A Blacksmith’s Glossary

BattensShutter parts

The horizontal boards on board and batten shutters and barn doors. Strap hinges usually mount centered on the battens.

Bermuda shutterShutter parts

A shutter hinged at the top that swings open from the bottom, propped out for shade and dropped closed for storms. Common on Caribbean and coastal homes.

Blast furnaceIron and steel

Where modern steel comes from, descended from the Bessemer converter invented before the Civil War. Oxygen is forced through molten iron to burn out impurities, then additives are measured in. It is why no new wrought iron is made today.

Board and battenShutter parts

Shutters or doors built of vertical boards held together by horizontal battens. The standard construction for most barn doors and many early shutters.

Butt mountedHardware

Hinges that mortise into the sides of the shutter and frame, so only the barrel shows when the shutter is closed.

CasingInstallation

The wood trim surrounding the window, on which the pintle is typically mounted. Also called the casement in older usage.

Cast ironIron and steel

Iron poured molten into molds. It flows easily into intricate shapes but is brittle and cracks rather than bends, and thin castings such as hinges are the most brittle of all.

Drive pintleHardware

The earliest pintle form: a tapered spike with a pin, driven into timber framing or a wood frame.

Drop forgedBlacksmithing

Red-hot metal struck between matching closed dies on a heavy ram, often through several impressions. Detailed like a casting but tough, not brittle. Adjustable wrenches are drop forged.

E-coatingFinishes

Electro-deposition coating, our standard finish. Parts are dipped in liquid plastic and baked, then powder coated and baked again, so every hole and hinge barrel is fully covered.

Edge-mounted hingeHardware

A hinge, such as a Parliament hinge, that mortises into the window frame and the edge of the shutter. Fully visible when the shutter is open, and it gives the shutter no added rigidity.

Faraday cageFinishes

The physics that defeats powder coating alone: electrostatically charged powder cannot penetrate a charged ring, so fastener holes and hinge barrels go uncoated exactly where rust starts.

Female pintleHardware

A pintle with a socket instead of a pin. It mates with a notched hinge that carries its own pin. Many 19th-century houses still have them screwed to the window frames.

Forge weldedBlacksmithing

The old way of welding: two surfaces heated until just melting, then hammered together so they join completely, with no visible seam when done right.

ForgedBlacksmithing

Iron or steel heated and hammered to shape.

Hand forgedBlacksmithing

Metal heated and hammered on an anvil without closed dies, so the smith determines the form and each piece is slightly different. Be suspicious of hand forged hardware sold on a barcoded card.

HaspHardware

A hinged strap that fits over a staple and is secured with a padlock, peg or pin. The most common way to secure barns, corn cribs and sheds.

HingeHardware

The part of the hardware that attaches to the shutter or door and swings on the pintle.

Hold-openHardware

Any hardware that secures a shutter in the open position: shutter dogs or tiebacks, hooks and stays.

InsetInstallation

A shutter that closes inside the window opening or frame rather than on its face.

IronIron and steel

Chemical symbol Fe. The most common element on earth by weight, yet in nature found almost only as oxides. Pure iron occurs naturally mainly in fresh meteorites.

Jamb pintleHardware

A pintle that mortises into the window frame and acts much like a door hinge.

Lag screw pintleHardware

A pintle with a threaded half-inch shank that screws into the structure. Strong and clean, and it looks like a drive pintle when installed.

Lift-off hingeHardware

A hinge that lets the shutter be lifted off its pintles for painting and maintenance. All true shutter hinges are lift-off.

Lock railShutter parts

The horizontal rail near the middle of most raised-panel shutters, wide enough to take a slide bolt. Most louvered shutters lack one.

Mechanical galvanizingFinishes

Zinc micro-hammered into steel as parts tumble with tiny glass-like beads. Three to five times as thick as hot-dip galvanizing and very durable, and it takes paint well.

Notched hingeHardware

A strap hinge with a notched barrel and an integral pin that mates with a female pintle, giving a straight-line profile. Common from 1820 to 1900 and recommended for masonry.

OffsetInstallation

The total distance a shutter travels outward from closed to open, typically from the face of the casing to the outermost surface of the structure. Pintle standoff plus hinge standoff equals offset.

Parliament hingeHardware

A plate steel mortise hinge that mounts perpendicular to the building and onto the side of the shutter, common from around the Civil War into the 20th century.

Pent roofShutter parts

A small roof running along a wall between floors. When it sits right below second-floor shutters there is no room for a bottom-mounted dog, so side-mount dogs are used.

PintleHardware

The pin on which a hinge swings. Pintles are, by definition, mounted to the structure.

Plate pintleHardware

A pintle welded or riveted to a flat back plate with fastener holes. A very common early form, made in narrow versions for tight mounting surfaces.

Powder coatingFinishes

Charged plastic powder sprayed onto oppositely charged metal and baked. Good color and UV protection, but on its own it misses holes and barrels.

ProudInstallation

A shutter that closes on the face of the casing or wall, outside the window opening, rather than inside it.

RailsShutter parts

The horizontal frame members of louvered or raised-panel shutters. Their width matters when choosing surface-mounted hinges.

RattailBlacksmithing

A forged, tapered and curled handle or end, an earlier pattern than the common penny end, usually the mark of local blacksmith work.

Show hingeHardware

A hinge arranged to be visible when the shutter is open, for appearance.

Shutter dogHardware

A pivoting hold-open mounted to the wall that overlaps the open shutter and holds it snug. Rotate it 90 degrees and the shutter can swing closed. Also called a tieback.

Slide boltHardware

A forged bolt sliding in a plate-mounted keeper, the most common historic shutter lock from the early 1800s to the early 1900s.

Spring steelIron and steel

Steel tempered to about 750 degrees, often a bluish-purple color: soft enough to bend, hard enough to spring back.

StandoffInstallation

Pintle standoff runs from the face of the casing to the centerline of the pin; hinge standoff runs from the face of the shutter to the centerline of the barrel. Added together they make the offset.

StayHardware

A hook whose eye is fastened to the shutter rather than the sill. It holds the shutter open and doubles as a handle to pull it closed.

SteelIron and steel

Iron with closely controlled carbon, sometimes with other metals added: chrome for stainless, nickel for armor plate. Unlike iron, steel can be hardened by heating and quenching.

StilesShutter parts

The vertical frame members of louvered or raised-panel shutters. We place the first hinge fastener on the stile centerline.

Storm latchHardware

A simple latch bar spanning the two stiles of closed shutters. The answer for locking louvered and Bermuda shutters.

Strap hingeHardware

A long iron strap that mounts on the face of a door or shutter and swings on a pintle. In use since Roman times, it ties the shutter together and lasts just about forever.

Surface mountedHardware

Hinges that mount to the face of the shutter, such as strap and New York style hinges. Visible when the shutter is closed.

TemperingIron and steel

Controlled reheating of hardened steel to relax its structure and reduce brittleness. Smiths read the temperature by the color bands that run along clean steel.

ThrowInstallation

The sideways movement of the shutter edge from open to closed. Too little and the open shutter covers the window molding; too much and a lot of wall shows.

Wrought ironIron and steel

Literally hammered iron, made by repeatedly folding and hammering cast billets under water-powered hammers to drive out impurities. No new wrought iron is produced today.

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