Properly to complete even the simplest of cabinets or chests some hardware will be needed, whether it be only a pair of strap-hinges and a padlock or the most elaborate kind of ornamental fittings. Plain hinges and a lock will answer every ordinary purpose, but a nice chest or case should be finished off with ornamental hinge-straps, escutcheons, lock-plates, or handles.
These fixtures may be purchased at a hardware store and in some large cities a very beautiful assortment of fancy hardware is displayed. But it will be both cheaper and more satisfactory for the young craftsman to make these fittings for himself, and the art is not a difficult one to acquire. Some of the accompanying designs may appear at first sight rather beyond the ability of the average boy, and so they would be if they were cast in brass or bronze or cut from thick sheet-metal. But all of them can be shaped from ordinary sheet-lead with a pair of old shears, a few small chisels, and a light mallet.
Scraps of sheet-lead, varying in thickness from one to three-sixteenths of an inch, may be purchased from a plumber for five or six cents a pound. For the ordinary fixtures of medium size the metal should be a trifle less than one-eighth of an inch in thickness. For the heavier hardware an old piece of lead pipe may be used by splitting or sawing it open, and beating it out flat, on the surface of an old flat-iron, with a hard wooden mallet. If sheet brass, copper, or zinc are employed, they should be of the soft kind, so as to cut easily. If too hard, the pieces may be softened or annealed by putting them in a fire until they are cherry-red. They should then be drawn out and allowed to cool, when they will be found quite soft and easy to work.
The boy who owns a scroll-saw will find it an easy matter to jig out these designs, whether the material be lead or one of the harder metals. Special fret-saws may be purchased for this purpose, having finer teeth and being more highly tempered than those used for wood-working. In sawing metal you must be careful not to force the saw, and after cutting an inch or two allow the blade to cool, otherwise it will break.
If a hand jig-saw is the only tool available the metal should be held in a vise. With very thin lead the dressing is best done by laying the metal on a hard-wood block and cutting out with small chisels and a light mallet.
Three or four small wood-carving chisels, straight-edges, and gouges will be found admirable tools for this work, and, as the lead does not dull them, they will keep an edge for a long time. A wood-carving chisel is ground on both sides, which makes it better for this work than a carpenter’s chisel, which is ground only on one side. A light mallet, a hard-wood block, a coarse file or two, and a knife with a small, sharp blade will be the only other tools required.
Escutcheons
The term escutcheon, as applied to hardware, means the ornamental metal plate that is placed over a key-hole, and through which the key has to pass in order to reach the lock. The name is applied also to the plate behind a knocker, or that to which a ring or handle is attached.
In Fig. 1 a few designs for small escutcheons are shown. Their actual size should be in proportion to that of the drawer or door to which they are to be attached.
The design should be drawn to the proper size on a piece of brown paper, then cut out with scissors and laid on a piece of metal, the outline being scratched with a pin or drawn on with pen and ink.
If the metal is sawed the edges will be rough, but they may be dressed down with the files. If the lead is cut out the edges can be finished with a knife-blade, as lead cuts easily and is pleasant to work in. It sometimes happens that in cutting out the more delicate parts of the design that the chisels will distort the metal or force it out of shape. In this case the trueness may be restored by tapping the edges with a small hammer.
A small hand-drill will be found useful for boring holes in the metal, through which screws or nails pass to secure the escutcheons to the wood. If a drill cannot be had, a small awl will answer very well.
Be careful that you do not make the key-hole too large.
ESCUTCHEONS AND HINGE-STRAPS
Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.
It should be only a trifle larger than the key, in order to lead the latter easily.
Short Hinge-straps
A single hinge is always made like a book, with two leaves and a back, through which a pin is run to hold the leaves together. In door-hinges the leaves are usually arranged so that when the door is closed the leaves are out of sight. These hinges are called butts, while those applied to the outside surface are called T or strap-hinges, and sometimes plate-hinges.
Fig. 3. Fig. 4.
The short hinge-straps shown in Fig. 2 are not intended as a part of the hinge, but only as sham straps. Where a butt is mounted in the wood these straps are arranged on either side of the back. Fig. 3 shows the manner in which a butt is mounted in a door and jamb, and Fig. 4 shows the reverse side with the back protruding, at one side of which the lead strap is mounted. The inside, or parallel, lines of the straps are the edges that butt against the hinge-back, and they are to be cut to fit the width of the hinge. The size should also correspond generally to that of the shape and dimensions of the door or box lid. For artistic effect large sham nail-heads may be fastened over the nail or screw heads that really secure the hinge to the wood.
