Choosing a material & finish
Optimum Brasses offer a choice of three materials; brass, bronze & white bronze. All of our items are unlacquered and will age naturally over time, known as a living finish.
Our items are created using the lost wax casting technique and are hand finished, there’s no mass machine production in this business. Whilst your hardware may look almost identical at a glance, you may notice very subtle differences in each piece but that’s what makes your Optimum Brasses’ order so unique. Our aim is to produce hardware that looks genuinely authentic, so that once it’s fitted you’ll feel as though it has always been there.
Our signature material & finish is our traditional antique brass, you can see examples of this as well as the other options available below.
Brass Finishes
Traditional Antique
A finish that replicates antique brass that has aged over many years.
Light Antique
Removes the ‘shiny’ finish that you get with polished brass and gives the impression the brass is just starting to age. A lighter finish than traditional antique and a more uniform look.
Polished Brass
Raw brass, carefully machine polished by one of the workshop team, to give a high shine finish.
Raw Brass
Brass is cast unfinished, giving it a raw and unpolished appearance.
Bronze Finishes
A number of our items are now available in bronze & white bronze to order online, using the finishes drop down menus. Whilst we will continue to add to this online selection, we encourage you to enquire about any other items you may wish to purchase in bronze or white bronze, as it is possible for most items in our main collection to be cast in these materials.
Polished Bronze
Carefully machine polished by one of the workshop team, to give a high shine finish.
Polished White Bronze
Carefully machine polished by one of the workshop team, to give a high shine finish.
How to look after your brasses and bronzes
Antique finishes
If you’ve chosen this option, the great news is, you don’t need to do anything to your hardware, it will naturally continue to age over time. To keep it clean we recommend using a soft damp cloth, followed by a dry one. Try to avoid using cleaning products of any kind as this may cause changes to the finish of your hardware.
Polished finishes
If you would like to keep your hardware looking bright and shiny, you will need to regularly polish it with a soft cloth. You can use products specifically designed for polishing brass/bronze but try to stay away from any harsh cleaning solutions. If you would like your hardware to age naturally over time, avoid regular polishing and any sort of product use.