I remember watching Martha Stewart dip lacquered brass a million years ago. Always liked the look.

I purchased Emtek ORB and it has a slight purple tint. I was disappointed when they arrived, but honestly don't notice. It is a living finish, so they are changing. I noticed they changed their website to "Deep Burgundy." Probably due to complaints. I should have gone with Medium Bronze.

My neighbor down the way has sandcast bronze levers by Rocky Mtn Hardware. The longhorn handle...but she has hardly any doors so even the few she has was a splurge for her. They are very similar to the Emtek sandcast bronze levers.

I did three posts recently on a home in my area that used raw brass throughout the home:

Here is a link that might be useful: 11 Bonita

Nothing 'authentic' here. We have Baldwin "Edinburgh" polished brass levers on our interior doors. After ten years they look exactly the same as when they came out of the box. Entry door also Baldwin polished brass -- not a blemish. (Entry faces north but stoop is covered.)

I used some Kohler 'oiled bronze' replacement faucets on Maui -- they match the 'aged' (tarnished!) brass door handles there perfectly.

My mother would laugh at the search for a patina. I remember her taking all our brass doorknobs to the plater to be stripped of laquer, polished and re-laquered. (I also remember a plater trying to cheat me, saying he had to re-plate my worn solid brass doorknobs!)

I remember the Bonita post - I lived in Homewood for 5 years on Edgewood Blvd . . . I'll have to look more closely. I love the price point and quality of the Emtek but agree about the finish. The Medium Bronze is pretty but maybe only available in sandcast which I worry may be a little rustic for my more formal house although I think it looks terrific!

An un-lacquered Brass finish is raw brass that is polished and left un-lacquered to allow for natural darkening with time. The surface can also be darkened by soaking briefly in a brass aging solution then rubbed to achieve a particular patina. The finish can then be preserved with a lacquer or wax coating. Common "finish codes" for un-lacquered brass are 3NL, UL, UN and 605NL.

Here is a link that might be useful: antique brass cylindrical door sets

Van Dyke's Restorers carries patina solution that works well and consistently.

lacquer is often applied after treating to staiblize the appearance.

Make sure you get clear lacquer and not colored (sometimes used to make brass plated items look better).

You can also just wait.
The oils from your hands on the knobs will eventually give a nice patina.

Have you seen the Emtek Tuscany levers in person? I don't think any of them are too rustic looking for a more formal setting.

After I posted, I remembered our conversation in Kitchens about the Bonita house. He posted a few months ago he was going to post again, but hasn't. When I talked with him last, he said they had bought a lake house at Lake Martin and he was going to star a blog on that house. He hasn't. :(

I have seen them and I agree the levers aren't overly rustic but I am not a lever person, I am a knob person and those are pretty distressed looking. I will do levers only on french doors, the rest will be knobs. . .

I think the Emtek Oil Rubbed Bronze is somewhere between the two sandcast bronzes. . . not nearly as burgundy as one but more burgundy than the other.

They also have a French Antique which might look nice - or not. I can't tell if it will look like the 1978 antique brass or it will look like brass with a patina. Probably the former since it is so uniform. . .

As mentioned on another post, I have (or someday will have) unusual doorknobs in my "new old" house. They are brown porcelain from House of Antique Hardware. Just have to make sure your doors aren't predrilled with a standard hole. :).

Didn't know you wanted knobs. I would not suggest the knobs of either of those companies. I don't have problems with my hands, but they are harder to open than regular knobs.

athensmom - I agree that the Emtek sandcast bronze is too rustic for your house (or mine). Look at Emtek lost wax cast bronze. That is what we are going to use for the front door and, probably, the French doors. It has a much more refined look and the Medium Bronze doesn't have the purplish cast of the Burgundy. They have knobs as well as levers.

I thought we were going to use the Emtek French Antique brass for our interior knobs until I actually got to see it. It looks very "artificial" and not at all what we want. I would love to have unlacquered brass and let it age naturally (or will a little chemical help) just like the pulls on my antique bedroom suite. Even though I swore no ORB, we will probably go with Emtek ORB for many knobs since they have the copper underlayment that does look nice IRL.

Unfortunately, it looks like all of the Emtek brass knobs/levers are lacquered. So, to get antiqued brass we would have to remove the lacquer. Its sounds like it is hard to do, but, if I want to be so masochistic, how would I do it?

Also, we want to have about 4 sets of glass knobs. Would the chemicals used to strip the lacquer from the brass mess up the backing on the glass knob? House of Antique Hardware has unlacquered brass, but the glass knobs are only 12% lead crystal rather than 24% for other brands. I'm just not sure those would look as good. Does anyone have another source for unlacquered glass knobs?

