Refinishing Door Hardware, Part 2
Hello once again readers! As promised here is the rest of the much delayed story about Sam’s handle and door knocker.
So for a quick refresher (or you can read part one here), Sam wanted to have his handle, knocker, and lock cover plate refinished as part of a home remodeling project – but it turned out one of the pieces was made of steel, and the other two of white metal (for more on white metal, see our FAQ page). Polishing the pieces alone would have made the pieces a dull silver color.
This problem is actually not uncommon, though, and we have ways of dealing with these things. With a colored lacquer we can give steel, aluminum, white metal, or brass the look of a bronze piece. So after cleaning & polishing the handle and knocker, we sprayed on the color and they took on the dark, wrought, bronze look that Sam wanted. But there was one more hitch in the giddy-up.
Our color lacquer is a ‘dry’ lacquer – meaning that prolonged water exposure will wash the color off rather quickly. Since this is entry door hardware in the Midwest, you can see where that might be an issue. But again, we have a solution. For pieces that will be used or displayed outdoors we apply another lacquer, a water-proof formula intended for harbors. This allows the piece to still be beautiful, while protecting it from the elements for years and years.
In the end, the handle & knocker looked great. Sam got them installed, and sent us these pictures:
Here, again, is what they looked like before:
If you have any questions, or perhaps a project of your own you’d like us to take a look at, please leave a comment below, or send me an email!
