Over the years I have amassed a huge box full of vintage door knobs, drawer pulls, door knockers and other hardware. I love vintage door knobs but have never really known what to do with them. Well I finally figured out how to convert them into drawer pulls or wall hooks which will make them way more versatile than just sitting in a box.
Many times old vintage door knobs come with a square peg and a small screw that attaches the knob to the peg.
If you want to repurpose them it is really challenging to figure out how to without trying to cut the square peg and retrofit it or using an expensive die to recut a hole. Here is a simpler way.
Supplies:
Vintage Door Knobs
Hangar Bolts
Two Part Epoxy Resin (I used Envirotex Lite)
Electric Drill and bit
Clear tape
Disposable mixing cups and stir sticks
Locking pliers
1. There is a little hole on the side of your knob. Cover that with some clear tape. Make sure to really burnish it down so the tape sticks well.
2. Mix your two parts of Envirotex Lite following manufacturer’s directions. Next pour the resin into the knob all the way to the top.
3. This is the hardest part: wait a full 24 hours for the resin to cure. Then predrill a hole slight smaller than your hangar bolt into the resin with your cordless drill (I got mine from littlepinktools.com by the way — so cute!).
4. Next with some locking pliers screw your hangar bolt into the resin. Now you can use either side to screw it in. I screwed in the bolt side so that I could use the screw side to drill into a shelf. But if you want to screw in the screw side and use the bolt side for say, a drawer pull with a nut attached you can do that too.
Now your vintage door knobs have purpose again. You can simply screw them into the wall, shelf drawer, cabinet, etc.