Thanks - Jo Ann

I don't know about glass but Ashley Norton has unlacquered brass knobs and so does Omnia. Omnia is expensive, at least where I checked, but the Emtek were pretty deeply discounted so maybe they just don't do a similar discount for Omnia.

The Ashley Norton are very pretty.

I agree the French Antique Bronze is artificial looking and I have ruled it out. I like the Emtek knobs from a price point and quality standpoint and agree the lost wax ones are pretty but I am afraid of mixing hardware.

I have no idea how to remove lacquer and am scared to try with such an expensive purchase! The aging solutions work great at least on brass pulls (I did this on an antique chest where the seller put on new brass pulls), but I have no idea if those are lacquered or not.

My sister seems to think that with all the use my doors get with so many messy boys in my house it won't take long to create a patina!

I do think though that the unlacquered brass wouldn't have that super bright shiny look just from being unlacquered and sitting in a box. Still brass looking but a bit softer maybe?

I am intrigued by your use of glass knobs and hope you will post a picture. I think if I use Emtek I will incorporate the egg shaped glass knob somewhere - powder room (we have a seperate mud bath for the boys!), master closets (they will have mirrored french split doors), or somewhere! I love it ;)

bump

Found out some information from Emtek re: unlacquered brass. They DO offer this as an option with an upcharge. You have to specify it, it must be something ordered in the US3 finish and there will be additional lead time. The cost is 12.00 per knob, 6.00 per rosette, hinge, cabinet knob. So 18.00 per door knob and 6.00 per hinge. My understanding from talking to him is that they actually unlacquer lacquered brass items so something you could DIY if you were brave enough. He said this is the "net price", not the retail price, whatever that means. This may bring Emtek into line with the more expensive unlacquered brass options but I thought I would pass it along if anyone is wanting to price it out.

athensmom - thanks for the info. I'd be brave enough to take the lacquer off of the solid brass knobs, but I don't think I'd want to try it with the ones that have glass. Oh, well, I'm not much of a fan of ORB, but the Emtek version is nice because of the underlayment of copper. I've actually handled some at a showroom.

I wouldn't be so concerned with all of the finishes matching. I plan to do some mixing since I want the lost wax cast bronze for the exterior doors and then the brass (better price point and only way to get glass from Emtek) for some of the interior. I even plan on using white porcelain with a black rosette for the guest room. The en suite bath has sort of a "retro" vibe (octagon floor tile w/ black dots, white subway tile with black pencil liner, etc) that I think it will be cute.

Did you just call Emtek customer service? I'd like to know if they can do the same thing with glass knobs. I only want a handful of those, so it might be worth the up charge.

Thanks - Jo Ann

I emailed them from their website over the weekend and they called today which worked well because they had already looked up the info. Do you have a choice of rosettes with the glass knobs? If so I bet it would be 6.00 a knob or so to do those.

It is funny how you stress out about all the little decisions and then things like doorknobs and hinges totally fade into the woodwork! When is the last time you noticed a doorknob at a friends house (at least before you were thinking about building!).

I have taken to looking through my magazines to see what kind of hardware they used . . . and what kind of doors, and raised or flat wainscotting, etc. etc. etc.!

Do the sand cast bronze have copper under them or just the oil rubbed (brass) ones? In another thread someone posted their sand cast bronze hardware with patina and it looked more brass than copper. . .

athensmom - I'll follow your lead and e-mail about the glass knobs. The rosette choices are the same for glass or brass knobs. The problem is that the glass portion of the knob fits into a brass base that interfaces to the spindle. I think that would need to have the lacquer removed in order to look right with the rosette.

The Emtek ORB finish is applied to a solid brass material so it's a finish that looks like bronze but is on brass. The Emtek paper catalog lists the ORB finish as US10B, but if you look at the link, below, and scroll down to Materials, it talks about the underlayment for ORB. (It also describes the silvering behind the knobs which is what worries me in trying to remove the lacquer.)

Anyway, the cast bronze (sand or lost wax) don't have the underlayment because they are actually bronze rather than a finish applied to brass to make it look like bronze.

I know what you mean about obsessing over door knobs, but DH & I want some glass knobs for nostalgia reasons because it reminds us of what houses were like when we were kids. Same thing with the porcelain knobs.

Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Emtek Properties

Hello, lurking about trying to figure out knobs for our lovely 110 year old house. Complete remodel. I've ordered some unlacquered brass and can't decide if I'm going to do that for all the doors. Some with crystal and some not. It's a hodgepodge so I feel secure being a bit liberal. Anyway, for those of you that did unlacquered, are you happy with your purchase and would you do it again? Thanks!

Hi Kelli!

I am also about to pull the trigger on getting unlacquered brass door knobs! Did you get yours? If so, how long did it take to get some patina???

Hi Kelli and scerrir - what did you get? I love the higher end unlacquered brass (classic brass and water street) but don’t want to spend that much. What did you decide to go with?