3 Top Tips Fitting Antique Door Handles

Following on from our Fitting Antique Door Handles which covers the basics, here we have a couple of little tips we've picked up over the years of dealing & fitting antique & period door handles.

Taking out the 'play' - If you have particularly thick doors, you might be at the end of the spindle so there's only a little bit of spindle inside the collar of the handle, making the handle feel a little loose. It's perfectly acceptable to pack out the spindle. We've had boxed old stock over the years, they all came with sprung steel packers.

Getting them tight - Even with threaded spindles it's not always possible to get the handles tight against the door. Just make sure they aren't too tight they don't turn or pinch a steel rim lock so its too stiff.

Hiding that grub screw - Go to all the hassle of finding, buying and fitting the handles, you don't want to be seeing the screws. You can either screw them from below. Or, if you have a back plate with a screw hole (like pictured) our little tip is leave the back plate loose, screw them in from above, then spin the Rose and secure.