Knife Hinge Search

[Dave Richards]

The typical knife hinge with an off-centerline pivot looks like the one on the right in my drawing. Has anyone seen one like I drew on the left? I've tried a search. Looked through the entire Brusso catalog. No luck. I did send an e-mail to Brusso asking if it is possible to get hinges like this but I haven't got a response yet.

[lou sansone]

dave
what type of cabinet is this "strange version" of a knife hinge for ?

lou

[Chris Rosenberger]

Dave I have not seen any hinges like the one on the left. What application are you using them on?
It has been a long time since I have used knife hinges so I do not remember alot about them. From what I do remember the legs came apart on the ones I used. From your picture it looks like like the one leg could be flipped over & the holes counter sunk on the other side of the leg.

[Dave Richards]

Lou, take a look at the Design Forum and my thread regarding the iMac desk design I'm working on. I'd like to use hinges as I drew on the left for the two mated leaves of the doors.

Chris, if the leaves of the stanard knife hinge can be easily separated and re assembled, it would only require flipping the top leaf over. I looked at the Brusso site but it wasn't clear if their hinges come apart easily.

[John Fry]

Dave,

The knife hinges I've used all come apart, and could easily be flipped over and assembled as you show in your drawing on the left. The only potential problem would be that you are also flipping your counter sink, but you have it drawn that way so maybe that is what you want.

HTH

[Dave Richards]

John, that is encouraging news. I want the countersinks to all be up as I kind of indicated so flipping the leaf would work just fine.

[Jon Eckels]

Just out of curiousity. Are you set (and if so, why) on pivot hinges? What's the door thickness?

If your pivot hinge is the thickness of the door, it'll look very odd from the outside of the door. If not, you might be able to get away with it (since your cuts won't extend through the door to the face), but you'll still have uneven cutouts at the top and bottom of each adjoining set of panels.

What about soss hinges? If you door thickness would allow, I think they would give you much cleaner lines at the seam and on the top and bottom of the door.

[Mark Singer]

They look like the Brusso's I typically use...from Lee Valley


http://www.leevalley.com/images/item/hardware/hinges/01h0901s1.jpg

[Dave Richards]

Jon, the doors will be 1/2" or 3/4" thick (still up in the air) and the Brusso hinge I based my drawing on is 3/8" wide. I know the mortises would have to be deeper for one half of the hinge but I have that worked out.

I don't care for the look of the soss hinges nor do I want continuous hinges for this project. I think the knife hinges would be the cleanest way to get what I want.

Mark, thanks for that image. I didn't look anywhere except at the Brusso site for their hinges and they don't show the leaves separated as the Lee Valley image shows.

The Brusso site does offer some very good dimensioned drawings of their hinges and I used one of those to draw the hinge in SU.

[Jamie Buxton]

Dave --
I've talked to a College of the Redwoods graduate who told me that making your own is close to trivial. I questioned him closely, thinking that would be a useful technique to know. Knife hinges consist of two "knife blades" and a pivot. If you make your own knife blades, you get to make them any size and shape you want, and you get to put the screw holes exactly where you want. Brass is easy to cut. You can do it with a hand hacksaw, or a hacksaw-type blade in a saber saw, or even on a bandsaw designed for wood. He has one key trick. He uses brass rod for his pivots. He drills through one knife with a bit which is a few thou larger than the pin, and through the other with a bit which is a few thou smaller than the pin, and then just presses the pin in place. Machinist's drill sets easily get you bits like this.

Jamie