Hello Progressive Bronze blog readers! It’s been some time since the last update, but we’ve been keeping busy. In this post I’m going to highlight a couple of brass statue repair projects we’ve had the chance to work on. Both of these were headed for auction when they were damaged in shipping. The first statue is a lovely sculpture of a woman on a marble base. It is made of brass, and plated with what appears to be either nickel or silver that has worn off rather handsomely i

Happy almost Thanksgiving, everyone! In this post, I’d like to highlight some of Progressive Bronze’s custom manufacturing projects and capabilities. We’ve already covered some custom manufacturing projects like these curtain rods, and now we’d like to cover some of the other projects we’ve taken on. Here at Progressive Bronze we have a fully equipped shop, able to machine, spin, or cast parts. The parts are then finished to your specification, be it raw, polished, or plated

Previously, we featured a custom curtain rod job which was left unlacquered, so it would patina over time. Well, we had a couple of extras, so let’s check in on how they are aging. For a refresher, here is what one of the rings looked like on its way out the door: And here is what one looks like now: The color is a little darker, a little deeper, but there is still a bit of shine to it. I have one more experiment brewing, though – I have one ring at my desk which I handle fro

Here in Chicago, we are preparing for Thanksgiving and hope you are as well. Today I’d like to highlight a fireplace fender we recently refinished just in time to not want to use a fireplace. With the number of wood-burning fireplaces dwindling and modernized designs, fireplace fenders are becoming rarer. But because most fenders were produced early-to-mid 20th century they are typically made of solid brass, and are therefore extremely durable. One such fender was brought in

I thought I’d highlight some recent refinishing jobs that maybe don’t warrant their own posts, but are interesting none the less. This cute little brass door knocker came in a little dingy, we gave him a polish and an oil rubbed finish. And of course our outdoor lacquer so he’ll stay this way for a long time. This brass tray came in for a refresh after several years of faithful service. We sent it back out so shiny I couldn’t get a picture of it without including yours truly.

I think it’s safe to say that I love old lamps. And the lamp a customer recently brought in is a doozy. This lamp is old. We’re not entirely sure how old, but we think it was converted from oil to electricity sometime early last century. It’s got a lovely painted ceramic vase and brass hardware. Unfortunately it was knocked over (or fortunately for me, since I wouldn’t be writing this if it hadn’t happened) and the base was bent. Most importantly we had to get this fixed. We

Recently, Ursula from The Drapery House in Park Ridge, IL approached us to custom manufacture curtain rods for a client of hers. She had a design in mind for the entire set, from brackets to rods to rings, so all she needed was someone to turn her ideas in to reality. Enter Progressive Bronze! The design is very clean, with straight lines and not much embellishment. For the rods themselves we used hollow brass tube, but we also needed brackets to hold them. Ursula gave us the

Brass Hello readers, it’s time for metallurgy class again, this time focusing on brass. Brass is the second most common metal we handle at Progressive Bronze, and it’s offered as an alternative to bronze for nearly everything we make. Where as bronze is an alloy of copper and most often tin, brass is an alloy of copper and zinc. It popped up some time after bronze, in the first millennium BC. Its composition was not well understood for more than 2000 years, as zinc in metalli

Hello once again readers! As promised here is the rest of the much delayed story about Sam’s handle and door knocker. So for a quick refresher (or you can read part one here), Sam wanted to have his handle, knocker, and lock cover plate refinished as part of a home remodeling project – but it turned out one of the pieces was made of steel, and the other two of white metal (for more on white metal, see our FAQ page). Polishing the pieces alone would have made the pieces a dull

Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Progressive Bronze wishes you safe travels, full bellies, and great times with family and friends. And if you get a little fershnickered and break an antique, give us a call on Monday. Speaking of broken antiques, in late October we got a call from a local Chicago collector regarding a broken wall sconce. The center arm of the piece had come right off, and he was hoping to have it repaired and ready for Thanksgiving. He sent us these pictures of