Hinges Victorian Front Door

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Our old victorian front door only has 2 hinges and since we're installing security glass next week I was thinking of adding a third hinge.
I bought a grade 13 hinge today which looks somewhat out of place being brand new and a lot bigger.

Any ideas what kind of hinges they used on victorian front doors and where I might be able to get one from?

Thanks
 
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Victorian hinges were made long before standards existed, so as you may suspect you won't just find a new hinge to match your old hinges. There are a few sources of reproduction ironmongery (generally in brass and bronze), but they are IMHO ridiculously expensive in the main and again may be based on different patterns to your ironmongery. This is because almost every town of any size in the country seems to have had their own foundry, or more than one, and these places always seemed to produce a vast range of products including hinges. Hence the variation. That being said, personally I'd try the local architectural salvage yards or maybe local pine furniture places (the sort of places which advertise themselves as "upcyclers" these days :rolleyes::LOL: ), local antique shops, local flea markets, etc. You may be lucky, you probably won't. Note that I emphasised the "local" - because products often were made locally until well after the railways became a national network.

TBH, the quickest and probably best solution is to buy either modern equivalent (repro?) hinges from an architectural ironmonger.

Incidentally, if the hinges are still up to snuff and doing their job you might like to consider adding two or even three modern hinge bolts to beef up security. Low cost, relatively unobtrusive and widely available
 
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Victorian hinges were made long before standards existed, so as you may suspect you won't just find a new hinge to match your old hinges. There are a few sources of reproduction ironmongery (generally in brass and bronze), but they are IMHO ridiculously expensive in the main and again may be based on different patterns to your ironmongery. This is because almost every town of any size in the country seems to have had their own foundry, or more than one, and these places always seemed to produce a vast range of products including hinges. Hence the variation. That being said, personally I'd try the local architectural salvage yards or maybe local pine furniture places (the sort of places which advertise themselves as "upcyclers"thses days :rolleyes::LOL: ), local antique shops, local flea markets, etc. You may be lucky, you probably won't. Note that I emphasised the "local" - because products often were made locally until well after the railways became a national network.

TBH, the quickest and probably best solution is to buy either modern equivalent (repro?) hinges from an architectural ironmonger.

Incidentally, if the hinges are still up to snuff and doing their job you might like to consider adding two or even three modern hinge bolts to beef up security. Low cost, relatively unobtrusive and widely available
Thanks for the through explanation. I've been thinking about a modern equivalent myself today, perhaps it's the best option.
A friend actually recommended hinge bolts so may go with that too.
 
Victorian hinges were made long before standards existed, so as you may suspect you won't just find a new hinge to match your old hinges. There are a few sources of reproduction ironmongery (generally in brass and bronze), but they are IMHO ridiculously expensive in the main and again may be based on different patterns to your ironmongery. This is because almost every town of any size in the country seems to have had their own foundry, or more than one, and these places always seemed to produce a vast range of products including hinges. Hence the variation. That being said, personally I'd try the local architectural salvage yards or maybe local pine furniture places (the sort of places which advertise themselves as "upcyclers" these days :rolleyes::LOL: ), local antique shops, local flea markets, etc. You may be lucky, you probably won't. Note that I emphasised the "local" - because products often were made locally until well after the railways became a national network.

TBH, the quickest and probably best solution is to buy either modern equivalent (repro?) hinges from an architectural ironmonger.

Incidentally, if the hinges are still up to snuff and doing their job you might like to consider adding two or even three modern hinge bolts to beef up security. Low cost, relatively unobtrusive and widely available

Turns out I am in luck. I've found an internal door which use same hinges as front door so I can use one of those. The hinges are a bit small compared to modern specs: 80 cm long, 3 mm thick. The door is sagging a tad but was hoping to correct this.

Any idea if the specs (3 hinges) will be o.k with and added piece of laminate glass?
 
Sorry to say this, but an external door should always have been on 4in hinges, not 3in ones. If I'd known that at the beginning of this thread I'd have said just replace the front door hinges. Part of the reason is that 3in hinges often use less, or smaller screws which aren't spaced as far apart as 4in hinges.
 
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Sorry to say this, but an external door should always have been on 4in hinges, not 3in ones. If I'd known that at the beginning of this thread I'd have said just replace the front door hinges. Ptrt of the reason is that 3in hinges often use less, or smaller screws which aren't spaced as far apart as 4in hinges.
O.k thanks. Will probably look better with new hinges too.
 
O.k thanks. Will probably look better with new hinges too.
If you are making a feature of the door why not go the whole hog and get some polished, chromed or brass ball bearing exterior grade hinges (the exterior grade bit is very Important). You can also get such hinges with hinge bolts incorporated into the hinges
 
If you are making a feature of the door why not go the whole hog and get some polished, chromed or brass ball bearing exterior grade hinges (the exterior grade bit is very Important). You can also get such hinges with hinge bolts incorporated into the hinges
Good idea. I was thinking of buying either grade 11 or 13 hinges.
 
Make sure tbhey are rated for exterior use - not all fire door hinges are.

As an aside, yesterday I visited an office with an old Victorian front door (big heavy raised "coffin" panels and bolection mouldings) where the original ironmongery had been cleaned and stove enamelled. The door was painted in black gloss outside, the locks were black chromium as were the hinges. It looked very swish indeed
 
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