Hinge Mortises for DIY Dummies

Mortising the door for a hinge

We understand completely when the person asking a question doesn't know the exact words to use. What we don't understand is when the person (supposedly) answering the question doesn't seem to know, either. Take, for example, the question "How to Make Grooves for Door Hinges":¹ we know that the proper name for that "groove" is a mortise. Based on what he wrote at HomeSteady.com, however, eHowian John Walker didn't know the word. Otherwise, he might have used it... but he didn't.

Walker, whose qualifications for writing the instructions consist of a "degree in Global Business Management" and a hitch in the Army, immediately informed his readers that

"Installing hinges can be a time-consuming process."

As far as we can tell, that's pretty much the last thing John got right. According to John, you'll need to "[hide] the hinges in the door frame," which suggests that he's thinking of hidden hinges, although those aren't the instructions he eventually barfed up. Our staff door guy was curious about why Walker thought you'd need to mortise the door jamb, since almost no one builds a jamb from scratch these days and anyone who doesn't know the word "mortise" is probably looking to install a replacement slab. But John forged ahead, with instructions like

"Hold the hinge against the door frame in the desired position with the hinge aspect, which is the metal rod joining the two halves of the hinge, pressed against the exterior edge of the door."

But John: what if we want the door to swing inward instead of out? And we're not sure, but we think you made up that "aspect" bull: we can't find anyone except you who's used the word that way. The rod of which you speak is typically called a "hinge pin." Moving along, Walker spent an inordinate about of page space on cutting mortises in the door jamb (which people usually do before the jamb is installed). His instructions include this bit of bogosity:

"Press the point of the chisel into the external edge of the door frame so the flat edge will cut straight into the frame, creating the actual inset cut..."

...which means that you're chiseling across the grain. Sorry, John, You start a mortise by paring away the waste with the grain, then – and only then – do you cut across the grain to smooth the pocket. Of course, this method is only suitable for square-leaf butt hinges: what if your hinges have round corners?²

Walker's instructions were entirely for the jamb, with no mention of mortising the door slab or, for that matter, of proper placement of the door – including proper spacing around all four edges. It's readily apparent that even if John had ever hung a door, he wasn't an expert; yet he wrote "instructions" for the task. In our book, that makes him prime Dumbass of the Day material.

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_7873988_make-grooves-door-hinges.html
² HINT: think router and hinge template...

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