One of the chief problems with the internet is that no matter how stupid a question, there's someone out there ready to answer it. Want to know how many years Zbigniew Brzezinski served as Secretary of State? Someone will be happy to tell you, "Four." That's even though Ziggy was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, not his Secretary of State. This syndrome is widely observed at eHow.com, where freelancers answer questions harvested from internet searches; and we all know that "if it's on the internet, it must be true"! That's probably why serial dumbass Elizabeth Knoll somehow managed to tell the world "An Easy Way to Miter a Hinge"¹ at – naturally – eHow.
Wait... miter a hinge? WTF does that even mean? We sent an intern out to search the net for the phrases "miter a hinge," "miter hinges," and "mitered hinge" – know what we found? Something like seven different copies of Liz's post and a bunch of references to the ankle. Apparently the subtalar joint is called a "mitered hinge joint." Who knew?
Knoll's instructions? Use a router and template on the edge of the door to carve out a space for the hinge. Know what Elizabeth calls this space? Here's what she calls it, in her own incredibly stupid words:
"...gently move [the router] around the template's entire opening. The router miters away wood the exact depth and shape as the hinge being installed. Unscrew the template from the door's edge. Set the hinge into the mitered space." |
"Miters"? "Mitered space"??? The Antisocial Network's staff woodworkers all clutched their heads and groaned when they read this utter bull. Every one of them could be heard to mutter under his or her breath, "It's a mortise, you friggin' idiot!" One mentioned that certain European-style hidden hinges are sometimes called "mitered hinges" (see the picture above), but none had ever heard of "mitering a hinge" and none had ever seen a mortise misidentified as a miter before.
There's a first time for everything... still, it takes a real Dumbass of the Day to get that particular bit of woodworking jargon wrong – a dumbass like Elizabeth Knoll.
¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was ehow.com/how_8170995_easy-way-miter-hinge.html
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