Affixing elm door frame.

[88v8]

Just bought an elm door. Ledged. Made with clench nails. Original wrought hinges, nailed on with wrought nails. Amazing how they nailed the hinges and then drove in the pintles, and yet presumably managed to hang the door with some degree of accuracy. Mind you, it just face-fits. One of the ledges is treen. Lapped boards , not tg. I guess couple of hundred years old? Will be here tomorrow, with its contingent of (deceased, I hope) woodworm. I'll take a pic.

Along with it, the original elm frame.
I want to fix the frame in an opening in a coursed rubble wall.
No modern fixings, thankyou.
The framing is about 4"x4".
How would it have been fixed, back in the day? Long wrought nails into wooden plugs?
To fix a 4" scantling would need nails at least 8" long, preferably more. Where can I get some? There is one long wrought nail on eBay for £11, but I need more than one.

I could use cuts, but it's not the same.

Ivor

 

[Flyfisher]

I'd use a modern fixing so as not to confuse future owners/historians. Just a thought.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Or put in a plastic door so as not to confuse future owners :wink:

My house is newer and has pretty much no similarities to yours (as I'm sure you know!), but has cut nails into wooden blocks holding the frames on. It makes sense as the heads aren't too visible. I bet I could get some more as the locals are determined to strip my area of anything of quality and replace it with junk.

 

[livias]

Get a blacksmith to make some nails? Just so you look as if you are an expert, nails that long are called spikes

Anna

 

[88v8]

Well, I bought the 8.75" nail that was on eBay. And I asked the seller if he had any more.
Boy, does he have more.
He collects old ironwork. Has been for 30 years. Nails, spikes** (thankyou) hinges brackets, hooks, any old iron. He's a joiner & carpenter by trade, lives in Ross, and yesterday he popped around with a box of candidate nails. I bought eight, now I have plenty. Slightly unreal, spending £50+ on nine nails that no one will ever notice. Except, I will.

Ivor

** spikes. I looked on eBay for iron spikes. The things people collect. There are collectors of railway spikes. Especially in the US. They love their spikes.

 

[dandrew]

According to Ellis (Modern Practical Joinery, circa 1900.) the frame would have had a square iron dowel hammered into each of its bottom ends, which were let into mortises cut into the stone cill. Wooden plugs (twisted wedges) were hammered into cleared joints in the masonry at the jambs and head with firrings (packers) to take up the space between the frame and masonry. Once the frame was plumbed it would have been nailed to the plugs; two pairs of folding wedges at the head to force the dowels into the cill mortises is also shown, but was more commom to fix sashes than door frames. Given the average size of a door frame (say 4" square), plug length (about 2") and firring (about 1"), I would have thought that a 7" nail would have been sufficient.

Personally I'd have used a Rawlbolt but that would need to be counterbored to hide the head.

David