I have a 36" copper farm sink w/apron. I agonized over whether to buy it from mexico or here in the u.s. In the end I bought it here at coppersinksonline, because I read many horror stories about dealing direct with Mexico. Although when my sink showed up I have to admit I was a little dissapointed, it didn't look as pretty as their picture on the website. It has some imperfections, but that's part of its charm. I paid a fortune for it, and if I had to do it again I might go the Mexico route if I found a vendor I was comfortable with. (emphasis on might)

As for cleaning, I wax it and that seems to work well. If you leave dishes in it overnight though, you will get rings or marks in the sink by morning, but it doesn't really bother me it's part of the charm. As it ages, I really like the look.

Overall, I love the sink and am glad I went with it.

We just had ours installed on Friday and we love it! It is a farmhouse copper sink and we bought it off of ebay for $1000. We bought it from Great Lakes Copper who gets it from Mexico. So far, we have been very happy with it. It is so beautiful. I did a lead test on it when I first received it and it came back negative. It is my huband's and my favorite thing in our kitchen. We will be posting pictures of our kitchen in a couple days, but tonight we are celebrating our completion with pina coladas. Yeah!

My Coppersinksonline sink was also from Mexico, and I love it. It is not an apron front, but I have a rohl shaw's that I love also. The only thing I would mention about the apron front sinks is that if you undermount them you don't have a level front edge to rest your cutting board on, if that is something you tend to do. That's why the prep sink is not an apron front this time around.

We have a 33" apron front sink from Handcrafted Metal in Texas. We like it, but then, we're fans of 'patina'. The bottom of the sink is an ever-changing collage of colors, depending on the foods and dishes that have been left to sit. We gets dark rings, patches of pink, an occasional spot of blue-green that is easy to wipe away, etc. I've noticed that any sort of scrubby - even a plastic one - will scratch the copper.

Thumbs-up on the apron front, although between it and the TapMaster I've managed to douse my front several times, usually while trying to rinse a spoon. Water comes on, hits the bowl of the spoon, and WOOSH, over the apron front and right onto me. You'd think I'd learn.

I have no experience with copper sinks, other than what I have seen on display. I will say that the two Native Trails apron sinks I saw in different showrooms did not impress me. The front apron on both of them was wavy and it showed up badly when the light hit them from an angle. HTH

The rustic charm of our copper sink has really won us over. We dealt with CopperSinksOnline.com and felt they had the most knowledgeable people, were safe to deal with (US company) and they were the only ones with the thicker 14 gauge copper which was really important to us for a kitchen sink. ...copper is a soft metal, so the thicker the better... We looked at another company which said they also sold on Ebay (I'm pretty sure they were Great Lakes) but they only had the thinner copper (you get what you pay for...). What I found back when I was researching these sinks was that there were a LOT of differences between the various sinks from Mexico. ....and we knew for sure we didn't want the sinks that were from other countries (read the article in the link).

The sinks we got were pretty close to the pictures online but I can understand how they might all vary a bit since they are hand made. I highly recommend that you read the article I have attached as a link before you buy anything.

The company also put a photo we sent them in their photo gallery. ...here is one of the farmhouse:

{{!gwi}}

And one of the bar sink:
{{!gwi}}

We chose the "dark smoke" and mixed it with some oil rubbed bronze faucets from the same company. We also use the wax they recommend and that works OK. The thickness of their sinks also meant we didn't need any sound deadening type material. There is some slight waviness in the apron front, but it has not been an issue and in fact only points out that these things are made one at a time by a real craftsperson. And with all the abuse we have put it through so far - no problems. We are really happy about our choice and our kitchen.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Buying Guide for Copper Sinks

Ours is 14 gauge at the apron and 16 for the base. It does not make any different sound then our old porcelain sink did.

gnomelover - no offense. I'm sure you have a great sink and a great buy. However, just relating my experience and trying to help. The reason we were gunshy about EBay and some of the direct sellers from Mexico is because of another family member who had purchased hers that way about a year before we bought ours. ...after about 6 months, she scrapped the sink and bought from the company we dealt with. The reason was that pots and pans were really making a mess of the sink bowl bottom since it was too thin. She could literally "bang them out" but after living with it for a while she had it yanked out and replaced it with the thicker gauge sink from copper sinks online... She said there was quite a large weight difference between the old and new sink. ...and both were made in Mexico... ....and no, she couldn't get her money back from the old sink. We decided that it was worth a few more bucks to get it right from the start and are happy we did.

Hope this helps.

OK, now I am leaning toward coppersinksonline.com. I do like they are using 14gauge over the 16gauge. Very little difference in price between the company I was choosing and coppersinksonline. About $50 more experience. For that price, it seems like a good deal to get the higher gauge copper.

Resurecting this old [well, middle aged] thread: I really need to committ to a sink. Bought a copper bath sink on ebay, love it, re-considering copper for main kitchen sink.

Love the look, but I have to be realistic about my housekeeping: I let stuff sit in water overnight from time to time, and like to bleach things up when circumstances require it.

How will copper stand up to this use, will it just look awful? I'm fine with a 'patina-ed' look, but wouldn't want the bottom of the sink to be super shiney while the sides/front remained darker.

From your post, I would say copper is not a great choice for you if ''letting stuff sit in water overnight'' means filling the sink and letting it sit. In that case, whatever you leave (water in the sink, pot or flatware on the bottom) will also leave rings or an imprint of the item on the bottom of the sink. That's a lot different to me than watching the patina change from using the sink. Copper oxidizes, and leaving water in a copper sink will quickly turn it brown, then green. Although you can scrub it off, it would be a constant cleaning problem in that case, not only with the sink, but what you left in it. I think you'd probably end up hating your copper sink, unless you wanted to change your habits.

I keep a black sink grid in the bottom on my sink, and when I have hand washing I pick the largest item and fill it with soapy water. After the items are washed, it all gets rinsed and dried. Cleaning oxidation with baking soda takes a little elbow grease, so I prefer to not create it whenever I can.

Wow...my copper sinks just arrived. I ended up going with some of the suggestions on the board and went with coppersinksonline.com and they are beautiful. Seriously. My wife was not convinced until she saw it and she loved it.

The thing that did surprise me and I am not sure why, but the main sink is HUGE. It is a single bowl 36" and I am a bit taken back by how big it is. I love it though and I think it will look great with the countertops when they come in. Our prep sink is 15x15 and that seemed huge as well but it will also be undermounted which will make it not seem so big.

Anyway, could not be more pleased...well, until it is actually installed.

brosamj:
Have you got your sinks installed yet? Are the dimensions on your 15x15 prep sink for the inside or the outside?

If thats the outside measurement, then it would be approx 11x11x6 on the inside. Is that big enough? The next size up is 18x18x7 on the outside.

I want one for a half-bath off the morning room and I'm really undecided what size I need. I want one my DH can get his elbows into, and of course, cost is always an issue.