[TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

Sat Sep 20 23:04:15 2003

Mr. Reynolds:  You are not an ignoramus if you learned something.  I use a
similar finish...one part beeswax, one part linseed and one part turpentine,
melted together into a cake and brushed on a hot surface.  I just finished a
steel bouquet with that finish..looks old-timey.

How many hours did it take you to make the project?  A person could scarcely
buy two such hinges at Home Depot.  I made  a sliding bolt for a garden
gate, with the handle a forged leaf,  for $115.00.  The customer said she
could not find anything that suited her.   The customer thought the price
was high, but you should have seen the look on her face when she saw the
bolt and used it!  Not a big money maker, but the customer really liked the
product.  It was also fun to make.

The beat advice on pricing I have heard came from Nol Putnam, a smith of
considerable repute.  he essentially said that he decides how much he wants
to make in a year, calculates the hours he has in the shop and in support
activities and prices accordingly.  He gets top dollar($1,200.00 FP sets)
and has an impressive body of architectural work.  His way of looking at
things is posted on the Web.

He claimed he has had to:  1: Learn how to smith  2:  Learn how to run a
business and 3: have a private and community life while doing what he loves.
He added that these things did not happen in lock step.   It has been this
way for me also.

Grant
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Reynolds" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 2:32 PM
Subject: [TheForge] Finish for repro antique hinges

>
>
>
> A recent commission job was reproducing 2 broken bean strap hinges for a
small chest.  When putting a finish on them, I ventured outside my usual
finish repertoire, and tried a new mixture and technique. Please feel free
to tell me a better way to achieve the desired look of 100+ years on steel.
>
> I took a mixture of unnprocessed beeswax and linseed oil at about 1:3, and
heated to liquid in a 2 oz cat food can. Each nail I heated to black,
dropped in the solution, left for 2 or 3 seconds, pulled them out and let
the retained heat burn off the solution. This left a black residue burned
into the nails. For some nails I had to repeat the above steps to attain the
uniform black finish.
>
> I then buffed the nails heads with a cotton cloth to remove the majority
of residue, while leaving the black finish.
>
> It all looked uniform and was better than tolerable for reproducing a 100+
year-old finish. Good looking stuff.
>
> This was very labor intensive. However, my motto is overdeliver. But how
should I have done this? I couldn't afford to put this kind of labor into 12
nails and two hinges, for what I bid.  That brings up another question. What
should I have bid this at (2-symmetrical sided 9" strap hinges with 12, 1
and 1/2" nails whose heads needed to be ground/filed to give a low profile)?
I did it for $65. Not even close to paying myself a decent wage, but it was
another happy customer.
>
> Go ahead, tell me what an ignoramus I was.
>
>
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