Make A Statement With Custom Door Knockers

It will come as no surprise but the first thing any visitor to your house will see is your front doorway. This is an ideal chance to set the scene. One way to do this is by making use of custom door knockers. By making the right choice you can give people an insight into who you really are. Some people have followed the British habit of naming their house, and this is something else which can be incorporated into the design you choose.

Consider some of those grand old houses that you used to see in costume dramas and films. Many of these had quite imposing entryways and they seemed very apt to have large and ornately designed ironmongery on these magnificent portals. Now you too can have the same.

There are a wide range of styles and finishes, there are wrought iron, cast iron and the ever popular brass. As you can imagine there are a lot of existing designs available, but there is nothing to prevent you designing your own. This can be done in conjunction with a designer used by the company you decide to do business with.

As previously mentioned brass is very popular, and this is created by a process known as sand casting. Wonderful results can be obtained by carefully following the multi-step procedure. If there is the slightest inattention then it could result in the piece getting scrapped.

Sand casting involves a mixture of sand, clay and water, which is tightly packed into a two piece box made from wood. This is called a flask. The required design is impressed and created in both parts of the flask. The two halves are rejoined together and pouring holes are created, these will enable molten brass to be poured into the void left by the design. The flask is in two parts, so that the design can easily be removed once the metal has cooled.

The pouring stage is extremely dangerous as the molten brass is 1700 degrees Fahrenheit. So the flask shouldn't be moved until the metal has fully cooled. When it has cooled enough for the metal to return to a solid state, the two halves of the flask are removed. At this point the metal surface is still quite rough. It will require additional work including cutting, filing, buffing and polishing.

Normally to create a matched pair of body and clapper, two castings will be required. If the design requires a striker plate then a third casting might also be needed. Once everything has been created to the required standard a hard wearing clear lacquer is applied. The purpose of this is to prevent early tarnishing of your new creation.

The next thing to consider is how your custom door knockers set will be hung. Many people prefer to have them mounted from the front. This has the advantage that from inside there is no sign of unsightly mounting screws, it works fine on wooden doors, but for those made from other material another solution needs to be sought. If you do have the mounting done from the rear it is possible to slightly disguise the mounting screws by using small brass rosettes.

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