Trying to find bronze valve handwheels for a project

[Carlos Alvarez]

I'm making some lamps from Wenge, manila rope, and bronze Samson posts. I need a bronze/brass handwheel to be the on/off/dimmer knob and fit the look. But they are SO hard to find, because "bronze handwheel" mostly finds bronze valves with cast iron wheels. The image below is pretty much what I want, but they only have two of them (entire valve) and very expensive. I just need the wheels. I would really like it to be at least 2" diameter, but 3" would be nicer. I have considered grabbing some painted ones, stripping, then painting with a bronze-like finish, but figured I'd ask here if anyone has ideas on finding the real thing. I need four, so paying $50-150 for a whole valve is prohibitive.

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Here's a preliminary photo of the design, I still have a lot of refinement to do...

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[Wayne Lomman]

Do they have to be bronze? Brass is much cheaper and available at any half decent farm irrigation supplies dealer. 2" ones like that are about $10 each for the whole valve here in Tasmania. Cheers

[Carlos Alvarez]

Do they have to be bronze? Brass is much cheaper and available at any half decent farm irrigation supplies dealer. 2" ones like that are about $10 each for the whole valve here in Tasmania. Cheers

No, bronze or brass is fine, anything that fits with that color of metals and is the same general shape. I simply can't find anything like that online at all.

[Tom M King]

search on the auction site for: faucet brass bronze hose bib handle knob

[Tom Bender]

Gold paint can look good

[Bob Grier]

Look around coastal boat yards. All parts of boat valves would be bronze. There are some businesses around Sand Diego that sell used parts. Maybe you can look them up and call but a trip to the coast to rummage through used part bins may be something you could do. Also, there are some coastal towns with fishing boat maintenance facilities in Mexico like Puerto Penasco that are closer.

[Jim Becker]

Kieth mentioned to me a product that he's used for work to create bronze look. The are coatings that are essentially metal powders that are adhered to the project...specialized spray paint, in other words, that you can spray on with an el-cheapo gravity feed gun. You can see what I mean at sculpt.com/catalog_98/patinia/Metalcoatings.htm This would allow you to use truly inexpensive cast valve wheels and have whatever metal look you want.

[Jim Koepke]

Look around coastal boat yards.

Coastal boat yards in Arizona?

Maybe after the next "big one" in California. :eek:

jtk

[Michael Weber]

Wow, rare as hens teeth. The valve pictured is available from the manufacturer but at an even higher price. When I was doing silver work I enjoyed casting though never used bronze. Might want to look into that depending on quantity needed.

[John K Jordan]

How about plating with brass or bronze?

Not cheap but the smallest kit will probably plate enough for this and other projects.
https://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/bronze-plating-kits/bronze-plating-kit-1-5-gal.html
Or I suspect there is someone out there who would be able to plate a few pieces for you.

JKJ

[Lamar Keeney]

Have you considered adapting brass drawer pulls?

[Myk Rian]

Rust-oleum hammered bronze paint. This is what it looks like.

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[Carlos Alvarez]

Kieth mentioned to me a product that he's used for work to create bronze look. The are coatings that are essentially metal powders that are adhered to the project...specialized spray paint, in other words, that you can spray on with an el-cheapo gravity feed gun. You can see what I mean at sculpt.com/catalog_98/patinia/Metalcoatings.htm This would allow you to use truly inexpensive cast valve wheels and have whatever metal look you want.

This sounds great, but the URL didn't work. Any idea what the correct one is?

[John K Jordan]

This sounds great, but the URL didn't work. Any idea what the correct one is?

Could it be this: http://shop.sculpt.com/patinas-paints/metal-coatings/

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

This sounds great, but the URL didn't work. Any idea what the correct one is?

Here's a link directly to the manufacturer of the coating. Sorry about the other one...I was reading it from my phone which is where I originally did the search at the meeting where Keith mentioned it.

https://sculptnouveau.com/

[Carlos Alvarez]

John got it right, thanks both of you. That might be the solution.

[Marc Jeske]

I think finding the wheel in brass/bronze will be tough.

Most will be somekinda cheap pot metal or Steel.

Possibility below - - Inexpensive, then re finish as guys said above.

Maybe sandblast w coarse aggressive grit to give rough surface sand cast look, no bigee. Marc

https://www.menards.com/main/plumbing/rough-plumbing/valves/valve-accessories-repair/nibco-1-2-or-3-4-classic-hand-wheel/090722d/p-1444449078450.htm

[Marc Jeske]

Another spray can finish possibility like the Rust Oleum on the DeWalt. Marc

https://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=1526

[Peter Christensen]

Have you tried a scrap metal dealer? They often have bins or barrels with brass or bronze. They may let you pick through them and let you buy what you want.

[Bruce Page]

Take a look at these.

https://www.etsy.com/market/garden_hose_knob

[Carlos Alvarez]

Take a look at these.

https://www.etsy.com/market/garden_hose_knob

Some interesting stuff there, thanks. I think I will pick up one of those boxes of wheels and try out the finishes above.

[Bill Dufour]

I see a lot of cheap cast brass faucets etc that rather then clean them after casting they spray paint them a brass color. It helps to hide casting sand and rough surface finish. cheaper then snagging the casting flash off I guess.
Bill D