Traditional four paneled internal door

[richarnold]

Recently a local builder asked me to supply him with a traditional four panelled internal door. He must have been happy with it as he came back for another one. While I was making it I remembered something I had read in the excellent book, the village carpenter by Walter Rose. On page 41 he describes how the making of a four panelled door was considered a good day’s work this included ripping the stiles from a 1 ½ x 9 board, and planning all the timber by hand. What I would like to know is what they used for the panels back then. They were usually about 3/8 to ½ inch in thickness, but I can’t imagine that they took them down from 1 inch boards Does anyone know if they had thin stock boards back then? I’m not sure how long there working day was, but with all those mortice and tennons to cut it must have been a hard day. These days it’s a doddle with a machine shop. This door took just under 3 hours to complete including a coat of primer. Apart from the ½ inch mdf panels, and pva glue, everything else is traditional.
If I ever find the time I would be tempted to have a go at making a door by hand I think it would be interesting to see how long it would take.

 

[MrYorke]

Nice looking door. Sorry, but can't help you with your questions

 

[mailee]

Is it just a straight cut on the edges or is there a moulding? nice job.

 

[Bradshaw Joinery]

Looks good Richard!

I have also wondered in the past about the thin panels, but have no answer

Interesting article you did on the titanic handrail also,

Olly, (a fellow market h (marston trussell) resident)

 

[marcros]

I seem to remember a discussion on something- probably solid draw bottoms and somebody posted an old price list from somewhere. I can't remember what year it was but from the age of the gentleman woodworker. There were wide pieces of (IIRC) 1/2" timber listed, available off the shelf for such purposes.

 

[Jacob]

Bigger timbers were more available in the past as it was from large old virgin forest trees. And more thicknesses were available from dealers 1" ,¾", 1¼", and in any case sawing off some thin boards wouldn't have been a problem - done at the mill, or saw pit, or in the shop with a double ended rip saw.

 

[AndyT]

I can offer some evidence.

Looking at the reference in Walter Rose, he says that for external doors the panels would be 1" boards, beaded, but glosses over the detail on the internal doors. Nearby however there is a discussion about how railway and canal transport had made imported softwood - including fully machined boards - more widely available.

Have a look at this catalogue on the Internet Archive.

https://archive.org/details/C.JenningsCo.PriceList--issued--march1st1913

It's a price list from 1913 which is especially interesting to me as it is very close to where I live. (I think I've spotted some of the ready-made shop fronts, from pages 74-75 in the immediate area.)

Bristol - like so many other places - had a big building boom from the late C19th up to the first World War and it could not have been sustained without:

- imports of softwood from Scandinavia and the Baltic
- machine processing of timber and manufacture of standardised components
- railway transport to get the goods to where they were needed.

This catalogue illustrates all of those factors.

You could order anything listed in it, by telegram, for delivery anywhere in the world. Delivery to a small village in Buckinghamshire would have been no problem, so I think it's safe to assume that the Roses were potential customers - or at least, that they would have had access to a range of similar merchants closer to them.

Ready made doors in a wide choice of sizes were a big part of the range - and I don't think it would have been economic to pay a joiner a day's wages to make one when they were so cheap:

This page lists American Whitewood which could be had planed both sides to a finished thickness as low as 3/8" (but 22" wide or more! - they must have been lovely trees

The "Hazel Pine" on the same page could also be had as thin as 3/8" if planed both sides.
There was also plywood on offer in thicknesses of 3, 4, 5, 6, 8 or 9mm (page 244).

So there was plenty of choice of thin boards suitable for door panels!

It's a fascinating catalogue, well worth a read. It's easy to miss the mainstream timber offering - it only takes a few pages and doesn't need pictures like the ready made bay windows and stairs do, but do have a look at the huge range of sizes and types on offer (pages 240-246).

Nice tidy door btw Richard - I'd expect nothing less!

 

[richarnold]

Thanks for all the reply's chaps.
I knew Andy t would come up with something. That catalogue is great. I had my suspicions that thin stock was probably available back then. The new door has square edges to match the originals, but my own preference is usually to apply a small torus mold mitered around the panel edge. This was a common feature on a lot of Victorian doors, and I really think it improves the look of the door considerably.