Owner's notes

Care & bulbs

An iron lamp asks almost nothing of you. What follows is the small amount it does ask, plus the honest list of things that will ruin a finish we spent an afternoon building.

The short version

Dust it with a dry cloth. Nothing else touches the finish.
E26 socket, 60 watts maximum, warm amber light or it will look wrong.
Indoor dry locations only. Unplug it before you touch the socket.
If something structural or electrical fails, it is ours to fix for life.

Cleaning

A dry cloth, and that is the whole procedure

Both finishes are surface treatments sealed with hand-rubbed paste wax. Nothing wet, nothing chemical, nothing abrasive.

Blackened steel

Dust it the way you would dust a book: a dry cotton cloth, a little pressure, no product. Fingerprints lift with the same cloth and a breath of warmth.

If the surface starts to look dry or chalky after a few years, a pea of clear paste wax buffed off with a soft rag brings it back. Once a year is plenty. Twice is fussing.

Aged brass

Same dry cloth. The brass has been chemically aged to a warm brown-gold on purpose, so leave it alone and let it keep going.

If you decide you want it bright, understand that polish removes the aging permanently and there is no putting it back without the lamp coming home to us.

Fine to do

Dry cotton or microfiber cloth, as often as you like.
A soft dry brush for the threads and knurled edges where dust collects.
Clear paste wax once a year on blackened steel, buffed off completely.
Handling it. Skin oil is part of how these lamps get their character.

Never

Metal polish of any kind. It strips blackening on contact.
Solvents, acetone, alcohol wipes, or glass cleaner. They cut straight through the wax.
Vinegar, lemon, or any acid trick from the internet. Those are for raw copper, not aged brass.
Scouring pads, steel wool, or a magic eraser. All three are abrasives.
Submerging any part of it, or spraying anything near the socket.

Patina

What the finish will do, and when

We wax rather than lacquer, which means the metal keeps living. A lacquered lamp looks identical for six years and then looks chipped.

First months
Very little. The wax is still even and the surface reads as it did in the photograph. Fingerprints show and wipe away.
One to two years
Blackened steel warms and deepens where hands land: the switch, the posable arm, the top of the base. Brass loses its yellow and turns browner.
Five years and on
A settled two-tone: darker in the recesses, warmer on the high spots. This is the state the lamp was designed to arrive at, and it is not reversible or a defect.

Humidity accelerates it, coastal air more so. A lamp living twenty feet from salt water may show orange speckling in the pipe threads within a year. Wipe it dry, wax it, and it stops. If it ever becomes structural rather than cosmetic, that is a materials failure and it is covered.

Bulbs

Sixty watts is the ceiling

The socket is a standard UL-listed E26 with a porcelain interior. It will physically accept almost anything, which is exactly why the wattage limit matters.

Socket: Medium base E26, UL-listed, porcelain interior
Maximum wattage: 60W. A hard ceiling, not a suggestion.
Bulb included: 40W amber ST64 Edison, roughly 2200K, seated at the shop
Voltage: 120V, 60Hz, standard US two-prong plug
Cord: 6 ft twisted cloth cord in charcoal, inline rotary switch
Location rating: Indoor dry locations only

What looks right

Incandescent ST64 or ST58 Edison, 40W, amber or clear glass. The original and still the best-looking.
Dimmable LED filament ST64 at 2200K to 2400K, 4W to 6W. Clear glass with visible filament strips, not a frosted globe.
LED filament G25 or A19 in the same warm range if you want more spread and less sparkle on a desk.

What looks wrong, or is unsafe

Anything over 60W. It cooks the socket, and that damage is not covered.
Cool white or daylight bulbs above 3000K. On blackened iron they read blue and surgical.
Frosted or milky globes. They kill the filament shadow the lamp was designed around.
Plastic-shelled retro LEDs with a heat-sink collar. The collar sits below the socket ring where you can see it.
Non-dimmable LEDs on a dimmer. They buzz, flicker, and die early. That is the dimmer, not the lamp.
Compact fluorescent spirals. Slow to warm, wrong color, and wrong shape for an open socket.

Where to buy replacements

Any hardware store carries a 40W ST64 Edison, and every online bulb seller has them by the four-pack. Look for the shape code ST64 or ST58 and a color temperature at or below 2400K; the brand matters far less than those two numbers.

We also keep the exact bulb we ship on the shelf and sell it at what it costs us, which is a few dollars plus postage. Email the shop and we will drop one in a padded mailer. Bulbs are consumables and are not a warranty item, but we would rather you had the right one than the closest one at the grocery store.

