Ironmongery Blog

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We couldn’t believe our eyes this morning.

Having a snoop around one of our competitors web sites we noticed what can only be described as totally false & misleading claims as to the country of origin of many of the items in one of their product ranges.

The web site concerned is www.handles4doors.co.uk and the range in question is Prima Antique Brass.

Now, we have nothing against them promoting this range with the use of phrases such as “unique antique finish” (although we would have to ask in what way is it unique) and “skilled finishing process”, and we don’t even mind if they use words like “quality” (remember, though, that you can’t make a sows purse from a pigs ear). We could, indeed, sell exactly the same products from exactly the same source if we wanted to (which we don’t because we value our reputation for supplying quality products).

What we object to in the strongest possible terms is the use of the phrase “British Made” which seems to have been used with gay abandon in many of the product descriptions.

The vast majority of this product range is, in fact, manufactured to dubious quality standards in India (except for a couple of exceptions which are made in Europe). They are shipped to the UK in their normal brass laqcuered finish (which isn’t highly polished despite other claims on the same web site) and are then sent away to be de-lacquered, re-finished and then re-lacquered. Whilst we know that the re-finishing is indeed carried out in the UK, we do not see how the products can then be described as “British Made”.

We have emailed the company concerened asking them to confirm the country of origin of this product range - to date we have not yet received a response.

It’s been a long time coming but we have just uploaded our new and improved on line shop for our Black Cast Malleable Ironmongery products. Having done some initial test orders it looks at though it is working without any major problems (we did notice a few spelling errors but these are being rectified as and when we come across them).

We are very pleased wih the final design which has been the result of many months of late nights and early mornings all washed down with copius amounts of strong coffee. We do not use the sevices of any web masters or designers and so we can honestly say that the finished product is all down to our (my) hard work.

Take a look at http//www.blackironmongery.co.uk and send us your comments (which we’ll probably ignore).

It should be noted that we have removed our Hand Forged Ironmongery range from this site as we wanted to dedicate it entirely to our British made Cast Malleable Black Iron products. We are embarking on a new site for our Hand Forged range and this should be up and running in a few months (baring any mishaps, accidents or nervous breakdowns).

Back with more Ironmongery related news as soon as possible.

We were pleased to have been chosen to supply ironmongery for the new River Cottage HQ in Musbury, East Devon.

Items from our “Works in Iron” Range of Rustic of Hand Forged Ironmongery were selected by Saturn Architects of London to compliment the existing 18th Century fittings.

The products were purchased by Magenta Building Conservation Ltd, specialists in the repair and refurbishment of historical buildings, and included the following:
12 ” Penny End T Hinges
Suffolk Thumb Latches
Cupboard Pull Handles
Cupboard Latches
Door Bolts
H Hinges
and Door Knob Handles

Cast iron products have been familiar to the general public for many years. However, there are many varieties of cast irons all of which have different properties and applications.

Whiteheart Malleable Iron was and still is the most appropriate material for the production of Black Antique Iron door and window ironmongery fittings. It’s strength and durability qualities help give it the long life you would expect from a quality product.

All of our Black Antique Period Ironmongery products are manufactured in Britain from 100% Whiteheart Malleable Iron and should not be confused with the cheaper cast iron or iron/zinc alloy products that so many of our competitors seem only too willing to pass off as the real thing.

You will find many internet sites offering ”Black Antique” products. However, very few of the ranges available are manufactured using the true Whiteheart Malleable Iron process. As a result, these products do not have the style and authenticity of genuine Black Antique Cast Iron products and will not give you the service and lifespan expected.

Before purchasing any of these products you should ask the following questions:

1. Are your products 100% Whiteheart Malleable Iron ?
2. What is the country of origin ? (most of the ranges available are cheap foriegn imports manufactured under dubious working and environmental conditions)

Our Black Antique Ironmongery products have been manufactured by hand in Walsall, West Midlands for over 150 years using the greensand casting process.

After the first stage of production the castings are hard and brittle and cannot be hammered, filed or rivited into finished products. The castings are therefore subjected to a heat treatment process known as Annealing. In this process the castings are surrounded by an inert haematite ore within iron drums and loaded into ovens of six to eight tons capacity. The ovens take about two days to reach the Annealing temperature of 980C. The castings are then soaked at this temperature for around 80 hours after which they are allowed to cool naturally. During this process the carbon structure of the iron is changed. As a result the castings are no longer hard and brittle but soft and malleable.

After shot blasting and grinding to remove any rough edges the castings are assembled into finished or semi-finished products. After assembly a rust proofing finish is applied followed by a two coat paint process.

We hope that the foregoing has been interesting and informative and will help develop a greater understanding of what is involved in the production of traditional hand made British ironmongery.

We recently supplied ironmongery from our British Brass and Bronze range for renovation work at Scotney Castle in Kent.

Part of the work included some very high double cupboard doors and we were asked to provide suitable bolts to keep the inactive leaves shut - these needed to be at least 900mm long so that they could be easily reached by the staff.
This did not cause us any problems and we supplied 1000mm long traditional brass barrel bolts in polished brass unlacquered finish from one of our British manufacturers.

http://www.theheritagetrail.co.uk/castles/scotney%20castle.htm

We would like to thank Yesterday’s World for awarding us with the “Best Dressed Shop Window” accolade during their grand pageant in Battle at the weekend.

We had used the theme of a Victorian Ironmongers for our window and displayed many of our period door and window fittings together with original adverts from the period for items such as Knife Sharpeners, Gas Laundry Irons, Mangles and the like.

We always get a very good response to our ever changing window but it was nice to be officially recognised for our efforts.

These brass and iron Rim Locks, together with the Knobs and some other products, can be found in the Restoration section of our Brass and Bronze web site.

      These are not an exclusive product and can be found on other sites and in magazine adverts.
However, we have noticed that quite a few of the companies showing these products are stating or, at the very least, stongly indicating that these products are British made. We have even seen some antique reclaimation yards claiming that they are restored originals.
As an honest company we do not make false or inaccurate claims as to the country of origin of any of our products. Indeed, we are happy to point out that, whilst being of reasonable quality, these products are imported into the UK from India and this is, or should be, reflected in the price.
If you come across these products elsewhere with a view to purchasing them we would urge you to consider your choice of supplier with care. If they are advertising them as being British made who knows what other false claims they are making.

Along with every other business in our trade, we have, at the start of 2007, seen the first of many manufacturers price increases. Coupled with the increases imposed during 2006, many products have seen an increase of upto 20% on January 2006 prices. This applies not only to British manufactured goods but also to goods imported from India and the Far East.
The main reason for these increases is the world price of raw materials which continues to escalate - for example Zinc up 100%, Copper up 20% (source London Metal Exchange). Other rising costs, such as energy, have also contributed to the increased price of finished products.
In our opinion, consumer led demand for cheap, inferior quality products is, in no small way, partly to blame for this. This applies not just to ironmongery but right across the board - electrical goods and clothing must surely be at the top of the list of culprits.
Buying “cheap” products is, of course, a false economy - they never have the life span of better quality products and, as a result, need to be replaced more often.
It is our policy to promote high quality British products whenever possible as this not only helps UK manufacturers and the UK economy but, albeit in a very small way, eases the demand on the earths resources - the lifespan of a good quality, British made set of brass door handles is much greater than a cheap imported set.