Anatomy of a Custom Patio Door Handle As mentioned in an earlier piece, we were recently commissioned to adapt our Ergo Door Handle so that it could be used as a low profile door pull for sliding patio doors. This is not the first request to adapt this piece and so bending to designer demand we decided to create a new left and right pull. Our standard Ergo pull is 18”High, 5”Wide and 5”Deep and these dimensions allow the piece to have pleasing fluid lines that are easy to grip so the challenge was to find a way of retaining the artistry of the design but with a profile of 4”. The result is shown below.
To accentuate the fluid curvature of the Ergo series we have developed a two tone finish that is both beautiful and labor intensive. To begin, we clean up the rough cast surface and remove all the seams and imperfections by using angle grinders and sanding disks of varying grit. Next, we polish selected areas with successively finer sanding compounds till we achieve a reflective mirror like surface. At this point the piece is only half finished and we next mask off the polished section by applying a thin flexible tape that is positioned to closely hug the
polished seam. Once, we have masked the piece it is then sand blasted using white oxide sand. The tape is then removed and the result is a custom door handle with jewel like facets but with softened areas that are easy to grip and that accentuate the curvature of the handle.