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Squashed Ducks & Steel

Squashed Ducks & Steel

I like complex, interesting, and historically important food. You might call me a foodie. You might also be wondering what that has to do with metalworking. Well, recently we’ve had a customer bring in a couple of pieces of very specialized cooking equipment, and there is possibly nothing in the world I like more than very specialized cooking equipment. This is a duck press: The duck press before refinishing. A duck press is used to create a dish called, interestingly enough,

Saving Snapped Statues

Saving Snapped Statues

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

Revitalizing Treasured Family Heirlooms: Menorahs

Revitalizing Treasured Family Heirlooms: Menorahs

I know what you’re thinking. A holiday post? In retort, I will say that December is a bad time to start thinking about having your menorah polished. We’ve had a couple folks recently who wanted to be absolutely sure they were ready and brought in their menorahs for polishing. The first menorah is a small brass piece with the shamash (the ninth light) on an arm with a Star of David. It came in a bit tarnished and bent, with the Star of David turned to the side. So we did what

Putting the Cherry back in Chariot

Putting the Cherry back in Chariot

At Progressive Bronze, we have a lot of capabilities, and a lot of experience dealing with unique jobs. That is why we don’t like to say no to jobs, even though some can be toughies. A customer recently brought in one of those toughies – a statue of a chariot in pieces. Talk about your busted rides…. The horse team had become detached from the chariot, one of the horse’s legs was broken, the rider had come off the chariot, and her arm was off as well. So put it all back toget

Custom Manufacturing Roundup

Custom Manufacturing Roundup

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

Eyes on the Prize(s)

Eyes on the Prize(s)

We recently had the opportunity to refinish a number of sports trophies from St. Viator, a nearby Catholic school. There is some serious history in these, with the oldest dating back to the 1920s and the newest of the bunch coming from the 1950s. They are mostly for baseball and softball, but don’t think St. Viator is a one sport school! There is a swimming trophy in there too. As you can see from the ‘before’ image above, these trophies were definitely showing some of their

Fixing Up a Fireplace Fender

Fixing Up a Fireplace Fender

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

Recent Refinishing Roundup

Recent Refinishing Roundup

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 That Lamp is Hiding Something

I Think That Lamp is Hiding Something

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

Bronze Letters, deAurora Style

Bronze Letters, deAurora Style

We were contacted by the deAurora Showroom about refinishing cast bronze letters that make up their logo. Their color scheme has changed, and the existing look had to go: They had originally applied a green patina that emulated natural corrosion, and the idea was to give them more of an oiled bronze look, which is essentially the same as our statuary finish. These letters are made of a very nice, heavy bronze, so we had zero concerns about the state of the underlying metal. W

An Antique Lamp Come in for a Cleaning

An Antique Lamp Come in for a Cleaning

A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman walked in to our shop with this antique lamp: Apparently it’s an old-style dentist’s lamp, and has been in his family for quite some time. There are all sorts of articulations on it that allow tooth illumination from several angles. It swivels and tilts in its wall bracket, as you can see below, as well as has a telescoping pole. After the telescoping pole, the four-lamp head hangs down to give you plenty of light while you polish. Over the

Polishing a Plaque so it Pops

Polishing a Plaque so it Pops

Happy new year! We had a lovely vacation at Progressive Bronze, and now that we are back to work it’s time to highlight some more projects we’ve been working on. Toward the end of November the Lyons, IL Fire Department contacted us regarding a plaque that was installed when their firehouse when it was renovated in 1973. I am a big fan of plaques generally – I read just about every one I come across – so I was happy to hear they were looking to refinish. Understandably, after

A Patina is (re)Born

A Patina is (re)Born

Typically, people bring in a bronze or brass piece, and would like us to either refinish it to restore its luster, or at least not damage the existing patina. But what if the damage is so bad we have to refinish the item? And the customer wants to preserve the look of the piece? Our customer approached us with exactly this problem. His mother was a member of The Daughters of the American Revolution, and upon her death in 1941 a bronze marker indicating her membership was plac

Reflecting on Chrome Plating

Reflecting on Chrome Plating

Don’t let our company name fool you. Here at Progressive Bronze, we deal with brass, aluminum, and in this case, chrome! Recently a local customer found us on yelp, while looking for someone to refinish a set of door handles. While we were working on those with him, he asked if we also dealt in re-plating chrome bathroom hardware to which we replied, “Of course!” Our customer showed up the next day with a cardboard box full of chrome-plated early 20th century bathroom hardwar

An Introduction to Alloys, Part 1

An Introduction to Alloys, Part 1

If you are like me, you missed the ‘know your alloys’ lecture that one day in metallurgy class. Well, you’ve got a second chance as I’m willing to share all the knowledge I have gained about bronze, brass, polishing, refinishing and the rest while working at Progressive Bronze. Most of the products we deal at Progressive Bronze with are made out of one of four metal combinations, or alloys – bronze (of course), brass, aluminum, and white metal. Now these are the actual struct

Refinishing Door Hardware, Part 2

Refinishing Door Hardware, Part 2

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

Refinishing Door Hardware, Part 1

Refinishing Door Hardware, Part 1

This is the first of two posts highlighting one of our recent refinishing jobs. Back in March, we had a local Chicago resident named Sam find us through Google. He posted on our blog asking about his DIY home restoration project. For this project, Sam was restoring a front door along with the door’s hardware. He contacted us to refinish the door handle, knocker, and lock cover plate. These pictures below show the original state of the items. During our initial phone call with

Thanksgiving with all the Fixings

Thanksgiving with all the Fixings

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

The First Post

The First Post

Progressive Bronze has been manufacturing, refinishing, repairing & restoring metal wares for over 75 years. We specialize in items made of bronze, brass, and aluminum, however we deal with a wide variety of materials including steel, wood, chrome plating, among other materials. Since every job we do is hand crafted (no mass manufacturing in china here), we thought it might be helpful for you to see some samples of our work. Feel free to browse the site to look for example

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Squashed Ducks & Steel

Squashed Ducks & Steel

Polishing a Plaque so it Pops

Polishing a Plaque so it Pops

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