These are the words that I try to live by. Ever since I was a child, I never thought it was okay to throw things away. That feeling grew as I aged into a love of restoration. It started with a bubble on the wall of the old home plaster and moved onto a great old $500 beat up convertible automobile...then some more great old cars...then on to some great old homes...now this "Cobyhead's Antique Hardware Shack" where I can share the builders' hardware that I continue to find on my journey to replace this hardware back into these great old homes.

My hope is that by selling this old builders' hardware on ebay, I can help to keep those antique door knobs turning, those latches latching, and those moments of sheer bliss that come from admiring the work of those craftsman from long ago still coming. If it was on a house a long time ago, I'll probably list it because I most enjoy bringing this hardware together again. I love to hear from buyers who write that they've been looking for this "one door knob" for forever, or this "one catch" for a latch. I say bravo to you who fix it instead of buying something new.

If you spend any time reading my listings, you'll know that I go on forever! That's the kind of attention that each piece also receives before it is listed. We research and completely check out every item that we sell (to make sure it is healthy and we understand its provenance). We try very hard to practice proper cleaning methods for historic antique hardware, (restraint is number one) and also to realize that sometimes a piece needs a little polishing, but we never want to harm this historic hardware with improper cleaning, because we're big fans of the hands that came before us, and we wouldn't want to scrub them away. It's very important to us to maintain the historic link that this hardware has with a different time in history, that's why we do what we do and why we sell so much old patina hardware.  

We'd like to see this hardware also go on forever.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

cobyhead