Turner Hastings Cabinet Handles

Cabinet Handles by Turner Hastings: Buying Guide

Turner Hastings handles come in ranges that differ by body material and shape: slim iron bars, a knurled iron bar, smooth zinc alloy pulls, a zinc alloy cup pull and a brass range with stepped ends. Turner Hastings offers European-designed bathroom, kitchen and laundry products, and these handles are manufactured in Italy. This page sets the ranges side by side and shows which suits which door. It also covers the finishes they share, how the sizes are measured, and how to fit and clean them. Each range has its own page with its figures, linked below. For other makers, start at cabinet handles.

The ranges at a glance

Each range uses one body material. The Fanetta and the Sassari are cast iron. The Tutto and the Verese are zinc alloy, and the Verona is brass. Every handle here has an electroplated finish and fixing screws included, and the five finishes are Brushed Brass, Brushed Nickel, English Bronze, Matte Black and Chrome.

The Fanetta is the slim bar. Pulls run from a 128mm to a 320mm centre, and there is a 75mm T-bar. The Sassari is the knurled bar, with a 30mm knob. The Tutto is the smooth minimal pull, with a knob. The Verese is the half-moon cup pull on a 96mm centre. The Verona has stepped ends and a linear detail along the bar, with pulls and a T-knob. Cast iron and brass feel heavier in the hand than zinc alloy of the same size, so the iron Fanetta and Sassari and the brass Verona have the most weight to them.

The finishes the ranges share

• Brushed Brass is a soft, even gold. It is matte and subtle, and suits minimalist or Scandinavian kitchens. See brushed brass cabinet handles.
• Brushed Nickel is a soft, cool grey: a metallic silver with a slight warm grey undertone and a low satin sheen that disguises fingerprints. See brushed nickel cabinet handles.
• English Bronze is a brown gold, darker than the brasses. See bronze cabinet handles.
• Matte Black is non-reflective, and it hides fingerprints better than a polished finish. See black cabinet handles.
• Chrome is the bright one. Decorative chrome is a very thin layer, usually 5 to 10 microinches (0.13 to 0.25 micrometres), applied over bright nickel plating, and it shows fingerprints, smudges and water spots more easily than brushed nickel. See chrome cabinet handles.

Treat every finish as coated, and avoid brass polish and abrasive cleaners. The rule for mixing is to keep a room to two metals and repeat each at least twice so it reads as a decision. Matching the handles to Turner Hastings sink mixers is the simplest route, and coordinating finishes across cabinet hardware, appliance pulls and fixtures such as taps and lighting works without making every piece identical. Choose the handle finish after the tapware and appliance finishes are settled.

Three body materials compared

The ranges use three materials, and each behaves differently. Cast iron is an iron alloy with a carbon content of more than 2 per cent. It tends to be brittle, strong under compression and not under tension, and it is cast into shapes for its castability and wear resistance. Zamak, the common zinc alloy, is a zinc-based alloy with aluminium, magnesium and copper, mostly die-cast, and it can be electroplated, wet-painted and chromate-conversion-coated well. Brass is generally two thirds copper and one third zinc, with a density of 8.4 to 8.73 g/cm3, against about 6.7 g/cm3 for the common zinc alloy. Brass is heavier than zinc alloy at the same size, and people notice the weight first.

Weight in the hand follows the material and the shape. The smooth Tutto and the cup pull Verese are zinc alloy, and the brass Verona is heavier at a similar size. The iron Fanetta and Sassari are the heavier bars in the group. A die-cast zinc handle depends on its finish for corrosion protection, and all five ranges have an electroplated finish, so treat the plating as the thing that protects the body.

Which range for which job

For a slim bar on a flat door, the Fanetta and the Tutto are the plain choices. For a bar you can feel, with a texture along its length, the Sassari and the Verona are the two. For a drawer in a vanity or a laundry, 96mm and 128mm centres are usual, which is where the Verese and the 128mm pulls sit. For a wide drawer, the 320mm pulls in the Fanetta and Tutto are the longest in the group. For a small door, the knobs in the Sassari and Tutto and the T-bars in the Fanetta and Verona are the single-fixing choices. The Tutto, the Verese and the Verona all suit kitchen, bathroom or laundry cabinetry.

