The foundations of our current products are not evolved from new technology. The skills have been around as long as man has been working with metals and wood.
It amazes me each time we go out to melt brass for our products that we are basically using the same processes practiced thousands of years ago in the bronze age.
Fortunately today we do not have to go out and find the ore and develop hot fires for our furnaces. We have a much easier time performing our work but the fact remains that the process is very much the same. Both our ancestors and ourselves melt metal and pour it into molds to make items needed.
Engraving is also an ancient art form some say dates back to the cavemen and the images scratched onto the walls of caves.
More realistically engraving evolved with the ability to work with wood and metal.
I guess that by being an engraver and a foundry man I am attracted to ancient art forms, the culmination of which is our engraved brass door knockers.
Combining engraving and cast brass to make wonderful personalized ornamental items also is not new. Brass has been one of the most popular mediums for engravers for centuries.
We have in our modern times electricity to power buffers and sanders and gasses such as propane and acetylene to make heat.
It is amazing though how much of our work is done with our hands. That is what separates us from the large production companies who only mass produce items.
Each step of our production is performed or processed by a person. I guess that makes the YDK line of products a bit old fashioned.
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