Old Dutch 2 Quart Decor Copper Hammered Teakettle With Wood Handle

Comment: This copper kettle is pretty to look at, and ok for the price. But I can see why some pots cost much more. This pot is cheaply made.

I'm the type who usually buys cheap kettles at the grocery or department stores. The typical whistle type. It's just a kettle for heating water after all. But those department store kettles always drip while pouring and this drives me crazy. I decided to buy a nice copper kettle (no whistle) with a nice spout that wouldn't drip and that would be attractive.

But I didn't want to pay $100 or more for a kettle. What I wanted was something that was beautiful but would be used to actually heat water (and that means, removing the lacquer coating, which took a couple of hours).

Actually, the kettle itself is nice. The hammered finish is attractive and the spout is nicely shaped and functional. It's soldered to the rest of the pot with skill.

The problem is in the hardware and the workmanship used to attach the handle. There are a four screws that pass through the kettle and are soldered in place from the inside (presumably with lead free solder!), such that the threads are exposed for the handle hinges to attach to. The whole inside is then nickle/tin plated. On my kettle, one of these screws was soldered in place crooked, leaving not enough thread to capture the brass cap nut, and the other screws were barely long enough. As a result, the handle doesn't fit well on the hinges and the hinges look cock-eyed.

The angles on the brass handle frame, when attached to the wooden handle, are such that the spacing at base of the handle is too wide to attached to the hinges properly. The handle has to be "coerced" to match up with the hinges.

The brass cap nuts are really steel with a cheap plating of brass that was flaking off at the bottom of the nuts.

All of this became especially evident when I disassembled the hardware in order to remove the lacquer coating, as directed by the minumal instructions. This in itself was a messy, smelly job. It would be nice if a version were sold that had no lacquer coating.

In the end, I had this pot cleaned up nicely and re-assembled. It's pretty, and I use it every morning. But on my next trip to the hardware store I'll be looking for better nuts and thinking about ways to attach the hinges to the kettle more securely.

I only have this one sample. I expect that since the screws were attached by hand, the quality of the workmanship would vary. You may buy this and find the hardware and assembly are adaquate. And as I say, the kettle itself is quite nice. A little copper polish once a week and it looks great.

Good luck.