Grafting a Victorian Cast Brass Doorknob
Onto a Modern Entry Lockset - April 2002
Modern Schlage knob removed from its shaft, with Victorian cast
brass
knob in background.
Plastic/metal part in middle is the inside locking turnbutton.
The Schlage knob was retained by a tab staked into a hole in the shaft.
I drilled a small hole to let me pry up that tab.
(Spring clip, bit of black rubber, and red die are just supports for
photo taking.)
Starting to machine the cast brass knob in the four jaw chuck on
my old Stark lathe.
That lathe spent
a good part of its life working for the Waltham Watch Company.
(I replaced its original flat belt pulley with a vee-pulley when I
bought it about 30 years ago.)
Modern knob's cut off shank and the antique replacement knob ready to soft solder them together.
Ready to stake the knob back onto the shaft. Shiny brass shank has
been antiqued with liver of sulphur.
The part at bottom is a spacer tube to lengthen the turnbutton shaft
to make up for
the increased depth of the replaced knob. It fits inside the plastic
part.
After doing that first knob, the Devil found work for my idle hands and I fitted about 40 different antique knobs purchased on eBay to all the other doors in our home. Shown above are some of the other knobs I used.
In the process I discovered there are quite a few folks who take
the
collecting and preservation of antique doorknobs quite seriously. Some
of
them actually got mad at me for desecrating their beloved treasures by
chopping them off and putting them on modern locksets!
My four jaw lathe chuck left marks where the jaws grabbed the
knobs, so I made
this Brazilian walnut "soft collet" to suit the 2-1/4" diameter
of most of the other antique knobs.
It's shown here with a doorknob in place, just after machining off the
knob's
shank.