy door it is worth noting that the hinges of the door take the brunt of the heavy lifting and their number and strength will have a greater bearing on the pull’s performance.

The scale of a cabinet pull is equally important when assessing its suitability as a door pull. The closet doors in this instance were double doors each measuring 18” W by 90”H so worked well with a 12” pull.

Step by Step process till a sophisticated 2 tone gem is created;

1. Red Wax Replicas made in a rubber mold for every pull one wax will be made; each will be shelled then invested with 316 stainless steel

2. Once cast the pieces are ground to remove the gates, the pieces are cleaned and then each is polished on all sides

3. Top photo if you zoom in you will see how the pull is masked with blue tape - once in place the piece is sand polished with a fine grit of sand to create a satin finish. The end result is a 2 tone polished-satin finish.

To learn more about how metals vary in tensile strength.

Grand Entry Doors - Using Cremone Bolts to Secure Tall Doors

The Heroic Hedgerow door grip as is clear from its name is a substantial piece whose size, detail and beauty make it a perfect choice for large scaled single or double entry doors. For security, we recommend a mortise lock and use the American made Accurate mortise lock, an industry leader known for their superior locks. The lock is incorporated using an unobtrusive rose and a keyed mortise deadbolt whose size does not detract from the dramatic tree grips.

Large double doors can be made even more secure with a rod bolt that when engaged locks the door into the header and threshold. These types of bolt are often referred to as Cremone bolts or Espagnolettes and they have been used for centuries. The less mechanized form of this bolt is available for our Willow collection. We are currently developing a mechanized and long form of this bolt for both the Willow and Hedgerow collections.

Our motivation to extend the Cremone bolt collection stems from the limitations of the multi-point lock which is the modern-day equivalent to the Espagnolettes. Multi-point locks are designed to be concealed within the door stile and usually function with an exterior lever. Door levers are necessarily small in scale as they need to be easy to grip and depress by even the smallest of hands. The escutcheon needs to be proportional to the lever and the result is a handle set that is overshadowed by the door. Some multi-point locks use a knob to activate the lock but again the scale of this is inappropriate for larger doors. While certain manufacturers appear to offer a multi-point grip.

Cabinet pulls undergo website re-model

It’s official, we have completed the remodel of the cabinet pull section of our website and hope that you will enjoy the new look and details.
Why the changes?
We have re-photographed our work in-house with the use of a light-box and a Canon EOS Rebel 35mm camera to better capture the detailed nature of our castings and to show that these fine details are not limited to one facet but are on all facets of each piece.
By showing different perspectives we hope to encourage customers to think outside the usual horizontal and vertical placement of pulls and consider different angles and directions for a more creative arrangement. Since our work is often described as whimsical customers should have some fun when facing the daunting task of planning their new home or remodel.

We hope we have made the task of pull placement easier with our black and white diagrams that show the width, height, depth and distance between mounting screws for each pull. The diagrams also show the distance between different points on a given line thereby removing some of the stress when figuring out the difference in meaning of “depth” versus “height” and “length”.

The new web pages also show the difference in appearance between our popular light and dark oil rubbed finishes. We still offer nickel plating and colored hot patinas so please contact us to discuss other finish options.
The images and diagrams have been complied in a new digital pdf that can be downloaded from each of the new pages or downloaded below.

Using Wax Facsimiles to Create Bronze Door Handles

Manufacturing artistic bronze handles in the investment method of casting is an inherently labor intensive process. Every decorative aspect of the door set has to be created in wax. A single door set requires a minimum of 4 wax patterns 2 for the left and right levers and 2 for the backplates. Some levers and knobs require 2 wax patterns to be poured as separate waxes and later fused together to create one complete wax pattern.
The Hedgerow lever is extremely detailed requiring 2 molds one for the tree canopy and one for each of the left and right facing tree branches. The canopy and tree branches are melded together using a small heated pen blade, the edge of each wax is gently melted and the two are pressed together to form a tight bond.

A metal spindle is used to connect the 2 levers of a door set and to accommodate this we have to create a small cavity in the end of the wax lever. We either add the shape of the ferrule to the pattern so that this detail becomes part of the wax facsimile or we add a separate ferrule that is machined in steel. In either case to preserve the ferrule shape and to prevent the cavity from subsequently filling-up with silica slurry a tightly fitting ceramic core is place inside the ferrule before the wax pieces are shelled.

