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I Forge Iron

Hinge blanks at garage sale


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Hit a local garage sale in a very old garage yesterday and tucked in a back corner were these. They appear to be blanks for hinges. Anyone ever seen anything like this?  No telling how old they are. Couldn't pass them up for  $1.00.

PHOTO_20151106_111844.jpg

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Good buy!  They appear to be hand forged, in that no two seem to be exactly the same shape, detail-wise.  Also, if they are really old, you might have some actual wrought iron hinge blanks, which would make them even more valuable.

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I blew the photo up to full size on my big desktop moniter, and they appear to be flame cut steel. The rust pattern is all wrong for wrought iron (blotchy rather than striated), and the edges still have the characteristic slag from oxy-fuel cutting.

 

Still a great score!

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     closest thing I have seen to those was at a big box hardware store where they were selling "fake" strap hinge straps you could bolt onto a door or gate that used a regular hinge and make it look like it was "olde tymee"   

No reason not to turn those into the real thing!

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Yeah I saw that they were flame cut...but again no telling how long ago since oxy acetylene goes way back. As the industrial revolution progressed and the blacksmith began to disappear I could see a catolg offering these pre-cut blanks to the remaining smiths or those who bought blacksmith kits from Sears for use around the farm as an alternative much like horse shoes went from hand made to keg blanks.

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1 hour ago, VaughnT said:

I could definitely see some enterprising company offering hinge blanks as a time-saving device for the small shops.  I sure know I'd love to have access to something similar today!

Access to something like that today is pretty easy. the proliferation of small CNC plasma tables makes it relatively easy for many small fab shops to do small jobs like that in house fairly inexpensively. There are also plenty of DIY CNC kits out there as well. You can also always go  "old school" and make yourself up one of those OA pantograph pattern cutters. There are plenty of plans out there you can follow if you want.

 

Talk to local shops about blanks like this. Many times they can possibly throw a few on when they do regular jobs and fit them into the "scrap" space. I've looked at getting simple disks or leaves cut in the past. Hinge blanks wouldn't be any different.

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