Lever Handle Set

[bigfootnampa]

My wife recently acquired a 1951 model "Spartan" travel trailer as a restoration project. Turned out to be very useful right away as she is working out of town for a while. The door latch works fine but the exterior handle was missing. I forged this handle set from a railroad spike and a small piece of plate drop. I am happy with the way it turned out! I wanted to use the spike for the lever handle and to try to retain the basic spike look without the rough edges. On the inside it has a square tenon that drives the latch mechanism and I just drilled a small hole at the back edge of the plate through the spike and used a wire pin to secure the handle in position... it cannot move inward as it bottoms out in the socket and the pin keeps it from being pulled outward. Really a very simple design... though it took some thinking to get it to this point. I finished it with a bronze tinted acrylic, several coats. Overcoated with a waterborne wipe-on polyurethane finish... I have found this combination to offer exceptionally tough and durable finishes.