Kitchen Door Handles

What are door handles made from?

Kitchen door handles come in all shapes and sizes and they are manufactured from different types of materials and finishes. You have probably heard a lot ......
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What are door handles made from?

Kitchen door handles come in all shapes and sizes and they are manufactured from different types of materials and finishes. You have probably heard a lot about them if you have been shopping around for kitchen door handles for your new or older fitted kitchen. You will have read or heard terms like Brushed Steel, Brushed Nickel, Chrome, Brass, Pewter, Bronze etc., etc. These will be the types of finish that your kitchen door handles come in. The core of the handle in most cases will be made from a zinc alloy or a brass core. Next we will try to explain what each finish looks like visually.

Kitchen Door Handle Finishes Explained

What are the different finishes and what do they look like. Well lets start with the Brushed Steel and Brushed Nickel effect. The brushed steel effect is simply a handle that looks steel like but it has a finish that makes it look like it was brushed by big meal brushes. Where with the brushed nickel there is the same effect but the colour of the handle is more of a light yellor or bronze colour. Types of handles that would come in brushed steel and brushed nickel in our range will include. The T-Bar Handle, Boston Bar, Chelsea Keyhole, and the Emerson door handle to name a few. See the examples of brushed steel and brushed nickel below.

Handle: Brushed Steel Effect

Handle: Brushed Nickel Effect.

Chrome Kitchen Door Handles

Chrome kitchen door handles are a much more shiny mirror like finish. Same as what you will see on your bathroom taps in most cases. You should nearly be able to see your image in the handle. An example of this on our website is the Mulberry Knob and Cup handle. These door handles are actually brass core and then they are plated with the chrome finish. We do not see too many actual brass colour door handles nowadays but the core of the handle might be brass and plated with either chrome or some other type of finish. Other examples of chrome finished door handes on our website include the Henrietta Cup Handle and the Henrietta Knob. See the images of chrome finished handles below.

Kitchen Door Handles Pewter and Bronze

A typical example of what we call pewter and bronze door handles is our Clare Hammered Pewter pull and knob handles. These also come in a bronze finish also. The core of these door handles is an alloy and they are finished in a plated pewter or bronze plating. Another door that looks similar in colour is the Ironbridge cup handle, again this is a door handle with an alloy core and a brass plated finished effect. See examples below.

Door Handle Sizing

Understanding how your door handles are sized is a very important aspect of buying your door handles. Lets start with some deails and we will publish a diagram below to try and visually explain what we are talking about also. As you will probably be already aware there are PULL HANDLES and PULL KNOBS and there are also PULL CUP HANDLES. A pull handle needs to be fixed to the door with 2 bolts. A pull knob only needs one bolt to fix it to your kitchen door

Handle Length

The handle length is the overall length of the handle from one end to the other. Lots of handles come in varying sizes and the length will be different for each one. On our website here where there are varying sizes for a particular handle, we will offer you the choice of each size and the price of those sizes in a drop down menu when you click on the product to view it in a larger space.

Kitchen Door Handles - Hole Centres

In the last paragraph we spoke about overall handle length, in this paragraph we are going to speak about hole centre length. The hole centre length is the distance between the two holes in a door handle - specifically the Pull Handles and the Pull Cup Handles. The hole centre length is the distance from the centre of one hole to the centre of the other hole. Once you have established this then you know where you must drill the holes in your kitchen door or drawer front so that you can attach the handle. An example would be that a T-Bar Brushed Steel handle might have an overall length of 188mm and the hole centre length is 162mm. See the diagram below.

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