Blake & Bull news

Re-enamelling an Aga range cooker in our 'Saxon' blue

Philips tour of southern Scotland and northern England (1 job in Kircudbright and 2 in Northumberland) concluded today! Here is a little video of yesterdays work, from red to our 'Saxon' blue. 

A lovely e-mail!

Thank you to Amanda for these kind words about our 'full monty' drying system for use with Aga range cookers.

"Hi Matthew I’ve bought the whole drying system from you over the past year (amongst other things). It’s lovely not having to put the tumble dryer on and using the heat from the aga that would otherwise be wasted. Below are a few photos. I have the two airers and the small one which is perfect for hubbys socks and tea towels... in all, I can dry a large load in one go. Makes washing day easy whatever the weather!"

New textile designs!

What do you think of these two new designs that will be added to our textiles collection soon!

Special price on a complete 2 oven Aga range cooker

It's a bit of a saga but we find ourselves with a completely re-enamelled, converted and restored 2 oven 'Deluxe' cooker with no home 😥. It's 'Light Cream' in colour so super classic but has a tiny mark, like a dot of ink from a ballpoint, on the front of one of the door hinges. If anyone would like to offer this lovely lady a home she is ready to go. 

Our normal price for a cooker like this is £5300 + VAT. In this case as it has been a resident of our workshop for so long and has the small mark it will be £4750 + VAT. This includes installation, delivery and our 2 year parts and labour warranty. We'll even throw in a plinth for you! The cooker will need to be installed on an outside wall so we can vent the hot air through it and we'll need 2 13 amp fused spurs to provide the electric ready. Other than that its super simple. Philip will turn up and install it for you over the course of a day. It will be warming up by the time he leaves!

You can find more information on the processes involved in restoring this cooker at the links below. One final note! There is a restored badge in real life, we have to edit it out from images as it is a trademark and we are an independent company!

• Re-enamelling the front, hob, doors and lids...
• Shotblasting the interior castings...
• Converting to 'Electrikit'...  

Kitchen inspiration

Kitchen inspiration from Blake & Bull, and from one of our re-enamelling customers no less. Thank you Alison! I love the unit colours, the contrasting (but not too much) wall and natural wood upstand that matches the mantlepiece. The floor is also spectacular. Of course, in the midst of all this stands Alisons cooker (badge removed digitally as its a trademark); patient, stoic and quietly elegant.

Alison left us this fabulous review!

Top tips on using our drying racks with your Aga range cooker

These tips on how to use our drying racks came from Kathy in the Netherlands (famous for this lovely review!)...

• Firstly use fabric softener in your wash. It makes all the difference, because everything gets really, properly dry.
• Secondly, the warmest place is above the gap between the two cooking plates. Put the thickest things there so everything comes out dry at more or less the same time!

A newly re-enamelled Aga range cooker & sparkling kitchen

We changed the colour of Helens cooker in March, see pics https://blakebull.link/helen, and she sent these pics of finished kitchen, cooker & Mollie! Kitchen looking super glamorous and I love how clean it all is - Mollie will sort that come winter . Helen left us a fab review at the time too; https://blakebull.link/helenreview.

Should I turn my range cooker off when I go on holiday?

I have had a few queries about this recently so thought I would address it properly in a blog post! So should you turn your cooker off while you go away or are on holiday?

The answer is that it depends! It depends on how well insulated your cooker is, what fuel supply it uses and maybe even the time of year (how cold it is!). 

Firstly it does no harm at all to turn any range cooker on and off. The only reason not to is that it's more efficient to leave it on or it's a bugger to relight (all too possible!). 

Assuming your cooker restarts/relights easily I've addressed each fuel type below.

• Traditional oil range cooker... As a rule of thumb I'd turn one of these off if you are going away for more than 3 days. Testing this is very difficult as measuring the amount of fuel used is tricky and vague for oil cookers.
• Traditional gas range cooker... These guys heat up quicker than oil cookers and can respond to heat loss quicker (ie heat up quicker) so I'd say they are worth turning off if you are away for more than 2 days. You can actually test this. On a 'normal' weekday day check your gas meter first thing and then just before you go to bed and note your gas usage. The next day turn your range cooker off so that it is cold by morning of the following day. Note the gas meter and relight it checking again that evening to see your total usage. By comparing the two figures you should be able to get a good idea of how much 'extra' gas it takes to warm your cooker up vs just maintaining a temperature.
• Electric range cookers... There are lots of different types so this is tricky. If it's an older type or conversion then I'd say the 3 day rule applies but with a modern cooker it's much less, maybe even 1 day. They are so easy to turn on and off so it makes the decision much easier! As with gas you can test this quite easily using the method above, just check your electric meter not your gas ;)
• Our 'Electrikit' converted Aga range cookers... This one is easy - turn it off if going away at all, even if just for one night. Its a flick of a switch to turn back on when you return. The hotplates warm up to a useful heat in 20mins and the ovens in a few hours!

Why might I leave my range cooker on while I go away?

• Your kitchen is a little damp. You probably thought it wasn't while the cooker was on, and then you turned it off!
• It's not worth the hassle. Fumbling with matches on a cold kitchen floor is not much fun! 
• You like coming home to a warm house. If you turn everything else off and leave the range cooker on it'll stop most houses from freezing in winter so may be worth the investment!

Millennium edition Aga range cooker

Have you heard of the 'Millennium' edition cooker? It was a special model released, unsurprisingly!, around the millennium with chrome inserts around the door cavities. Rather smart I think, especially on black enamel like Marilyn's cooker, fresh from cleaning with our kit!, here. The badge has been blurred as its a trademark, you can see Marilyns original pic here along with her lovely comments about our cleaning kit!

Blake & Bull re-enamelling reviewed!

So delighted to see the review below from Elin! We re-enamelled her cooker last week, I've blogged about it here if you'd like to see some pictures! 

"My aga, a solid fuel to oil fired conversion, had gradually discoloured over the years . Matthew at Blake and Bull was extremely helpful with a pile of smartphone pictures I sent him, and there was no hard sell: a price was quoted with an upfront deposit. These people are aga-anoraks, in the nicest possible way. Apparently mine was a pre 1974 model, and Philip, when he came to do the Blue Peter act with one he (or someone else) had made earlier , offered me a choice of a towel rail which was identical to the one I had before, or a slightly different towel rail, which the pre 1974 model would have had. I think he approved of my choice of the authentic restoration. Philip and Matt did a great job, they arrived earlier than they had planned, to accommodate me, and had the biggest vacuum cleaner I had ever seen. Fastidious work. I am delighted with the end result and would wholeheartedly recommend them." 18th June 2018

See the original on our 'Reviews' page, you'll need to click the 'Site Reviews' tab as shown below...