Your Door Knocker » brass door knocker

brass door knocker cleaning

admin — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:40:40 +0000

In normal use your brass door knocker should not require much attention. It should just hang on your door looking good for many many years to come.

Occasionally a cleaning may be necessary.

Care should be taken if you attempt to clean your brass door knocker. Like the rest of your brass door hardware it will scratch easily. Most door hardware made of brass is lacquer coated to protect the brass from the elements. It is this lacquer coating that prevents the oxygen in the air from causing the brass to tarnish or oxidize.

Aggressive cleaning can damage this lacquer coating or even remove it entirely. Your brass hardware will tarnish rapidly without its lacquer coating to protect it.

The best cleaning method is to simply spray it off with a hose. This should also clean off the door it is mounted on.

If further cleaning is really necessary use only mild detergents and very soft cloth wipes. Gently wipe any dirt away with horizontal strokes across the door knocker.

If the lacquer is damaged it can usually be removed by soaking the door knocker in lacquer thinner. After the lacquer is removed you will need to polish the surface to get any dirt or tarnish off. You will have to be very careful to not damage any engraving that may be on the door knocker.

The problem you will face is finding a suitable lacquer to refinish the door knocker. Most spray products found in the discount stores and hardware stores will provide disappointing results.

In most cases a brass door knocker that has been purchased from us can be refinished in our studio for a very small handling and shipping charge if this is process is ever necessary.

Making A Brass Door Knocker

admin — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:51:44 +0000

In recent weeks we have been developing a new brass door knocker design in our small foundry. I have been directly involved with the entire process.

The first step was to design the door knocker we wanted to make. In this case it is an inverted urn design about 7-1/2″ tall. Being engravers we wanted 2 large areas where we could do our personalization work.

When we completed our design the pattern had to be made. This is the piece that will be duplicated in the molding process. We carved a detailed door knocker out of wood to serve this purpose. Two pieces were required, one for the clapper and one for the door knocker body.

When the pattern is completed we can make our sand mold. This involves packing sand very tightly into a two part box with the pattern in the middle. When the box is opened and the pattern taken out it leaves a cavity where it was for us to pour our brass into.

Of all the foundry experiences the most exhilarating is the actual pouring of the brass into the mold. Our furnace heats the brass until it melts into a liquid. Once it is liquid it must be heated more to get it hot enough to pour completely filling the cavity left by our pattern in the sand.

At this point the crucible containing our hot brass is lifted out of the furnace using a special handle and gloves. We are talking really hot here. Nearly 2000F.

With great care we pour our liquid brass into the mold.

Now we must wait until the brass solidifies in the mold. When that is done we can break away the sand and there is our part.

If all went well there will be no flow marks or voids in the casting and it can be taken to the finishing department where it will be ground and polished into a finished part.

Over the years I have worked on thousands of brass door knockers. This was the first time I experienced the actual birth of one.

It is hard to describe all this in words. We have added some pictures to the site starting at this page

click here for foundry page

from there you can follow the links at the bottom of the page.

brass door knocker pattern

admin — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:55:48 +0000

Our experience in the foundry making our brass door knocker didn’t start in the foundry at all. As a matter of fact there is a lot of work to be done before the foundry work can even begin. First of all we need something to cast. We call this the pattern.

It seems that our brass door knocker must first be made out of wood. At least the pattern for it will be.

Our completed door knocker requires two castings. One casting for the body and another for the clapper. We will need a pattern for each casting.

Before we can make a pattern we need to come up with a design. Drawing it out on paper is good, a computer drawing program is better. We need to create a scale drawing that shows what the final product will look like. Every detail that we can imagine should be included in the drawing. This will help us find problems before we begin.

When the drawing is completed we can trace the outline on a piece of wood to be cut out sort of like a silhouette. The rest of the details will need to be carved and filed in until an exact 3-D replica of the part is achieved.

The pattern becomes one of the most important components in the casting process. All the rest of the work creating a quality product depends a good properly made pattern.

It must be strong enough to stand the mold making process. It must be shaped with the proper tapers to exit the mold during preparation. There are a lot of factors that go into getting the pattern just right. It may take a couple trial castings to get all the bugs worked out.

When the pattern is ready we can progress to the next step in making our brass door knocker. Taking it to the mold shop where the sand mold will be made. That is the subject of the next post coming soon.

brass door knockers in the foundry

admin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:18:12 +0000

The posts have been scarce lately as I have been spending a good deal of time in the foundry with the development of our latest brass door knocker design.

Two years ago I would have never imagined actually creating our own castings. Until now we have sourced our castings from production foundries many located in another country. This created many logistical problems as well as long lead times. It would take months from the time of an order until they actually arrived here.

The foundry we are developing is small by most standards. We are building it for the sole purpose of making some of our brass door knockers, brass door plates and associated small hardware. This will not be a large production shop but instead a very specialized work area with a specific purpose. The development and production of high quality unique Your-Door-Knocker products. The brass door knocker we are currently working on will be the first one produced here.

The process of creating a brass door knocker from scratch involves much more than the hot furnace melting metal that most people picture in their minds eye. In reality it is a four step process that includes pattern development, mold making, casting and finally finishing. Each step is quite involved and necessary to the development of a quality product.

