Old Door

TinBoats.net

Help Support TinBoats.net:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

gillhunter

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,151
Reaction score
72
Location
Winder, GA
The wife and I just returned from a trip back to northern Indiana to visit with our families. I got to haul back a door that was removed from my wife's late aunt and uncle's 19th century farm house during a 1960s remodel and stored in their barn until they both passed away 10 years ago. It spent the next 10 years in my wife's parents garage until my father in law decided that he was getting rid of it last week if no one wanted it. Of course the wife had to have it. We just needed to figure out how to put a 7' long door in a 5' long pickup bed for the trip back.

I had never paid much attention to the door before. After looking it over I discovered that the door used "through" mortise and tenion contruction on the styles and rails that were both wedged and pinned, no glue. The pins were tapered and hand carved. Once I drove them out the door came apart pretty easily and now it's sitting in my garage :LOL2:.

I had never seen through tenions on anything other than timber framed buildings, never on a door. If someones seen this before let me know. Just starting to remove the hardware now. I don't know if the paint is lead based or not so it will come off before the door comes in the house as a decorative screen.

(And no my garage is not always pristine :LOL2: )
 

Attachments

  • 002.jpg
    002.jpg
    74.3 KB · Views: 2,796
  • 003.jpg
    003.jpg
    83.5 KB · Views: 2,796
  • 004.jpg
    004.jpg
    87.8 KB · Views: 2,796
  • 005.jpg
    005.jpg
    90.3 KB · Views: 2,796
I have an old hutch that I rescued out of a farmhouse, dirt cellar that is made, kind of, similar. It was clearly hand made and all the joints are done by tenon. The round cylinder like legs have a peg at the top of them that go through the bottom of the hutch and are pinned through with a wooden peg. It's a VERY cool piece made from walnut that will stay in my family as long as I have a say in it.

This is a great project.....can't wait to see progress and the finished piece.
 
Not only have I seen them, I have also made them . One of many old joints that has seen a rebirth in recent years.
 
(And no my garage is not always pristine :LOL2: )

Yes it is. I will never forget that you have IMPORT dirt into your garage, and even then, you have a special box for it. #-o

:mrgreen:
 
A little update. I spent yesterday removing several coats of oil based paint with my heat gun and a scraper. Finally got down to what was left of the original paint, which I think was milk paint. It appears that the outside of the door was blue and the inside was white. My wife wants to leave some of the original paint so I will probably just be putting spar varish on it as a finish. I'm going to try and reassemble it today.
 

Attachments

  • 009.jpg
    009.jpg
    82.7 KB · Views: 2,657
  • 011.jpg
    011.jpg
    70.9 KB · Views: 2,657
Got the door back together. A bit more difficult than I thought it might be. Now for a finish.
 

Attachments

  • 013.jpg
    013.jpg
    30 KB · Views: 2,631
Might be neat to have a little plaque made with the origin, estimated date of manufacture, and family name for it. If you didn't want the plaque to be conspicuous, you could mount it on the long narrow side of the door, where the hinges attach.


justathought.

Looks neat to me.
 
Kismet said:
Might be neat to have a little plaque made with the origin, estimated date of manufacture, and family name for it. If you didn't want the plaque to be conspicuous, you could mount it on the long narrow side of the door, where the hinges attach.


justathought.

Looks neat to me.
Great idea! That would help family history from being lost.
 
Glad to be of service.


I do the same thing, although on a piece of paper or business card, with my old shotguns and rifles. I just put my name, location, acquisition date, what I hunted with it, and my career status...sometimes the name of my bird dog. I figure some day, another hunter will be messing around with it, and discover a little bit of its history.


Might be the only legacy I have. :)
 
Finally done with this (except for getting a plaque made). Did 2 coats on each side sanding with 400 grit between coats with the spar urethane left over from my 1648 project :LOL2: . We decided to leave as much of the original paint as possible rather than to take it down to bare wood. The latch is original and although this was an exterior door it appears there was no way to lock it from the outside, just the inside. Different world back then.
 

Attachments

  • 019.jpg
    019.jpg
    78 KB · Views: 1,519
  • 017.jpg
    017.jpg
    77.9 KB · Views: 1,519
  • 016.jpg
    016.jpg
    83.6 KB · Views: 1,519
  • 018.jpg
    018.jpg
    64 KB · Views: 1,519
  • 015.jpg
    015.jpg
    36.1 KB · Views: 1,519
  • 014.jpg
    014.jpg
    31.9 KB · Views: 1,519
Kismet said:
Glad to be of service.


I do the same thing, although on a piece of paper or business card, with my old shotguns and rifles. I just put my name, location, acquisition date, what I hunted with it, and my career status...sometimes the name of my bird dog. I figure some day, another hunter will be messing around with it, and discover a little bit of its history.


Might be the only legacy I have. :)


Duh. Then I put the card inside the stock, under the butt-plate. Sheez. #-o
 

Latest posts

Top