46 ■ POPULAR WOODWORKING
PHOTOSBYTHE^ AUTHORAdjusting
Non-Adjustable
Butt Hinges
Working with these traditional hinges
takes a bit of old-fashioned ingenuity.
By Nancy Hiller
1
1 The elongated mounting holes in
this non-mortised hinge give some
adjustability after installation.Two types of butt hinge: a solid
drawn brass butt with fi xed pin
(left) and a loose-pin version with
ball tips.High-quality butt hinges are
handsome and durable for
furniture and built-in cabinet doors.
If you’re in the business of built-in
cabinetry and sometimes work in
houses constructed between the late
1800s and the 1930s, you’re almost
certainly familiar with butt hinges,
which were widely used for doors
over these decades.
Among the most common hinges,
at least in the United States, are
21 / 2 " ball-tip butts with removable
pins. These are still available in the
original proportions from several
vendors. An alternative type of butt
hinge widely used in the UK is the
solid-drawn brass butt hinge with a
fi xed pin. Both types consist of two
leaves and a center barrel fi tted with
a pin that ties the leaves together.
Loose-pin butt hinges allow the
pin to be removed while the leaves
remain on the door stile and cabinet
respectively, which facilitates the fi t-
ting of doors. Fixed-pin butt hinges
do not off er this option.
While some applications call for
mortising only the door stile and
simply screwing the second leaf to
the surface of the cabinet side, butt
hinges traditionally have one leaf
mortised into the door stile and the
other mortised into the cabinet. The
layout and cutting of the mortises
must be precise, and there is no ob-
vious way to adjust the fi t once the
door is hung. Not surprisingly, then,
many cabinetmakers avoid these
hinges in favor of a modern varia-