Thanksgiving re-runs: No really, what's a living finish?

This is the second post in a series that started yesterday. I wrote them originally in February '09.



OK, so yesterday I ran through three basic, reactive metals that come into play when it comes to faucets: copper, bronze and brass. When it's the actual metal we're talking about, manufacturers use terms like "living finish" and "organic finish" to indicate that their fixtures will continue to age and change with time. I'll get into nickel, chrome and stainless (the non-reactives) later, for now I want to stick with copper, brass and bronze.

Now, these living finishes are pretty much the exclusive province of the higher end of the market. For a lot of people, the changeable nature of brass, copper and bronze is a selling point. And that changeable nature comes at a premium.

Here's a $1500 kitchen faucet from Herbeau. It has a living finish of weathered copper and weathered brass.

And here's a $1900 tub faucet in weathered brass, also from Herbeau.

These fixtures are truly made from brass and copper and then they have a patina applied to them in the factory. These patinas are pigments and chemicals that react with the base metal to speed up the aging process. These patinas allow the base metals to look like they're already aged upon arrival. On a living finish, the metal is left unsealed. That is, without a clear top coat to prevent corrosion. Without that clear topcoat, these faucets will also continue to age and their colors will continue to evolve as the base metal reacts with the environment. No two of these faucets will age at the same rate or go through the same color phases. Their continued evolution is completely dependant on the environment where they're placed. Hence the term living finish.

It's important to remember that the world of plumbing fixtures doesn't use the conventions of science to categorize these finishes. Fixture manufacturers across the market use these metallurgical terms to describe a fixture's appearance, and not necessarily its composition. However, when there's a desirable base metal involved, that fact is made amply clear.

Here's a deck-mounted faucet from Rocky Mountain Hardware. It's made from bronze and has had a rust patina applied to it. Rust is iron oxide, a common reddish pigment. So this faucet is made from bronze with a reddish brown patina applied to it. With time it will continue to to turn more brown. It also has a suggested retail price of $1900.

Here's a wall-mounted faucet, also from Rocky Mountain Hardware. This faucet has been cast in bronze and has a medium patina applied to it. It carries a suggested retail price of $1600 and it's mind bendingly beautiful. Bronze has a warmth to it that no other metal comes near. Bronze has been a desirable metal for thousands of years for a very good reason --it's beautiful, strong and lasts forever.

This medium finish also looks suspiciously like something that started showing up in the consumer market around ten years ago, oil-rubbed bronze.

Now oil-rubbed bronze is where my conversation with the Kohler finish developer comes in. Since these living finishes and desirable base metals are the province of the high end of the market, how does this stuff trickle down to the consumer end? Well, come back tomorrow when I tackle the inter-market grudge match between true bronze and  the oil-rubbed bronze gang.

Thanksgiving re-runs: So what the devil's a living finish anyway?

I'm taking a few days off to celebrate Thanksgiving and in lieu of writing a post a day over the holiday, I'm going to run a series on faucet finishes I wrote in February '09. Happy Thanksgiving one and all!

I had a similarly phrased question from a reader the other day and it's sent me on a quest to find out. As luck would have it, I'd already set up an interview with a finish developer from Kohler prior to being asked that living finish question, so I asked the source directly and I learned a thing or two.

That Kohler conversation gave me a ton of information to write about by the way, so look for a series on plumbing fixture finishes over the course of the next week or so. But in the meantime, here's a little something I learned about metals and patinas.

This is copper.

This is what happens to copper when it's exposed to the elements. Copper reacts to acids and alkalis in the environment to form a variety of chlorides, sulphides and carbonates known collectively as verdigris. That's French for green gray. Verdigris is composed of  copper carbonate or copper chloride primarily and those chemicals make up the green patina most people associate with copper. 

Copper is a highly reactive metal that's almost never used in its pure form. Generally, copper's combined with another metal to make it stronger and a little less reactive. When copper's combined with tin the result is bronze. These are bronze ingots.

When copper's combined with zinc the result is brass. And here's what raw brass looks like.

Due to their copper content, both metals retain a lot of the reactivity inherent in copper, though it's a bit less pronounced.

So here's what happens when bronze is left to its own devices. It turns a warm brown with yellow tones. These are the doors to the Pantheon in Rome and they're about 1800 years old. They're also the color of dark chocolate.

Brass on the other hand goes golden brown with a slight greenish tone to it.

These naturally occurring patinas are what's meant by a living finish. These patinas take time to develop and really, they never stop developing. After all, they're an ongoing chemical reaction.