This is not new technology. The process itself is over 2000 years old but it is still as exciting to this old man as each sunrise. There is nothing quite like the exhilaration of pouring 1800 degree molten metal into a sand mold to form a casting.

Over the next series of posts I will attempt to describe the process of building a brass door knocker from scratch.

I am finding this process very exciting as I hope you will too.

brass for your door knocker

admin — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:48:50 +0000

Brass is an excellent material for door knockers.

Brass is a nonferrous metal with good electrical and thermal properties. It also has excellent strength and corrosion resistance. Being an alloy it is available in many varieties. Not all brasses can make good brass door knockers though.

Brass is not a natural element, it is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). Other elements such as lead, nickel and tin may be added to the mix to achieve certain properties. Depending on the final product to be made the mixture making up the brass can vary. Some brass parts need to be strong while some may need to be resistant to salt water and still others may simply need to look good. The recipe can be changed to accommodate each of theses requirements.

Sometimes the changes cannot be detected just by looking and other times differences are quite apparent. Some of the changes affect the color of the brass which can vary from silver to gold to red depending on the mixture.

A door knocker needs to be made from a bright yellow brass that casts and polishes well. It must also be machinable and engraveable.

The desired properties are achieved by keeping the copper content around 67%-72%, the zinc content around 24%-29% with 1%-3% each of tin and lead. As a general rule the higher the copper and lower the zinc contents, the softer and easier to machine the brass is.

The addition of a small amount of lead makes the brass easier to machine. Tin is added to increase strength and corrosion resistance. Tin will also help prevent the zinc from leaching out of the brass over time.

A quality finished product requires a quality “recipe” for the brass. There are many specifications written for brass that may apply to different industries. Standards are written by such organizations as ASTM, SAE, CDA and MILITARY to name a few.

The elements that make up the brass are mixed in a foundry. They are melted together at temperatures that vary around 1800F – 1950F. When molten the liquid mixture can be poured into a mold to form the product or poured into an ingot for storage for later use. Most product foundries purchase the brass already mixed in ingot form. The ingot is then remelted and poured into a mold to make a product.

After the brass is molded into a shape it is called a casting. The casting is then polished, finished and machined into the completed brass door knocker.

Door Knocker Surface Mount

admin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:52:38 +0000

Surface mount for door knockers has become very popular in recent years. Surface mounting uses screws passing through the door knocker and into the door. It is a relatively easy mounting method and holes do not need to be drilled all the way through the door. When using a surface mount there is no mounting hardware visible on the inside of the door.

This method works best on wooden doors although it can be used on metal and filled doors. The screws supplied with our Your-Door-Knocker.com door knockers are #6 wood screws. They are made of brass and finished to match the door knocker. These screws will not work well or at all on metal or filled doors without a little help.

If using a surface mount on metal or filled doors, plastic anchors available in most hardware stores should be used. A plastic anchor will give the wood screw something to thread into. A wood screw does not have the same threads as a metal screw so it simply will not grip into the metal. The metal used to make the door is probably harder than the brass. The brass screw will in all likelihood break off if you try to force it into a metal door without using an anchor.

Most filled doors have a relatively thin plastic or acrylic skin. While you may be able to get the screw to thread into this material, it will not hold the screw securely. Over time the screws will loose their grip and become loose without an anchor.

Plastic anchors are not supplied with our door knockers. They will need to be purchased if needed. Our surface mount door knockers use #6 size screws. Anchors will need match this size for a proper fit.

The plastic anchor is a very simple device and easy to use. The packaging it came in should tell you the size hole to drill in the door. The plastic anchor is then inserted into the hole and the screw for the door knocker screwed into the anchor. The plastic will accept the treads of the screw. As an added benefit the anchor stretches out on the inside of the door as the screw is passing through it. This makes a solid mounting to the door.

You can find more information on door knocker surface mount on the installation page of our site.

Why brass for my door knocker?

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:55:05 +0000

Brass is an excellent material with which to make door knockers. This is not to demean cast iron, aluminum, wrought iron or other materials. Each of these have their benefits. Brass in my opinion has more.

Brass machines, casts and polishes well. In its natural form, brass polishes to a brilliant sheen. This shiny gold surface is beautiful in itself. This is not the only finish possible when using brass. A skilled worker can produce a wonderful satin finish on the surface. Applying an oxidizer and then polishing again an antique brass finish is achieved.

These are not the only finishing options. Brass also electroplates well. Nickel or copper plating can create many more possibilities.

We use all these methods in our your-door-knocker studio

Aside from the finishing options available brass machines and casts very well. Intricate patterns and shapes are possible by casting the molten metal in a mold.

One of the areas we are very concerned with in our studio is the engraving characteristics of brass. Brass cuts cleanly and evenly to create high quality engravings.

Of course the user would be curious about the life of the brass door knocker. Brass is a non-ferrous metal. This means that it will not rust. It will however oxidize if not protected from the air around it. In very little time the surface will tarnish with oxidation and turn dark.

The only way to prevent brass from oxidizing is with a protective layer. A clear weather proof lacquer is the preferred method. We apply our lacquer coating as one of the final steps. By applying the lacquer as one of the last steps our brass door knockers are protected entirely including the engraved area.

Brass door knockers in many forms have become a familiar site on our homes.