What are handles and knobs made from?

Most of our range of door handles and door knobs are made of a Zinc Alloy, and another common metal is Aluminium. Other materials that are commonly used are wood, iron, plastic, glass, rubber. Zinc Alloy is commonly used as it can be poured into different molds to form more intricate styles and patterns, Aluminum is more commonly cut into shape, so the styles are more straight lines, though with advances in Computer Aided Routing that is slowly starting to change.

Zinc Alloy is commonly used, because the melting point is lower, it allows for a thinner wall which allows for more complicated and intricate forms to be produced. The thinner and stronger material allows for lighter and stonger handles.

Aluminium is also a common material, but normally cut from lengths, rather than using a mold. Aluminium has a higher melting point than Zinc Alloys which makes for a more expensive modling process. Cutting allows for more squarer edges, but takes the intricate element away from the handle.

Cast Iron is still used but is a mostly out of date way to make handles, older styles, and more simplistic designs are the normal for cast iron. Cast Iron is a rougher process, being much more time intensive to make a smoother finish. Normally cast iron does not have the tensile strength of Zinc Alloys or Aluminium. If you are after a more rural antique look it can be the top choice though.

Solid Brass is mainly for knobs but full size handles are also made. Solid Brass is normally machined in one piece normally to give that distinctive look that only solid brass has.