The photo shows one of our 1564 lever handles alongside a pair which were not manufactured by Kirkpatrick. Its an interesting story. In the early 1980’s there were three Companies within half a mile of our factory all making similar products, (we still have copies of their catalogues). The other two, (Hope Works and Old World Fittings), both fell by the wayside leaving Kirkpatrick as the only UK manufacturer of traditional Black Ironmongery. We had a visit recently from a gentleman who lives locally who bought these levers around 30 years ago.  To the untrained eye, maybe, these handles look very similar. We identified immediately, however, that they were not made by us. The antique effect is not as authentic as ours but the other obvious difference is that the method of springing is different.

The customer’s problem was that the springs inside the handles had failed and he wondered if we could replace them. We do get  enquiries like this from time to time but the products involved are generally cheaper, low quality imports and we have to say “no”. On this occasion, however, because of the local connection, we accepted the challenge. We were able to dismantle the handles and by adapting our own springs we were able to re-assemble the lever with the original springing method providing a virtually new set of door furniture, even though it was over 30 years old! (We also had to re-coat them with our powder coat finish).

This demonstrates the skills of our workforce and the way we, as a Company, will always go the extra mile to find a solution to a customer’s problem. We take pride in our customer service.