To see the end result visit Willow

The final casting is shown below and is part of a complete collection of tree-inspired designs

Seagulls and Bears – unusual Hollywood neighbors

Unlike much of the country winter in Hollywood is usually warm and sunny making it a good time to enjoy a long walk to the historical Lake Hollywood aka the Mulholland dam.

Spending more time at my home-office I have become aware of the variety of birds who visit ranging from the melodious bulbuls and song sparrows to the deep throated sonorous crows and ravens. While seagulls may not be gifted with such distinctive voices, they make up for this with their sheer numbers and easy to follow daily trajectory to the small lake nestled below the Hollywood sign.

Hundreds of Seagulls resting in the morning sun on Lake Hollywood

The Mulholland Dam was constructed as a reservoir in the 1920’s and was named after the historical legend who is associated with its beleaguered history. The dam was almost identical in design to the St. Francis dam that sadly collapsed and killed hundreds of residents in the area we now know as Valencia or Santa Clarita. The St. Francis tragedy caused a public outcry and demands that the new dam be scrapped. As an alternative the water level of the dam was permanently limited to well below design capacity and the area south of the buttress was backfilled with vast amounts of soil and vegetation that now conceal the damns presence. The result over 90 years later is that dam no longer functions as a reservoir but as a lake that is home to thousands of seagulls and other water birds. The area south of the lake has beautifully matured with native shrubs and tall pines all guarded by a row of bear gargoyles in honor of our state residents.

 To see examples of how birds inspire our work.

Swallow cabinet pull

https://www.martinpierce.com/unusual-cabinet-pulls-insect-collection

To read more about the history of Lake Hollywood please visit:

https://la.curbed.com/2019/2/5/17434640/william-mulholland-dam-collapse-water-los-angeles-history

https://waterandpower.org/museum/Mulholland_Dam_and_Hollywood_Reservoir.html

New Developments Dog Door Knobs

New Developments – Dog Door Knobs

This year we will be launching an unusual collection of door knobs inspired by our dog Iris and by other canines plus a few cats.

In 2014 Martin sculpted a life size portrait of Iris, our much-loved Pitbull. The portrait took several months to complete, and it is one of the few pieces that we value as a wood sculpture and have no plans to portray Iris as a full-scale bronze. Many of our friends and neighbors are dog owners and the idea of creating a series of dog handles began to take shape.

For details on how Martin sculpted Iris

Martin began the series by sketching some of the common breeds we see on our daily Iris walks. We live in Beachwood Canyon, a neighborhood in Los Angeles that has a lot of dog lovers so finding suitable subjects was easy but deciding on which to include was not. We also have friends who are equally smitten by their cats so decided to include a few cats.

The new collection when launched will include 8 dog and 4 cat breeds. I use the word breed very loosely as the aim of the series is to represent the general head characteristics associated with each breed as artistically interpreted by Martin. The collection in deference to their numbers and good looks will also include a fluffy mutt of unknown lineage.  

The dog and cat collections will be available as functional door knob sets, door knockers, or as clothing or leash hooks and door pulls.

Monumental Dragonflies and Butterflies

Elizabeth Locker has shared with us pictures of her beautifully designed monument that artistically incorporates free spirited dragonflies from our animal collection of cabinet pulls.

Residents of Ohio will be familiar with Elizabeth Locker and Jason Hess, owners of Modern Monument a company that specializes in creating original and highly artistic commemorative headstones. Working with in-house stone masons and artisans they  offer  a wide range of inscribed designs that include animal and bird themes,  musical motifs  and sports and outdoor themes. Our cabinet pulls are usually attached by bolting a machine screw through the back of a cabinet door and then screwing the threaded end into the hole at the back of the pull. The dragonfly has one central mounting post with a small base making it nearly impossible to surface mount.

Photograph courtesy of Elizabeth Locker, Modern Monument

When asked to make the dragonflies for headstone Elizabeth requested that they be secure and not able to be easily removed and that they be finished with a patina that would age well.