Ask us for a bulb

Procedure

Changing a bulb without wrecking a joint

The only real risk here is torque. Turning the bulb while holding the body can unthread a fitting you cannot see.

01
Switch it off and unplug it
Not the switch alone. Pull the plug from the wall so nothing can go live while your hand is near the socket.
02
Let it cool for ten minutes
A 40W incandescent runs hot enough to burn. LED filaments cool faster, but ten minutes costs you nothing.
03
Hold the socket shell, not the lamp
Grip the metal shell the bulb screws into with one hand while you turn the bulb counterclockwise with the other. This keeps the twisting force out of the threaded joints below.
04
Seat the new bulb finger tight
Turn clockwise until it stops and then stop. Overtightening a bulb into a porcelain socket is how the contact tab gets flattened.
05
Plug in, then switch on
In that order. If the new bulb does not light, the troubleshooting list below starts where you are standing.

Cord & switch

Six feet of cloth cord, treated like cord

The cloth jacket over the wire is decorative. The insulation underneath is what keeps you safe, and it does not like being crushed.

Wipe the cord with a dry cloth. Cloth jacketing holds dust and gives it back when you touch it.
Do not wrap the cord tightly around the lamp for storage. Coil it loosely in a wide loop, the way you would coil rope.
Keep the inline rotary switch out on the floor or desk where you can reach it. Burying it under a rug or behind furniture is how it collects grit.
Never run the cord under a rug or through a doorway. Both crush the insulation over time.

Pull the plug by the plug body, never by the cord. Cloth cord hides the strain it takes at the plug.
Check the last few inches at the plug once a year for a flattened or shiny spot. That is where wear shows first.
If you can see any conductor through the jacket, or the cord feels warm in use, unplug it and stop. Do not tape it.
Cracked insulation is a materials failure and we replace the whole cord under warranty, shipping both ways included.

Safety

The plain version

These lamps are simple, which is most of the safety argument. The rest is short enough to read.

Indoor dry locations only. No bathrooms, no covered porches, no workshops that get hosed out. Nothing in the lamp is rated for damp.
Sixty watts, absolute maximum. Over that, the socket overheats and the damage is on you rather than on the warranty.
Unplug before servicing. Bulb changes, joint tightening, cleaning near the socket: plug out first, every time.
Nothing draped over the bulb. No cloth, no paper shade it did not come with, no drying anything on it. The socket is open by design.
Do not modify the wiring. Swapping in a different socket, splicing a longer cord, or adding a dimmer inline ends the electrical half of the warranty. Ask us instead; we will sell you the part and tell you how it is done.
Mind the mass. Five to six pounds of iron on a high shelf, near a crib, or on a cord a dog can hook is a bad idea no matter how well it is built.

Troubleshooting

When it misbehaves

Start with the first step. If that does not do it, the second column tells you honestly whether it is ours to fix.

The bulb flickers

First step · With the lamp unplugged, snug the bulb a quarter turn by hand. A bulb that has backed off a thread is the cause nine times out of ten, usually after the lamp has been moved.

If that fails · If it still flickers, or if it flickers when you flex the cord near the switch, stop using it and write to us. A cord or switch fault is a workmanship issue and it is covered.

It will not light at all

First step · Try a bulb you know works, then a different outlet, then confirm the inline rotary switch has clicked fully over rather than resting between positions.

If that fails · If all three come up empty, the socket contact tab has probably flattened. Do not bend it yourself. Send us a photo and we mail you a socket or take the lamp back.

A joint has loosened

First step · Hold the fitting below and turn the piece above clockwise until it is hand tight. These are threaded joints and they are meant to be adjusted, so this is normal maintenance rather than a repair.

If that fails · If it spins without biting, the threads are galled and it needs to come back to the bench. Covered, both directions of shipping included.

The switch feels gritty

First step · Unplug the lamp and roll the rotary switch back and forth a dozen times. Dust works into the barrel and this usually clears it.

If that fails · If it still grinds, or if the light cuts in and out as you turn it, we send you a replacement switch or swap it here. Covered.

It buzzes on a dimmer

First step · Check the bulb box for the word dimmable. A non-dimmable LED on a dimmer circuit will hum audibly, and no lamp fixes that.

If that fails · Swap to the included incandescent or a dimmable LED filament and the noise goes with it. This is not a defect and not a warranty matter.

For anything on this list that turns out to be ours, read the lifetime warranty and then just write to us. There is no claim form and no serial number to look up.

Still stuck

Send a photo and a sentence

Most electrical problems we diagnose over email and solve with a part in a padded mailer. Structural ones come back to the bench and we pay the freight both directions. Either way, tell us what the lamp is doing and when it started.

Contact the shop Read the FAQ