See those four screws on the right. They have flat tips. Flat tipped screws were manufactured before 1846 when the machinery became available to put points on them like the two on the left.Based on the fact that there was bare wood exposed on the door when this lock was removed and how difficult it was to get the screws to turn, I would venture to say that this lock has never been removed. I could also speculate that this was the door to the original closet. It would appear that it was moved and re-hung. I would have done the same thing so I shouldn' t think it unusual. I'm just surprised that this particular door was of 1840s vintage seeing that it has five panels whereas most of the other older doors have two panels. Oh well, just another bit of quirkiness when this was the Big House on the Prairie.
Time to put that hardware in "ye olde coffee can o' paint stripper" for a day.
6 comments:
That’s pretty cool. Needless to say, they don’t make them like that anymore. Is it brass or cast iron.
That's so cool! I would love to find something like that.
I agree, that is mucho cool, but I just have to ask, how did you know that about the screws - when they started putting tips on them I mean. How does a person come to know things like that?
SD
To answer Greg's question. The lock is iron with brass parts.
Many of our doors were missing and those that had original hardware showed signs of damage from being kicked in or the rim locks were broken. I just bought three rim locks on Ebay to put on the glass paned doors and the one at the end of the hall. Rim locks are easy to install and look interesting.
For SD, I am a wealth of useless information. Don't ask me how I know so much about nothing. The information about the screws came from a book that we bought right after buying the house. The book is called "The Original Old House Journal Compendium". It was published in 1983 and is a little out of date. It is still useful because it covers all topics of home repair. It lists ways to determine the age of a house. This is one of the ways. Most of the old hardware in the original parts of the house has these screws and is original to the house. There are other things that date houses. Lath type, window configuration, types of nails used and style. When we bought this place we didn't have a clue. I have read and re-read some books and could probably write a detailed description and history of the entire neighborhood at this point.
Wow, that sounds like a useful book. I need something like that to figure out when the various parts of my house were added or changed.
Thanks for the explanation Gary. The new bathroom looks great. Maybe you should just leave the shower stall off completely and have one big shower with a toilet in it - very convenient!
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