The Door

My main interest in blacksmithing is functional ironwork.  I made this door at our house completely from scratch using 3 planks of roughsawn longleaf pine 1-3/4" thick by 13" wide (from an old school building in San Antonio).  The door is held together entirely by the two heavy (2" x 3/8") strap hinges with a pair of 1/2" diameter rivets through each plank at each strap.  Yes, the design is painfully simple.  At the time this was by far the biggest blacksmithing project I'd ever undertaken and I was totally focused on function.

The straps wrap around the hinge side of the door and are forge welded into a loop which protrudes on the interior side of the door.  This loop fits over a round pin mounted to the door jamb to form the hinge.  The round pin was formed by forge welding three 1/2" diameter rods together which were then spread and flared to create the attachment to the door jamb.  Note the forged washers on the inside of each rivet.  The door had to be assembled on the anvil.  Each rivet was driven into place, the washer positioned, and the rivet headed cold with the other head resting on the anvil.  The resulting clamping forces are enormous.

This photo of the lower hinge shows how the straps wrap around the hinge side of the door and are mortised flush with the edge.

Here's the inside of the Norfolk latch mechanism.  The extra little piece (top) is a simple lock that I devised.  Note the square-headed bolts.  I made them by forging the hex heads of regular lag screws square.

Here's a closeup of the handle on the outside.  It's a big heavy handle.  The escutcheon plate is 21" long.

Finally, here's the key that I made to open the simple lock mechanism mentioned above.