Now we get our first look at the original wood of the door. It looks like there are multiple factory mounting options, and a mix were used because the wood was stripped in a couple of them. This one has a motley crew of screws in various holes, some of which may not be factory. They are captive to the trim plates, so the trim is actually holding everything together. In this sense, mortise locks are very much like modern hardware- the handles are holding everything in, and are last-on-first-off. In principle, once liberated, it slides right out of the door.īefore we can do that, however, the handles must be removed. It was so well sealed in there that it took a fair amount of quality time with razor blades and knives to free it from the paint. Some of those layers may even have lead in them, so no eating the paint, please. Let’s see what we’re facing here.Īs is typical for 100-year-old door hardware, it has been painted over 361 times. The first step is to get the lock set out of the door. Nowadays everything called “wrought iron” is actually mild steel. These parts are all hand-forged wrought iron. On the inside, we see the original deadbolt and handle. Because most of the major features of the original lock set are non-functional, this door hardware is acting as a handle to pull the door closed, and little else. Here’s the external facing original hardware, with modern deadbolt installed above. These are the sorts of tricks you can do with a one-piece lock and latch set that modern deadbolts have forgone in the name of inexpensive installation. There are also automatic coordination features in the deadbolt, as we’ll see. The original is a full featured lock set, including a door latch with multiple modes, and a deadbolt. By restoring this lock set we will be doing a great service to the neighborhood. The broken original door hardware had prompted previous owners to install a modern deadbolt and a criminally hideous security gate over the original door. This effort wasn’t just an idle curiosity. This one has been in continuous use for nearly 100 years, and though it wasn’t working well anymore, it’s surprising how little was actually wrong with it. They are marvels of engineering, however, and were absolutely built to last. The combination of installation difficulty and doors being made of other materials likely led to the downfall of these mechanisms. This is not the easiest thing to do, and it requires your door to made of a quality solid hardwood. It’s called a “mortise lock” because to install it you have to cut a huge mortise (square cavity) in the end of the door. A mortise lock set is a one-piece mechanism that includes one or more locks and latches all in one unit. It has many beautiful period details, including the original mortise lock set in the front door. Sign up at the Noble Patron level to see them!Ī good friend of mine recently bought a house built in 1924. This article has an accompanying four-part video series in the Patreon feed. Bringing a little mechanical buddy back to life.