Kirkpatrick ironmongery
We bought two new engineered oak doors for the house, plus a softwood stable door for my shed (ironically the last was the most expensive due to the non-standard size). We wanted antique black ironmongery as we dislike most brass ones. I had meant to look around and find some decent ones, however, whilst I was in B&Q I saw some that looked nice, and so I succumbed to buying theirs. Well about 2 weeks ago I shut the back door only to find the door handle in two pieces. The so called cast iron handle had snapped right off! After removing the handles I found that all four of them had fine, although deep, cracks that had already started rusting. What cheap rubbish!
I looked on Google and came across Kirkpatrick. These appear to be a good brand, and have been made the same way for about 150 years. You cannot buy direct, and so I ordered them from ‘Any Old iron‘. These are identical designs to the B&Q ones, except these are heavier and just look better quality. They are made from malleable iron, as opposed to the cheap ‘whatever’ of the other ones. As their suppliers website says ‘The ” KIRKPATRICK” range is still made by hand today in a traditional English ironfoundry in the Midlands.’.
The Kirkpatrick handle is the one on the right in all photos. Check out the finer detail.
Goes to show you that you get what you pay for, except these ones cost the same as the cheap ‘quality’ ones… Sheesh!
