Butt mortise gauge???

Re: Butt mortise gauge??? *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>I have seen this term applied to two different designs.

Most often, it's applied to the gauge with multiple arms in a block of cast iron or (in the case of some makers) fabricated from steel. These adjust to different sizes and thicknesses of hinges, though they seem to be designed for architectural, rather than cabinet, hinges, based on the size and chunkiness of the tool. The link below takes you to the Stanley gage page. Click on "by the numbers," then scroll down to the 94 and 95 to see examples. You can also click on the top link to get a nice general explanation.

It's a quite clever design, because the various arms are designed to register against either a fixed stop - common with exterior doors - or against the surface of the casing and of the door - common with interior doors, where the stop is nailed on after the door is hung. You also have an arm for marking the thickness of the hinge, for the depth of the mortise.

I didn't see one in the wild for years, either, and then, after our house had kind of settled down, I found a nice user Stanley (and haven't needed to hang a door since), and then two more (another Stanley, shinier and prettier, and a fabricated steel one by E.C. Stearns, I think; it's out in the shop and it's raining between here and there) in moderately rapid succession. Naturally.

Some dang where, I've seen online scans of the instruction manual for these gauges, but can't recall where. Some generous soul sent me a copy a while back, and I'd be happy to send it on to you, if you acquire one of these useful-looking tools.

I've occasionally also seen the term applied to a sheet metal thingie the size of a hinge, with a little handle off one side. The idea is that you place this on the door or jamb where you want your hinge, wail away at it with a hammer until you've cut down into the wood all around the edge of the hinge mortise, then yank it off. These are one size fits one size, and have always struck me as rather crude, but maybe they're used by lots of people with uncles named Bob, and I'm just a conservative old dude (not so! Well, except when it comes to tools).


Brendler's gage page

Re: Butt mortise gauge???

Jack Guzman from Maine

>Bill,

I'm a carpenter.Those little gadjets that you hit with a hammer are real handy for someone who hangs doors and cuts the mortises with hand tools.I used to mark out the mortise by scoring around a hinge.There's alot of room for error that way.The hinge marker places the mortise the correct distance from the edge every time and does half the work in one hit.I have one for each of the three sizes most common.

I often wondered if I need a guage,but it's easy enough to get the hinge depth using the hinge as a depth setter on a router plane.Seems like overkill to get one.---Jack