Does It Matter Which Wire Goes Where When Repairing An Old Lamp

Media Platforms Pattern Team

Can customers browse in your warehouse?

[Laughs] I don't know that they'd actually want to. We have 7,000 items, in bins and boxes to the ceilings. Whatever yous tin can remember of is here, from a ii-cent lock washer on up to the hundred-dollar glass shades. We have a room total of crystals. We have one aisle that'southward nearly all for bondage. We fifty-fifty have hexagonal links and flowery links molded from antiques. If you don't see what y'all need on the site, e‑post the states a description of it or a moving picture or a drawing of something like it, and be patient. We transport anywhere in the world—there'due south a restaurant designer in Japan who calls me all the time.

What are people ownership lately?

Nosotros've been around since at least 1913, so nosotros've seen it all. Until just recently, everybody wanted everything nickel-plated. At present the trend is swinging back to polished brass, with gold cords. And nosotros're seeing less demand for harps and finials. People want clusters of sockets—that's considered the sign of a quality lamp instead of a harp—and no tchotchke on top that would ascertain or overwhelm the design of the shade.

What'due south your all-time seller?

Glass shades. Kids, cats, and cleaning, those are the big threats to the glass, we ever say. We have shades in every shape and color. We have antiques with their original stickers, and new ones made in hundred-yr-quondam molds.

What's the weirdest request yous've ever gotten?

I get e‑mails from people who've found a pair of antlers in the woods and want to brand it into a chandelier. Information technology could be an oil lamp question, or an electronic-ballasted-halogen-nether-the-cabinet question.

What are the well-nigh common mistakes people make when buying lamp parts?

They club the wrong thread size—even though we accept a chart with life-size measurements on our Web site [www.GrandBrass.com]. Or they determine to hang a ceiling fixture from a string, which looks really cool simply won't last, and the fixture will never hang quite direct anyway. Hanging from a pipage is a much better idea. And if somebody has a lamp cord that's 20 years old or less, information technology's probably made of PVC, which lasts forever, just older than that, you'll run into fraying and it should be replaced.

Do you lot design anything yourselves?

Nosotros accept our ain greatly improved seedling socket with porcelain interiors. Plastic sockets last at nigh two years. We fifty-fifty improved the pull chain. Ours has a overnice solid metal ball at the end instead of a flimsy little bong.

Any parts there for rails lights?

No, and we've never had them. Most of the loftier-tech stuff doesn't last anyhow. It'southward throwaway, and you can't become the parts anymore. We get customers who've taken down the rail and are putting back up an old-fashioned fixture that's been working for a hundred years and is still going.