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

Painted Lady Butterflies and Their Influence on Door Hardware Designs

Painted Lady Butterflies and their influence on Hardware Designs

Like so many in Los Angeles we have been stunned and are “gob-smacked” at the multitude of Painted Lady Butterflies that we have seen this week. These small pretty insects are everywhere but only once has my iphone been to hand to snap a couple of shots.

While the monarch butterfly is sadly in rapid decline, for this year at least, the Painted Lady population is booming with billions passing through on their way north from the Mojave Desert. The exceptional rains that have put a temporary hold on California’s drought have given rise to an abundance of nectar as food for these migrating beauties. The short life cycle of a butterfly consists of 4 stages from egg, to caterpillar to pupae and then to butterfly and for the Painted Ladies lasts about 4 to 5 weeks.

I was surprised to discover that these small beauties can travel at speeds of 25 miles an hour and cover as much as 100 miles per day but this explains how they are able to make their trek from the Mojave to Northern California in their short lives.

We have been inspired by butterflies as well as bees, wasps and moths in our collection of insect cabinet pulls. We also have incorporated a butterfly as the thumb-latch for our entry way lizard handle set.

The Painted Lady captured here drinking from Clematis demonstrates this butterflies preference for purple clustered flowers, a fact observed by Katelyn Boisvert in her paper presented at the Young Naturalist Awards.

Unusual Refrigerator Door Handles - what to consider

High end refrigerator manufactures like Sub-zero allow consumers to customize the look of their refrigerator by selecting handles that will complement the style of their cabinet handles but deciding what handles will work both aesthetically and practically can be a challenge.

As a door hardware designer and manufacturer we thought we should review some of our handles to see which do and don’t work well for this use.

Before reviewing the styles there are some practical points to consider;

1.       You will need to order your refrigerator without the manufacturer’s standard issue handles and without the door being pre-drilled for the standard handle and also without the standard mounting brackets. The manufacturer will have their own door handle size and this is unlikely to be the same as the custom alternative.

2.       The alternative custom handle can then be installed either directly onto the refrigerator door or on to a custom panel that is being fabricated by your kitchen cabinet maker.

3.       Door pulls or grips rather than knobs work best as they allow you to more easily open the refrigerator if your hands are wet or full. A round or flat 90 degree angle is sadly the typical style for most refrigerator pulls and while these are easy to grip they are typically non-descript so use this as your practical starting point.

4.       While there is no standard length that is recommended for a refrigerator the grip will need to be attached at 2 points to the door panel and will need to be sturdy enough in size and width to easily open the door without difficulty and without coming lose after repeated use.

5.       You will need a professional cabinet maker or contractor to install the alternative handle in accordance with any manufacturer warranty guidelines.

Styles that work:

We see the kitchen area as a work space with surfaces that will need to be easily cleaned. My preference is to use more fluid slick styles without a lot of undercuts or filigree that will be difficult to clean. The Ergo and Morphic styles with the exception of the Morphic cylinder are good choices and look wonderful in stainless steel which will complement most refrigerator doors.

If you are using a wooden custom door then consider the Morphic and Ergo styles in bronze but with a baked enamel clear protective coating to help.

Refrigerator Door Handles

Tiger Illuminated Door Handle

Tiger Design for Illuminated Door Handle latest piece from Martin Pierce

The new Tiger Illuminated Door Handle has now been released into the wild or at least that is how we sometimes feel about the internet.  We have in previous posts explained how the pattern was created with old world skills using a scroll saw and aluminum sheet to create a durable pattern for lost wax casting. We have now completed  our first stainless steel castings and using energy efficient LED strip lights have created a color changing and single color illuminated Tiger door handle.

As is the case with all of  illuminated door pulls, the Tiger panel is  directly wired  with 22 gauge fine wires that are fed through the door frame into the decorative door panel.  The power is typically delivered to the door through an electric hinge and then conveyed to the handle through a low gauge harness that comes with the fixture and is ready for connection to a class 2 power supply.  

The Tiger door pull is UL listed and is lit with a flexible weatherproof strip  and encased in stainless steel which is corrosion resistant and durable.

Tiger is the fourth  piece in our collection of  illuminated door handles which include  Fish, Coral, and Morphic themes.

Work is continuing on the Hedgerow new tree handles  but as with any new design of this size and complexity there have been quite a few challenges to resolve and as we are now incorporating LED lights and have a left and right facing handle we have had a lot to think through.

Other illuminated designs are taking shape in Martin’s sketch book so stay in touch to see these as they evolve.

Making Unique Cabinet Knobs from 2 Dimensional Art

I have recently been sorting through our digital collection of Martin Pierce’s drawings and wanted to share these with our blog followers. As a door hardware designer, our clients who are themselves designers frequently ask us to create unusual cabinet knobs as statement pieces for residential projects and also for public spaces in commercial settings. If we are to be awarded the commission, then the first task is to come up with a beautiful drawing that will capture the interest of the designer. Some designers will have already sketched out their own ideas but for the majority of commissions we are given little to go by, which we like, as this gives Martin a broad creative license. We have shared with you how our Hawaiian door pulls began with a commission by designer Debbie Zylstra who was in search of cabinet knobs for an entertainment center and how the designs we created needed to incorporate local floral and bird life.

See Collection

The drawings above were the basis of the Hawaiian bird pulls and were approved as drawn. The drawings were done by hand old school fashion on a drawing board and then colored using a variety of colored pencils of the type available at any art supply store. While Martin does find some of the tools in Photoshop helpful, such as the transform and copy functions, his designs always begin with a free hand drawing, either in his sketch book, or on a larger scale on his drawing board.

Custom Door Handle Videos

At long last we are making videos for our custom door handles and will be sharing these with you both on our new Video Gallery and on YouTube and DailyMotion.

The first video was shot on location at a private residence and features our Lizard Entry Thumb latch set.

The big advantage to showing our custom hardware in this format is you get to see and understand what we mean by “functional art”. The lizard sculpture acts as a large bronze door pull and you grip the body of the lizard to open the door or in this case front gate. Above the lizard there is a sculpted bronze back-plate reminiscent of stone, on which a butterfly is perched. The butterfly is also a functioning thumb latch and when depressed it opens the gate by releasing the mortise lock.  On the reverse side or inside of the gate we used a smaller lizard sculpture to act as the door lever and to continue the natural theme mounted the lever on a bronze back-plate styled to resemble tree bark. Lizard food, in this case a small beetle, is used as a whimsical bronze turn piece that functions to either open or close the deadbolt.

As the lizards have been made as lefts and rights they will also will work well on door double doors or gates.

In this particular project we created custom grills at the top of the gate in the form of flax stems and appropriately added a left and right bronze frog to complete the entrance. As Martin Pierce is also a wood carver he carved a wooden raven head to house the chain for the house bell.

While I hope you find this description clear I hope you will agree that the video does a better job of capturing the three dimensional reality of this set.       

While videos are fun to watch they can be difficult to make  so our thanks go to Jeff Jenkins whose patience as  director and skill as a videographer made this project a success. Jeff’s work can be seen at;