Tô Minh Khang

Tô Minh Khang spent six years as a building electrician before he joined the workshop. He is the last person to handle a lamp before it leaves us, and the first one from the workshop to come to your home.

What he does on a lamp

Khang wires each lamp from the E27 socket (the most common screw socket, sold in any electrical shop) up to the ceiling canopy, tightens every terminal, and ties a strain-relief knot inside the canopy so the weight of the lamp never pulls on the connections. Then each lamp stays lit for 24 hours on the workshop’s test bench. If one flickers in those 24 hours, it is taken apart and redone, not packed.

At your home he installs, sets the height on the spot, and photographs the number engraved under the canopy for our ledger. At the Thềm Chiều café he hung fifteen pendants in one night while the café was closed. For the Nhà Chín Phòng homestay he followed the crate up to Đà Lạt and hung thirteen pendants over two days.

Something he learned

On his first installs with us he set the height standing up. It looked right from there, but once the customer sat down they could see the bulb below the rim of the shade. Now he measures up from the tabletop with a tape, then sits in the customer’s chair and looks up before he fixes the cable.

What he looks out for

Khang answers the phone when a lamp has a fault. Frame and shade carry a 24-month warranty; bulbs and cable are covered by their manufacturers. Every lamp ships with a spare bulb, so most calls start with the same suggestion: try the spare first, and if it still does not light, he comes round.

What he has written

• Choosing lamps for a homestay in a cold, damp town like Đà Lạt
• Fifteen 6 W bulbs, twelve hours a day: the electricity bill
• Our pages on shipping and installation and care and warranty

The lamps he installs most often are the Đông Chí at the bedside and the café set.