To make the pull secure we welded a bronze flange onto the base making the area wide enough to take 2 screws. The screws were cemented with an epoxy resin into the base and the screw heads were cut off. Two holes were then drilled into the headstone and the dragonfly was then secured in place with epoxy.
As our bronze pieces are typically oil rubbed they naturally develop a living patina and over time will darken and age elegantly.

The monument design has inspired a second commission from Elizabeth, this time she will be artistically placing our large butterfly as well as 2 dragonflies.

Back-to-Back Mirrored Door Handles

The Heroic Vine is a very organic piece and is not symmetrical but slightly asymmetric meaning the top and bottom are different and the front and back faces also are slightly different.
Two of these were ordered as a set to be mounted back-to-back on a glass door panel and the client requested that they be “mirrored”.

This raised an interesting question and in answering I was faced with a mind teaser that took me down Alice’s rabbit hole into the world of symmetry.

When we describe 2 images as being mirrored, we are stating that the one image is a reverse of the other and we can flip the image in a program like Photoshop to achieve this. While this is easy to do with a flat or 2-dimensional image this can only be achieved with a 3-dimensional object if is completely symmetric as would be case in a perfectly spherical orb or cylindrical tube. In both cases one can turn the object on its head, rotate it etc. and we will always be viewing the “face”.

This is not the case with any of the door pulls we make as we do not make any that are plain tubes or orbs. However, we can still create a mirrored set provided one face of the handle is symmetrical and the design at the top is the mirror image of the design at the bottom. The Morphic Serpentine handle is a good example with the top lacey pattern bending to the right and the bottom bending to the left.

If the handle design is not symmetrical, we can only create a truly mirrored set if we have a left and right facing design as is the case with our Hedgerow heroic tree handles.

The Grapevine heroic handle is not symmetrical and not directional. The “front” of the handle is different to the “back” as is the “top” to the “bottom”. As a set and when mounted back-to-back on glass they are best described as an organic mirror of each other.

A New Beginning For America

We hope for a brighter future and a new beginning for America.

Inspired by the inauguration and the hopes that it represents we spent a few hours today creating a flag using orchid pulls and our raven sculpture as symbols for a new beginning.

Orchid Cabinet Pull Collection

New Cabinet Pull Direction for 2021

In 2021 we will be gradually be re-formatting our website so that our unique cabinet knobs and pulls can be viewed in greater detail and from different perspectives. This project started in 2020 and it has been quite an undertaking requiring each piece to be photographed several times, then clearly outlined in Photoshop and re-created as a dimensional diagram. We hope the result will allow viewers to appreciate the beauty of each pull and see how each is installed with either a single mount or double screw mount. The new pages will go live when all 70 pieces have received this attention so these posts will be a preview of what is to come.

Our cabinet pulls have been reorganized according to their style and on the number, we could fit onto one page for each collection. The size of the page did present a real challenge when it came to plants and creatures with somewhat arbitrary collections for flowers and plants and animals and flying creatures, but our hope is that viewers will be sufficiently inspired to browse all pages and not be deterred by categories.

The dragonfly is the piece we chose to represent our flying creatures and he/she is attached to with a single screw from the back of the cabinet drawer into the center post which is pre-drilled and screw ready, yes, all of our cabinet pulls come with screws.

The Hedgerow branch pull is attached with 2 screws also applied from the back of the cabinet drawer at a distance of 3 ½” between the centers of the screws. Many of our cabinet pulls can be adapted for surface mounting from the face of the piece but you will need to check with us to see if this is possible for the piece you are considering.

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

In these dark times we do see some light at the end of the Covid tunnel and used our hopefulness and playfulness to create an imaginary tunnel with our real butterfly cabinet pulls.

May 2021 be a HAPPY YEAR for EVERYONE.

The small butterfly used here is one from our collection of flying creatures a rather whimsical and artistic collection of animal cabinet pulls. The patina used was a hot amber patina with black spots decorating the wings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL AT MARTIN PIERCE HARDWARE

We wish you festive seasonal cheer and hope that next year will be a happier and healthier year for all.

A Collage Made Using Our Hedgerow Small Tree and Our Moth Cabinet Pull

The flotilla of moths is a design that we will be staying with for the cover of our new cabinet pull catalogue which we will be adding to our site next year. Stay tuned as we update our website to include more cabinet pull photographs, drawing and other details.

