Rockwell Hinge Butt Template

This is some old school, finish carpenter technology. I'm not sure if this was my father's original one or if he wore that one out/sold it and bought this second one.

While doors and jambs are today manufactured in a shop on a door machine and sent out as door units (meaning the door and the jamb are cut down, beveled and prefit all together in one unit). The way carpenters used to get their doors was in a big stack, door slabs only, along with a big pile of 1x material for jambs. 
The doors were "book" meaning they were full height (a 6'8 door was a full 80"), full width (a 2'6 door was a full 30" wide, not beveled) and without prep for the doorknob or the hinges.

Before this insidious device was made, all of the hinge preparation was done by hand. Along with cutting the door to height (usually 78 1/2-79" to allow an "undercut" or a gap between the bottom of the door and the floor) and beveling to width (angled on the sides to a width of about 1/4" under the "call out" size to allow for ease of closing and a tighter fit on the door), the door also had to be chiseled out on the edge or "dapped" so that the hinge would fit flush to the edge of the door and jamb.

The Hinge Butt Template allowed one to preset a router and, with the correct bit, consistently dap for the hinges on all of the doors and jambs throughout the house.  The three templates in the lowest photo above are attached to a series of short bars (still in the box in the photo above) which is in turn attached to the door or jamb to allow for a more automated process.

I think this is a fantastic tool and, lest I make it seem totally outdated, is very useful in remodeling projects where you need a consistent route for your doors and jambs. If you are replacing only a few doors in a project, rather than pull out your chisel or order everything from a door shop, you can pull this bad boy out and do it all yourself.

Reasons I Still Have and Use This

1. My rule is if there are only one or two doors, pull out the chisel (the set up time on this thing is kind of a pain). If there are three or more doors, I pull out the template. 
2. Sometimes door shops are cost prohibitive. If they are too far away or too proud of their doors (too much $) they can be cost prohibitive. Bid jobs have a tendency to leave you time rich but cash poor meaning you would rather spend a little extra time on a job than pay out money to have something done.
3. This template is more versatile than a door machine. While door machines allow one to bust out a lot of doors in a short amount of time and exactly alike, they are not so great on odd sized doors or odd hinge prep locations. Once this is set up, it is easy to make small adjustments.

A Note on Hinges

Hinges have three standard corner radius' (radii?)

Square (which I suppose isn't technically a radius), 1/4" and 5/8" radius. 

Square hinges are "old school" meaning they aren't really used as much any more in residential construction. They are mostly used for replacing old hinges and sometimes in high end homes. The reason for the square butt hinge is that it is terribly difficult to cut a radius with a chisel. Before routers, this is what was used.

Radius hinges, as alluded to above, came along with the wider use of routers. But why two sizes? The 5/8" radius hinge demands a larger router bit. With this bit you can dap for the hinge in three passes of the router instead of the many more passes it takes with the 1/4" radius bit. It saves time. My guess is that the invention of the door machine and the more automated process in general helped move this along.

 

I suppose my next post should be my boring jigs that drill the door for the doorknob. Along with the Hinge Butt Template, a boring jig and a planer make you a one man door shop.

 

Let me know what you think.