In some of the plain straps a very good imitation of hand-wrought iron straps may be made by beating the surface of the lead with a hammer having the face slightly crowned or rounded. The hammer-marks will show up distinctly, and when the straps are painted black no one will know but what they are really iron straps beaten out by hand.
Another good effect may be secured by beating the edges down slightly with a small hammer instead of dressing them with a file; this rounds or flattens them, and eliminates the angular edge that is common in all cheap hardware.
Long Hinge-straps
For cabinet and chest doors, and doors that open into rooms, some long hinge-straps are shown in Fig. 5, the proportions being correctly indicated.
If the jamb is sufficiently wide, straps may be placed on both sides of the hinge-back. Usually, however, the jamb is too narrow.
These straps, if made of lead, should be thicker than the short straps, otherwise they will look weak. For a strap twelve to fifteen inches long the metal should not be less than one-eighth of an inch thick, and for some designs it would look better if quarter-inch material is used.
It is quite as easy to saw out thick metal as thin, only it takes a little longer time. The saw must be held straight and not allowed to bind. Never force a saw through lead, as it will bind and check, and also will pick up a thin lead coating, materially adding to the friction. If the saw does not run easily, lubricate it with a little soapy water, and afterwards wipe it off to prevent rust. When working with a scroll-saw on which there is a table, or bed, the soapy water should be drawn along the lines on the metal with a soft hair-brush. As the saw cuts it will take up the water.
Drawer-pulls and Handle-plates
Small drawer-pulls and handles may be purchased at any hardware store for a few cents each, but they are usually very plain and unattractive. Rings in heads and handles on plain plates are the best to purchase, as then the heads may be mounted on fancy escutcheons, and the handles and keepers removed from the plain plates and reset in lead mountings of artistic design, wrought or sawed from lead or other ductile material.
Drawer-pulls are generally arranged with a shank at the back of the ring-head which passes into the wood, and into which a screw is driven from the inside of the drawer.
Handle-keepers are made in the same way. In designing fancy escutcheons and plates, care must be taken to arrange the holes the proper distance apart to receive the keeper-ends.
Door-plates
On swing and sliding doors—and sometimes on plain doors—plates are mounted above the lock on both sides. Their use is to protect the painted or polished wood-work from finger-marks and similar defacements. Quite elaborate plates are used on some doors, while others are mounted with very plain ones. In Fig. 7 a variety of designs are shown.
The average plate varies in length from six to twelve inches. In width they measure from two and a half inches to three inches, and the metal should be about one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
Door-pull plates are made to receive the ends of a handle. The latter is bolted to the reverse side of the door with countersunk nuts or flush screws. The upper line of drawings in Fig. 7 are designed for this purpose, and the two holes are spaced to line with the ends of the handle that is to be inserted. In addition to the anchorage these plates will get by being held to the wood under the handles, it would be well to make a few holes at the edges, through which small nails may be driven.
Large Lock-plates
In Fig. 8 several designs for large lock-plates are shown. In this instance the knob and key-hole are placed in the same plate. This variety of door hardware offers a broad field for the young designer. But be sure and space the two holes so that the knob and key are in the right place.
In the extreme right-hand plate (Fig. 8) an effect of continued scroll is secured around the key-hole by cutting the ornament out of the body of the plate. This is just the reverse of the scrolls forming the right side of the plate, the ornament in this latter case being of the solid metal. More “feeling” may be given to the solid scroll if an effect of relief is worked out with some blunt tool and the mallet. This may be done with an ordinary nail-punch or a blunt awl. For the veining use an awl or a dull chisel, lightly tapping the tool with a wooden mallet.
Fig. 8. Fig. 9.
Door-knockers and Miscellaneous Ornaments
Door-knockers and plates are made in a great variety of designs. The most elaborate and richly ornamented knockers are cast in bronze and chased by hand, but this work is not possible for the boy craftsman to accomplish with his small outfit and limited knowledge of the higher grade of art metal-work.
The knocker-plates shown in Fig. 9 are cut from sheet-lead, but the rings in the keepers (with the knob of metal at the lower side) must be made from iron or other hard metal. A blacksmith will make these rings and set them in a head, or keeper, which in turn is bolted to the inside of a door. Where the knob of metal strikes the plate an iron nail with a large head must be driven through the escutcheon and into the door, so that the knob will strike upon it. Lead will not do for the ring or knob, nor as a striking-plate, since it is too soft to sound sharply and distinctly.
Sheet-lead ornaments in a great variety of designs may be made for panels, the sides of cases, or for the decoration and embellishment of wood-work in general. Wall-paper, carpet, upholstery, and other figured fabrics will offer ideas from which to copy; but after a little practise the young craftsman should originate his own designs, and not depend on other people’s brains to furnish him with working patterns.