If you've got a lathe and a spare bit of oak...

What happened to the old ones?

They're PLASTIC underneath that nice shiny chrome look, as descibed in the OP.

A few months back the finish on three of them started to crack and now the "chrome" film is lifting.

It's a 'Leisure' range cooker (part of the Aga group, apparently - or were) and the build quality on the pan drawer is rubbish, the nylon runners more or less collapsed a few months out of the guarantee. Managed to sort that problem and it's been problem free ever since except for the control knobs. Suspect it won't be long before others start to go. There are eight of them altogether, but only three need immediate replacement. It's a cosmetic thing, but on the limit of being obvious enough to notice!

Thanks Babs.

Got that one and one other... http://www.ransomspares.co.uk/parts/search/knob/cookers-hobs/c/default.htm?p=6&ps=&se=NumSold&sd=DESC

...off another trade forum last night, so I'll give them both a ring today and try and source the TWO different spindle sizes!

Eight knobs, all apparently identical except that the two for the ovens have smaller spindles. Go figure.

Just like a London bus, you wait ages and then three come along together.

If it doesn't have to be gold plated you could try somewhere like Maplin, RS Components or similar who sell knobs for hifi and other electronic kit.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/brushed-aluminium-knobs-1823

Eight knobs, all apparently identical except that the two for the ovens have smaller spindles.

Gas hobs (mechanical) vs oven thermostat (electronic)?

Ha! Except that just noticed the knob in that last link of mine has the damned temperature settings on it, whereas the cooker has them on the face of the cooker.

Back to the lists.

Actually, we've spent some time looking at those earlier knobs (sounds sad) and realised that the numbers would actually be uppermost when the pointy-thing is set to the gas mark on the face of the cooker, so would eliminate the need to bend down and peer at where the setting is, making things a lot easier.

One of the other problems with the original knobs may seem a bit trivial, but as it's happened a number of times with a number of people who've stayed with us as well as to us, it's something we'd like to get round if possible. The original knobs have a long bit that points to the setting and a shorter (not that short, either) bit on the opposite side (you can only see the one bit on the link), so that it can sometimes look as if the knob is in the off position when in fact it's still on. On the smaller burners turned down low for a simmer, with the sun coming in through the large kitchen windows it's difficult to see the flame. You take a pan off and finish your cooking and then lower the cooker top (acts as a splash-back when up) which turns off the gas - until you lift it for the next time. It's a while before you actually smell the gas. We're in the habit of always lowering the cooker top, but some guests will leave it up thinking it's a permanent splash-back.

So changing the knobs to a different type would be a good thing. Finding out if the supplier makes a knob with two different spindle sizes is proving bloody difficult because no one we're spoken to can tell us. Even the "proper" knob doesn't have the spindle size given for it!

No problem measuring them this end of the process, it's finding someone prepared to do it the other end!

They simply don't give a toss, even when you're looking to buy the originals at fifteen quid a go. You don't need a video link to "see" the shrug of indifference at the other end of the line. Oh to be in the US where customer service comes as the norm.

I was thinking more about the astonishingly rapid reaction times of US firms when contacted via email. Mind you, the fact that you've got a response at all is amazing when compared to many UK firms. I was very pleasantly surprised that the heated glass people got back, because none of the other firms I found when researching the background to the technology bothered to respond - except for the American companies, but they were dealing with a totally different technology, which I wasn't aware of at the time, but which I became aware of as they described their own systems - which I didn't supply links to in the thread.

Likewise the firms I contacted when trying to source clipfin material. One company I contacted by phone promised to get back to me twice. Zilch.

The "Have a nice day, sir" stereotypical response is a bit jaded now as a put-down for the idea that service doesn't mean subservient. London restaurants are packed with foreigners serving table who genuinely want to give you a good experience; who don't feel they have to impress upon you that just because they're serving you makes them somehow inferior to you. The excellent Raymond Blanc programme "Service", which took a bunch of diverse young people from a variety of backgrounds (including one public schoolboy) and trained them in the art of service brought home just how class conscious this society is - and how crippling it is to us as individuals as well as a society.

Throughout our visit to Canada and the US a few years back, visiting relatives, I was incredibly impressed by the open nature of virtually all the people we met, especially the staff in restaurants and shops. We were there for two weeks and didn't spend all our time indoors, so I doubt we were just lucky in the people we met.

And around 1995 I did freelance work for a company that was involved in improving the customer service of Woolworths. Bit like secret shopping, I suppose. Staff were being trained and a few of us had the job of assessing how well this translated onto the shop floor. At the start of the programme you could see that staff were having a problem delivering the expected outcome. That "Have a nice day" sounded about as false as it could sound coming from the mouth of a jaded shop-assistant on minimum wage in a town centre branch of Woolies. But as the programme worked on it was becoming apparent that a smile and greeting/goodbye was becoming second-nature and the whole ethos of stores changed. There were still exceptions, but they were singular exceptions involving individuals.

Didn't stop Wollies going down, but that had nothing to do with staff attitude at shop floor level.

My internet mate in Nebraska can drive over to his local hardware store and buy the stuff we'd have to spend hours on the internet searching for. He runs a large woodworking company making specialist furniture and office fittings. The people he talks to on the phone KNOW about the products they're selling.

It's a bit like a waiter being able to tell you what the menu items are made from and what sort of taste experience you're likely to have. It's called customer service, it's all about earning the establishment money so that the staff retain their jobs. The one thing you don't pay for directly is a smile. But that smile is rewarded with either or both a tip and return custom.

All I want is to talk to someone who can either tell me the diameter of the spindle the knob they're selling will take, or take the time to find out.

Knobs will do for me