The last couple of days, Dave and I have been trying to finalize the hardware for our interior doors. Did I tell you that the interior doors (4 of them) have all arrived in unfinished condition? They have come with hinges but Dave and I have always been a sucker for interesting hardware and things of that nature. We wanted something interesting. Of course we did. We also wanted interesting knobs/handles for our doors.
Last summer, Dave and I were in Cape Cod and we frequented numerous antique shops. We also went to New England Demolition and Salvage in New Bedford. We purchased several sets of solid brass door handles/levers. One I especially liked is wrought iron and brass. I believe they are very old and handmade.
This past summer I cleaned them all. I also cleaned up a box of porcelain and stoneware knobs that I have picked up in box lots at auctions for a couple of dollars. To clean them, I followed the recipe from This Old House magazine which said to place the hardware in a crockpot on low with one tablespoon of dish soap and let it go for at least several hours. I let it go quite a while - maybe 12 hours or so. This cleaning gets the grime off and also any paint that may be on it. The fixtures come out clean. I then rubbed them all with paste wax and buffed them up a little bit. Then I packed them away. Last night we pulled out the box and looked at the sets again.
We understood that we would need to purchase additional parts to make these sets work in our doors. What we didn't realize is that we really only have two sets that would work. We have some handles that are both right handed which will not work. Oh woe is us. But what we decided is:
1. We should have been smarter about our purchases.
2. We can still probably use the levers on cupboards, we think, anyway. Time will tell. But, we'll handle it.
Last summer, Dave and I were in Cape Cod and we frequented numerous antique shops. We also went to New England Demolition and Salvage in New Bedford. We purchased several sets of solid brass door handles/levers. One I especially liked is wrought iron and brass. I believe they are very old and handmade.
This past summer I cleaned them all. I also cleaned up a box of porcelain and stoneware knobs that I have picked up in box lots at auctions for a couple of dollars. To clean them, I followed the recipe from This Old House magazine which said to place the hardware in a crockpot on low with one tablespoon of dish soap and let it go for at least several hours. I let it go quite a while - maybe 12 hours or so. This cleaning gets the grime off and also any paint that may be on it. The fixtures come out clean. I then rubbed them all with paste wax and buffed them up a little bit. Then I packed them away. Last night we pulled out the box and looked at the sets again.
We understood that we would need to purchase additional parts to make these sets work in our doors. What we didn't realize is that we really only have two sets that would work. We have some handles that are both right handed which will not work. Oh woe is us. But what we decided is:
1. We should have been smarter about our purchases.
2. We can still probably use the levers on cupboards, we think, anyway. Time will tell. But, we'll handle it.
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