Wine Cellar Door Handles and Shell Casting

All of our smaller cabinet pulls and many of our slim elongated handles are cast in solid bronze or stainless steel but other pieces, including the Grapevine Heroic Pull are cast using a hollow shell to create a hollow casting. The complexity of the design and the weight of the alloy determine whether the piece is to be cast as a solid handle. For example, the ergo extended pull is 35” and the Grapevine is 42” but the Ergo pull would be prone to warping if it were a hollow casting but being a little slimmer when cast is a manageable 10.5 lbs. By comparison, the Grapevine handle is considerably longer but because it is hollow cast is only 1lb heavier.
In a previous post I described how a wax pattern is made and how the location and number of wax runners and gates determine how the wax and subsequent bronze will flow. Whether the casting is a success will also depend on how the piece is shelled and how the shell is subsequently removed.

3 Wax Sections - Access Holes Added to Each So That The Hard Shell Can Be Removed From the Inside of the Castings

The wax replicas are repeatedly dipped into a fine ceramic slurry. The slurry needs to be fine to capture the detail on the surface of the wax replica and enough coats need to be built up to form a strong wall casing around the wax. The outer layers of the slurry are reinforced with coarser fibers that help create a stronger wall. The shell is then fired to create an extraordinarily strong casing and the wax is removed leaving the shell hollow and ready to receive molten metal. Once cast the shell will be broken off and the casting will be ready to finish.
The Grapevine handle is cast in 3 sections with 3 hollow waxes making 3 bronze castings that are welded together to create one handle. As the entire inside and outside surface of each wax section will be encased in a ceramic shell, we created holes or patches in the wax as access points. These holes or patches were also shelled and then cast in bronze. After the bronze castings were poured, we were able to remove the hard shell from inside the casting by sandblasting the interior through the access holes. The bronze patches or plugs are then welded onto the casting the 3 pieces are welded together and the welding joints are tooled by hand to create a seamless piece.
Each wax section of the Grapevine handle required 2 to 3 patches.

Access Holes Created In the Wax - The Removed “Patch” Is Cast In Bronze - Patch Seamlessly Welded In Place

How to Cast Bronze Butteflies - Good and Bad Runners and Gates

How to Cast Bronze Butterflies – Good and Bad Sprues and Gates
When designing a piece for investment or lost wax casting a lot of time is spent creating the original pattern and subsequent mold. When the pattern is created its shape and undercuts will determine whether one or more molds needs to be developed so that the detail of the original is captured and so that subsequent waxes can easily be released from the mold.

When the mold is being made it is important to anticipate how the molten metal will subsequently flow into the void of the ceramic shell. The shelling process and the function of the autoclave are discussed in earlier posts. The mold we made for the large butterfly was a two-part rubber mold and the pattern was carved in wood. We added wax runners and one large wax sprue to the butterfly pattern and made a hollow box to hold the butterfly. The area where the wax runner attaches to the pattern is often referred to as a gate. The number of runners and their size and location play a key role in determining whether the bronze will pour easily, and the casting will be successful.

The rubber mold is created by pouring a cold rubber solution into the box containing the butterfly with its runners attached. The rubber encases the butterfly and its attachments, and when set, the 2- part mold will be opened, the pattern will be removed, and a hollow mold will be left. Hot wax will then be poured in through the center hole or sprue and helped along by gravity and some gentle rotation will travel down the central sprue and into the runners to fill the void created around the butterfly pattern.
In this post I am including 2 examples of a well gated wax and a poorly gated wax together with shots showing the resulting bronze castings.
While it may be tempting to assume that more gates will ensure a successful casting, having more gates will impact the speed, pressure and temperature of the flowing bronze and the success of the casting. Having more gates will also increase the labor intensity of cleaning the casting as all the gates need to be ground off.

Unlike the butterfly on the left the bronze did not flow to fill the wing tip of the right butterfly so the casting was rejected and the bronze was melted down and re-cycled

A beautiful butterfly pull can only emerge from a perfect casting.

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing you all a very Happy and Well Thanksgiving. We have created a collage of festive leaves using our Vine cabinet pull and have created a new font from our Orchid pulls, a creative pleasure to celebrate this time of year.

Orchid cabinet pulls nickel plated over solid bronze