82 Making doors and doorframes
(b) and (c) below; 2) raised and fielded panels, as at
Figures 5.1(b) and (d) – section B- B – above (and in
Chapter 3); 3) bead- and- butt panels and bead- flush
panels. This final type of door panel is (or was) quite
commonly used for exterior doors and is illustrated
below. Such panels were used in good- quality half-
glazed doors, below the middle rail and four- panelled
doors, via two muntins. Basically, the panels are of
21mm par solid timber, tongued and grooved into the
stiles, rails and muntins to achieve a flush appearance
on the door’s exterior face. The bead- and- butt panel
is so- called because the tongued edges that abut the
stiles (and the muntin) are stuck- moulded with a
bead- shape mould, as illustrated at (e) below – and
the top and bottom tongued edges butt up squarely to
the horizontal rails, as illustrated at (a) and (b) below.
The so- called bead- flush panel varies with regard tocompanies. The sectional views illustrated above show
seals in use.
Typical door- panel mouldings
Figures 5.7(a)(b)(c): Although the inner edges of
door stiles and rails can of course have a square finish
(which has a certain simplistic appeal) and only be
grooved for panels, they are usually moulded. The
three most common types are illustrated below:
Types of door- panels
Figures 5.8(a)(b)(c)(d)(e): The most common types of
door- panels are 1) inset panels, embellished with stuck
or planted perimeter mouldings, as at Figures 5.7(a),
Figure 5.7 Part horizontal sections through the stiles and panels of doors, showing so- called ‘stuck’ ovolo mouldings at
(a); ‘planted’ Grecian ogee mouldings at (b); and a ‘planted’ torus/cavetto- shaped bolection moulding at (c) on one
side, with a square- edged stile on the other. Note that the planted mouldings above – to allow for thermal movement
between the separate components – should be diagonally pinned into the door, not the panels. However, large bolection
mouldings used with raised- and- fielded panels on each side of a door, are usually slot- screwed through the panels from
the interior side and the interior (covering) moulds are only pinned into the door’s edges.
(a) (b) (c)(e)(a) (c) (b) (d)Figures 5.8 (a) to (e): These part vertical, part horizontal sections and the two part elevations show the bead- and- butt
details at (a), (b) and (e) – and the bead- flush details at (c), (d) and (e). Note that bead- flush panels (showing mitred
beads around all four edges) present an impractical joinery- task if the panels are stuck- moulded (as at (e) above) on their
vertical, long- grain edges. This is because the top- and bottom- edges of the panels, that require cross- rebating (as at (c)
above), would be obstructed for ‘run- on’ and ‘run- off’ rebating by the moulded edges that must remain (to be mitred).
Stopped- rebates and chisel- pared mitres would have to be tediously made. The solution, therefore, in my view, would be
to omit the stuck moulds and run a mitred, planted mould all round (as at (c) above).