When it comes to faucets; copper, bronze and brass are never left in their natural states to be allowed to age into their natural patinas on their own. It can get confusing because most manufactured faucets and fixtures have a patina applied to them. Let's back up for a sec though.

If you remember your basic chemistry, an alloy is the mixture of two or more metals. Alloys like brass and bronze aren't categorized scientifically, and there aren't any standard recipes for these metals. On top of that, copper never shows up in its pure state --it too is usually an alloy that's made mostly of copper. Add to that that the natural process of oxidation is called a patina, but so is virtually any color applied to a base metal. Argh.

I'll dig into this a little further tomorrow, but for now just remember that a living finish is a finish that will age and change color with time. On purpose.

Thanksgiving break time

As every good blogger knows, web traffic plummets on holidays. On major holidays it falls precipitously. So I'm joining the exodus and am going into re-runs until Monday. So I want to wish everybody out there a great Thanksgiving. To everybody outside of the US, happy week of 22 through 26 November.

But back to everybody in the US for a sec.

Rather than joining in on the March to Armageddon on Friday, why not try something a little more civilized and a little more meaningful? Why not spend some quality time talking to someone or some ones you love? Why not stay home and make something with your family or friends? Why not buy nothing?

A holiday tea guide

Back in October, I wrote an article about being a tea drinker and I shared the find of my Chicago tea source, Jim Shreiber of Shui Tea. Since that article appeared Jim and I have struck up a lively correspondence and I've been buying and enjoying more if his teas.

Jim's brainchild is Shui Tea, a tea company with a commitment to tea that's only surpassed by its commitment to its customers. His teas are as amusingly well-named as they are well-blended.

With the holidays upon us (how did that happen?), our pals at Shui Tea have rolled out a special holiday collection of teas.

For an all-purpose, all-holiday, all-inclusive evening brew; the collection starts with More Cookies.

From the website:

Black Tea with Pistachio, Almond, Pink Peppercorn, Cumin, Coriander and truffle flavoring. You’ve been waiting all year for something this rich, sweet and nutty.

Deeply inhale the scent before you sip.  It smells as though you've been making all morning.  Enjoy as the balance of sweet and savory fill every Holiday craving. Grab more cookies, you need an excuse to make one more pot of tea.

If you don't know, Hanukkah starts on Wednesday of next week and L'Chayim is the perfect blend to imbibe after lighting the Menorah.

Delcious enough to drink for eight crazy nights, here is a blend of Apples and Cinnamon, mixed with hibiscus, and finished with elderberries and currants. The kids will trade up their gelt for a sip of this enticing brew. A perfect pair with latkes.

Christmas is in a bit more than a month and just in time for it, Shui Tea rolled out Cinnamerry Christmas.

Baby, it’s cold outside. But all the way home you’ll be warm with this blend of Apple and Cinnamon. Elderberries and currants add creamy flavor for when Jack Frost is nipping at your toes. Finished with glad tidings of Hibiscus, whether you made it on the Naughty or Nice list this year, you will love this delicious fruit and spice blend.

And finally we come to Festivus. Despite the lack of a single, agreed-upon date or dates, there's a tea for Festivus.

Orange rooibos with a hint of dark chocolate. Sick of commercialism? There is another way. Started many holidays ago because a battle waged over a doll. The doll was destroyed, but a new way was forged. A Festivus, for the Rest-of-Us. Celebrate Festivus with the traditional Airing of Grievances: let others know the ways they have disappointed you in the past year. Follow with challenging the head of the house to Feats of Strength at dinner.

There's plenty more where these came from on Shui Tea's website. Give it a peruse.

If you're looking for the perfect gift for the tea drinker in your life, or even better, if you're looking to become a tea drinker, I know a guy in Chicago who can make that happen.

Root planing and curettage

Today's the day that my unfortunately middle-aged gums get their first exposure to something called root planing and curettage. My dentist likes to pretty it up by calling it a deep cleaning, but I like to call things what they are. Root planing reminds me of a planing a door and the two things aren't too dissimilar.

However, when you plane a door there's lots of room to maneuver and the door doesn't feel a thing. No so with my mouth.

As I understand it; my dentist will shove a flashlight, a modified jack hammer, a bunch of hand tools and a suction device deep under the gum line of my molars and will scrape their roots until they're back to a more youthful, smooth and silky state.

In addition to costing far, far more money than I like to spend on my teeth, it will save me the heartache of tooth loss and dentures. The best part? It's a four-phase procedure and I have three more to look forward to after today. And how's your Tuesday shaping up?