Finishes To World Class Antiquity Standards

While refinishing is often undertaken to salvage an old piece of furniture, in the case of antique furniture refinishing it has been known to significantly reduce the overall value of the piece. However, refinishing (or re-polishing)a more modern piece of furniture, to return it to showroom condition, will always enhance the value. Note: touch up or patch up no matter how masterful it is performed is never a proper method of restoring antique or high quality furniture. This always results in reducing the value of a piece

Scottsdale Art Factory L.L.C. features a state-of-the-art finishing department that offers hundreds of finish options. A large percent of our wood furniture orders are finished in ten process hand rubbed water base clear lacquers. The reason is simple: all interior decorators agree, natural wood furniture never goes out of style.

Designers/customers may also choose from over four hundred designer stain colors from the Behr paint chart. Customers may select items with a matte, satin, semi-gloss, wax, or exterior finish; or conversely order barn wood, raised grain, weathered, old Spanish, or saw tooth textured finishes. All our exclusive finishes are environmentally safe, non-toxic, and are applied by hand then rubbed to perfection the "Old Fashioned Way"�. Additionally, customers have the option to custom computer match a color to a sample from any source or material, at no extra charge. We will send you finish samples for final approval prior to the completion of an order.

All backs and interiors are fully finished hand rubbed with non-toxic lacquers. to match all exteriors. This allows any piece to be displayed in the middle of a room, as well as against a wall. This makes all of our furnishings ideally designer friendly.

Quality is an extremely important element in the value of an new furnishing, antique or collectible. Quality may be seen as a level of excellence, excellence in the concept of the piece, excellence in the design and excellence in the execution. A well-built furnishing, for example, will advertise its quality by its stability and function. The doors will open easily and the drawers will operate smoothly. The finish is clean, the color is good, the joinery is well done, the choice of materials is solid and the scale is correct.

Quality means attention to detail in the original production of the item,in fine art and museum quality antique furniture entirely hand made is the preferred product. Quality implies a caring on the part of the producer or builder and carries a pride that shows in the finished product usually signed. No matter the final definition, most of us know quality when we see it. Or at least we think we do, like the satisfying, solid sounding thump of a door closing on a Rolls Royce or Ferrari .

Condition should never be confused with quality. Quality is how the piece was made. Condition is how it has survived since then. A high-quality item in poor condition certainly has less value than a comparable item in excellent condition. However, condition can often be improved by Scottsdale Art Factory. Quality is always fixed in the original build of of each furnishing.

That is why a poor-quality item in perfect condition will almost never be as valuable as a high quality piece in a lesser state of affairs. Take the example of a piece of Depression era “Borax” furniture that has been in storage for 70 years. Even with its perfect condition, its poor original quality will keep it from ever attaining the value of a carefully hand crafted bench-made piece of similar age, even though it may have some condition “issues.” Of course, there is a point of compromise at which quality and condition are equal, but that state is seldom achieved and seldom recognized when it is.

Rarity never to be confused with age. Early Roman Empire coins for example are thousands of years old but are they rare? No, because so many of them were made (millions?) and so many of them survive. Many Roman coins are worth only the value of the metal they contain. Another example is one of the most famous style chairs of the early 19th century—Hitchcock chairs. Lambert Hitchcock had a great idea and he made a very good chair. It’s just that he made thousands and thousands of them, beginning in 1826 on the assembly line in his factory in Connecticut (he was ahead of Henry Ford on that subject by 80 or 90 years). And thousand of his mass produced chairs survive today. They are 175 years old and they are beautiful but they are not rare. Therefore, they do not always command the price that may be seen for the work of another chair craftsman who produced only a limited number or one of a kind well-made chairs.

Demand finally there the item must be in demand In the marketplace. Even if a piece has all the other elements that make up value, if there is no demand—if there is no one who wants to buy it, then there is no value and there is no sale. There are lots of reasons for lack of demand: a poor economy; a social or political stigma on the product; a geographical anomaly in the buying population; a lack of appreciation for the art or genius of the maker. Or it may be as simple as a lack of advertising that the product is available or even the unattractive display of the product when a potential buyer is present. Or it may just be that there is no demand for the item at that price. At some other price, demand may be stimulated. However it is our experience there is always demand for furnishing that are of the highest quality and detail from conception.

Patina (pronounced /ˈpætənə/ or /pəˈtiːnə/) is a film on the surface of bronze or similar metals (produced by oxidation over a long period or by a natural chemical process); a sheen on wooden furniture produced by age, wear, and polishing; or any such acquired change of a surface through age and exposure. On metal, patina is a coating of various chemical compounds such as oxides or carbonates formed on the surface during exposure to the elements (weathering). Patina also refers to accumulated changes in surface texture and colour that result from normal use of an object such as a coin or a piece of furniture over time.

Patinas are restricted to exposed surfaces and are fragile (that is, they can flake off). One reason bronze is so highly valued in statuary is that its patina protects or passivates it against further corrosion. This natural patina is solid and seldom shows a tendency to flake. Brass is also resistant to corrosion, but it is, in the long run, not as attractive since local pitting shows against the shiny background.

Etymology the word "patina" comes from the Latin for "shallow dish". Figuratively, patina can refer to any fading, darkening or other signs of age, which are felt to be natural or unavoidable (or both). The natural chemical process by which a patina forms is called patination, and a work of art coated by a patina is said to be patinated.

Acquired patina the green patina that forms naturally on copper and bronze, sometimes called verdigris, usually consists of a mixture of chlorides, sulphides and carbonates. copper carbonate or copper chloride. Atacamite is another name for the patina compounds. Verdigris is usually more specifically the artificial form and can be produced on copper by the addition of vinegar (acetic acid).

