Graphical Construction Glossary >> Doors. >> Door Hinges >> Butt Hinge

Butt Hinge

A door or window hinge in various sizes consisting of two equal rectangular leaves, a knuckle and a pin joining them. Probably the most common hinge in use today on residential work.

Mortise Hinge

A hinge that is set into or mortised into the door and the jamb. Also called a Recessed Hinge

Security Hinge

A butt type of hinge fitted with anti-lift securing studs.

Hinge Leaf

One part of a hinge, can be the fixed leaf, on a door jamb or the active leaf on the door.

Ball Bearing Hinge

A hinge that has a ball bearing race between each knuckle joint

Hinge Knuckle

The rounded joint of the hinge that contains the pin.

Fixed Pin Hinge

A hinge that has the pin firmly fixed so the two hinge leaves can not be separated.

Loose Pin Hinge

A hinge that has a pin that can be removed to allow the two halves of the hinge to be separated.

All the hinges on this page are classed as mortise hinges. That is they sit in recesses in the timber door and frame. They are edge-fixed to the door and jamb. This is the normal way of achieving a neat and tradesman like job, but depending on circumstances they can be face fixed, or recessed at the door only. This occurs quite a lot when fixing to metal jambs. However there is a different category altogether for this work of fixing metal to metal or metal to wood See Non-Mortised Hinges.

Butt Hinge : Mortise Hinges Image provided by Hafele Australia Pty. Ltd.

Above are two typical butt-hinges used in their hundreds of thousands for fixing standard doors.

• They come in heights of 100mm and a widths of 75mm. In addition broader widths of 100mm are also available known as Broad Butts.
• On the left is a basic steel metric hinge. It can be used for steel and timber frames and will handle doors up to 35kg. The material thickness is 2.5mm and it comes in loose or fixed pin.
• To the top right of it is a better quality Stainless Steel version. This will handle doors up to 45kg, it is the same thickness and also comes in fixed or loose pin.

Butt Hinge : A Heavy duty hinge. Image provided by Hafele Australia Pty. Ltd.

Smaller versions of these hinges are available for fixing lighter doors to cupboards etc. It used to be common to see 75mm high hinges used on internal residential doors, but they are not specified these days. The cost saving is negligible if any, so 100mm high is now a universal hinge size for standard house and commercial doors.

The on the right shows a hinge that is a step up in quality.

• It is for timber frames and for flush doors up to 130kg weight.
• There is a polymer friction bearing between the leaf joins.
• It uses what is known as a "torsion proof screw-in pin". It does not unscrew with use.
• It has a convenient feature for fixers in that the ends are rounded to 24mm Dia. which is a standard router bit size.
• Material thickness is 3mm.

A Ball Bearing Hinge and a Security Hinge. Image provided by Hafele Australia Pty. Ltd.

• To the left is is a stainless steel hinge with two ball bearings in the knuckle
• For timber or steel frames and a maximum door weight of 60kg.
• To the right of it is what is known as a security butt. It has two "anti-lift securing studs".

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