How the sizes are measured

All Fanetta measurements are centre to centre, which is the gap between the two screw holes. Most ranges pair centres with overall lengths. The Sassari is the exception. Its size names are the overall lengths, with fixing distances 32mm shorter, so confirm the centre of any Sassari pull against your holes. The Tutto has no fixing distance given, and the Tutto names are read as centres. The range pages set out each case.

When you replace a handle, measure the distance between the screw holes and match it to the fixing distance, not to the length of the old handle. A 128mm handle will not fit 160mm holes without new holes. Common centres such as 96, 128, 160, 192, 224 and 320mm are multiples of 32mm, and handles made to imperial sizes will not match holes drilled on that grid. Most Turner Hastings centres sit on that grid.

Choosing a size

A sizing table helps. Drawers 450mm to 600mm wide take 128mm to 160mm centres, and wider ones 256mm to 320mm, or two pulls. A standard door takes a 96mm to 128mm pull or a knob, and 128mm is the most common centre in Australian kitchens. The one-third rule says a pull is about a third as long as the drawer front is wide, so near 200mm for a drawer 600mm across. Drawers up to about 400mm take a knob, a short pull or a compact T-bar. For a vanity, 96mm and 128mm centres are usual, which points to the Verese, or the 128mm pulls from the other ranges.

A pull or knob sits 40mm to 60mm in from the edge that opens, near the bottom corner of an upper door and the top corner of a lower door. Pulls run horizontally on drawers and vertically on doors. To test a size before you buy, tape a strip cut to the handle's length onto the cabinet and live with it for a day.

Pulls, T-bars and knobs

Knobs take the fingers and a single screw and suit small doors and drawers, while pulls take the whole hand. A pull is gripped with three or four fingers, which makes it the better choice for heavy drawers and for children and older people. Most cabinet knobs run roughly 25mm to 38mm across. Among the Turner Hastings ranges, the Sassari and Tutto have knobs, and the Fanetta and Verona have T-bars that are 75mm long and fix at one point. See cabinet knobs and cabinet pull handles.

Cup pulls

The Verese is the only cup pull among the ranges. Cup pulls on drawers with classic knobs on cabinet doors work for a balanced look in traditional kitchens, and a cup pull pairs with a knob from the Sassari or Tutto in the same finish name. Check the finish across ranges on a sample, since a finish called brushed brass can differ between suppliers. See cup pull cabinet handles.

Fitting

Fixing screws are included, and a fixing kit and installation instructions are in the box. The screw length depends on the panel: 22mm for panels 16mm to 18mm thick, and 38mm for panels 32mm to 34mm thick. The screw must bite into the handle and stop short of the door face. Tape a paper template to the door and mark the holes before you drill. Order one sample before you fit a whole kitchen, so you can see the finish in the room's own light.

Replacing handles

When you swap handles, match the fixing distance. A new pull with the same distance drops into the old holes without drilling. Measure from the centre of one screw hole to the centre of the other. If the old holes are on another centre, you will need to fill them or drill new ones, and a filled hole shows unless the door is repainted. A knob needs only one hole, so swapping a pull for a knob leaves one old hole unused and the other to fill. Where your old holes sit on a centre these ranges do not offer, such as 192mm or 256mm, a handle from another maker on cabinet pull handles may serve better.

In a bathroom

Bathroom fittings need wiping and drying more often than those elsewhere, because steam and moisture leave marks. Bathrooms are more humid than kitchens, and solid brass, stainless steel and quality PVD are sound choices, with thin electroplated zinc alloy the weak one. The Turner Hastings handles are plated bodies, so keep them away from the shower and wipe them dry. The cabinets these handles fit are at bathroom vanities and furniture.

Caring for plated handles

Put the cleaner on the cloth and not on the hardware, and dry the handle straight away so water marks do not form. For coated finishes, use a soft microfibre cloth with mild soap and warm water if needed, dried promptly, and avoid abrasive pads, powdered cleansers, ammonia, bleach and alcohol-based disinfectants. A coating wears first where the hand lands, so wipe the grip area more often than the rest of the handle.

Related pages

For other makers and types, see cabinet handles, cabinet pull handles and cabinet knobs.