Since we’ve added metal into our designs, a whole new world of creativity has been opened for us. And with this new found creativity, we are able to experiment and try things we could have never dreamed about before.
One of these things is using polished nickel as a metal finish for our 600 series.
Nickel is the fifth most common element on Earth with a beautiful silvery-white, lustrous sheen that has a slight golden tinge. It’s used in everything from coinage, guitar strings, to rechargeable batteries. But what nickel is most commonly known for is for alloying. In case you were wondering, alloying is combining a metal with other elements. In regards to nickel, it is often times plated onto a base metal to make it more resistant to corrosion through a process called electroplating.
Now, electroplating is a very technical process that we aren’t going to into here in this post for the sake of our sanity. However, electroplating is essential to creating a polished nickel finish. To make things simple, think of electroplating as a nice bath for the metal. Once the base metal has gone through an intense cleaning process, it is plated and dipped into an electrolyte solution. Science happens and the frame comes out of the bath with a sparkling new polished nickel finish.
By applying nickel onto a base metal (brass) it not only creates a gorgeous finish but it makes the base metal more durable and last longer.
There are very few companies in our industry that take on this monumental task. We could do what everyone else does and use a similar finish like chrome or simply buy an already plated metal frame but we just don’t do that. We make everything by hand, metal elements included.
The end result is a beautiful finish unlike any other. It’s similar to chrome with it’s shiny silver look but has a warmer tone to it, making it softer. It gives the whole room a more high end feel, it’s bright but not too in your face and extremely classy when paired with a walnut or automotive finish. Bottom line, polish nickel is a gorgeous metal finish and we are beyond excited to offer this beautiful metal.