Such a verdigris is water-soluble and will not last on the outside of a building like a "true" patina. It is instead usually used as pigment. One example of a patina is a green surface texture created by slow chemical alteration of copper, producing a basic carbonate. It can form on pure copper objects as well as alloys which contain copper, such as bronze or brass.

Often, antique and well used firearms will develop a patina on the steel after the bluing, parkerization, or other finish has worn. Firearms in this state are generally considered more valuable than ones that have been re-blued or parkerized. The patina protects the firearm from more damaging rust that would occur were the patina to be polished off

Applied patina Artists and metalworkers often deliberately add patinas as a part of the original design and decoration of art and furniture, or to simulate antiquity in newly-made objects. A wide range of chemicals, both household and commercial, can give a variety of patinas. They are often used by artists as surface embellishments either for color, texture, or both. Patination composition varies with the reacted elements and these will determine the color of the patina.

For copper alloys, such as bronze, exposure to chlorides leads to green, while sulfur compounds (such as "liver of sulfur") tend to brown. The basic palette for patinas on copper alloys includes chemicals like ammonium sulfide(blue-black), liver of sulfur(brown-black), cupric nitrate(blue-green) and ferric nitrate(yellow-brown). For artworks, patination is often deliberately accelerated by applying chemicals with heat.

Colors range from matte sandstone yellow to deep blues, greens, whites, reds and various blacks. Some patina colors are achieved by the mixing of colors from the reaction with the metal surface with pigments added to the chemicals. Sometimes the surface is enhanced by waxing, oiling, or other types of lacquers or clear-coats. More simply, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin used to instruct assistants at his studio to urinate over bronzes stored in the outside yard.

Patina is also found on slip rings and commutators. This type of patina is formed by corrosion, what elements the air might hold, residue from the wear of the carbon brush and moisture; thus, the patina need special conditions to work as intended.

Patinas can also be found in woks or other metal baking dishes, which form when properly seasoned. The patina on a wok is a dark coating of oils that have been burned onto it to prevent food sticking and to enhance the flavor of the foods cooked in it. Steaming foods or using soap on a wok or other dish ware could damage the patina and possibly allow rust.

The Statue of Liberty gets its green color from the natural patina formed on its copper surface. a patina layer takes many years to develop under natural weathering. A copper roof will patinate faster than a copper facade, due to the longer dwell time of water on the surface. Buildings in coastal / marine locations will weather and develop a patina layer faster than ones in inland areas. For example, a new copper facade in central London will most likely not develop a "typical" green patina until after 50 years.

Facade cladding (copper cladding) with alloys of copper, e.g. Brass or Bronze, will weather differently to "pure" copper cladding. Even a lasting gold colour is possible with copper-alloy cladding. Look at Colston Hall in Bristol, or the Novotel at Paddington Central, London. There you can see some colours that one might not have expected from copper / copper-alloy cladding.

Value Apart from the aesthetic appearance and practical protection of patination, antique experts confirm that an object's value increases when its patination is intact because it is an important effect of the aging process and this evidential history is reflected in the value of the piece. In terms of antiques then,

Patina is everything that happens to an object over the course of time. The nick in the leg of a table, a scratch on a table top, the loss of moisture in the paint, the crackling of a finish or a glaze in ceramics, the gentle wear patterns on the edge of a plate. All these things add up to create a softer look, subtle color changes, a character. Patina is built from all the effects, natural and man-made, that create a true antique.

Repatination In the case of antiques, several views are held on the value of patination and its replacement if damaged, known as repatination. Preserving a piece's look and character is important and removal or reduction may dramatically reduce its value. If patination has flaked off, repatination may be recommended. Appraiser, Reyne Haines notes that "a repatinated metal piece will be worth more than one with major imperfections in the patina," but less than a piece still with its original finish.

Patinas Finishes, Iron Oxides Hand Applied At 1000 Degrees.

Our beautiful patina finishes are hand applied using a special patented process where oxides are bonded into the metal at over 1000 degrees. This permanent finish beautifies with age. S.A.F. does not paint or faux finish any of our iron creations. Paint fades, chips and cracks over time and patinas last forever. No Drop Forged Casted Copies. No Paint Or Powder Coated Finishes.

Interesting Fact;The first iron used by mankind, far back in prehistory, came from meteors. The smelting of iron in bloomeries probably began in Anatolia or the Caucasus in the second millennium BC or the latter part of the preceding one. Cast iron was first produced in China about 550 BC, but not in Europe until the medieval period. During the medieval period, means were found in Europe of producing wrought iron from cast iron (in this context known as pig iron) using finery forges. For all these processes, charcoal was required as fuel.

Steel (with a smaller carbon content than pig iron but more than wrought iron) was first produced in antiquity. New methods of producing it by carburizing bars of iron in the cementation process were devised in the 17th century AD. In the Industrial Revolution, new methods of producing bar iron without charcoal were devised and these were later applied to produce steel. In the late 1850s, Henry Bessemer invented a new steelmaking process, involving blowing air through molten pig iron, to produce mild steel. This and other 19th century and later processes have led to wrought iron no longer being produced.

Iron is one of the most common elements on Earth, making up about 5% of the Earth's crust. Most of this iron is found in various iron oxides, such as the minerals hematite, magnetite, and taconite. The earth's core is believed to consist largely of a metallic iron-nickel alloy. About 5% of the meteorites similarly consist of iron-nickel alloy. Although rare, these are the major form of natural metallic iron on the earth's surface. The reason for Mars' red colour is thought to be an iron-oxide-rich soil.