Making my own door knobs and spindles.

I’m renovating an old 1850’s colonial house in the NE USA. It has a lot of doors and a lot of missing / broken / damaged door knobs. I’ve been trying to find replacements but the mechanism is very different to what is available in the local hardware stores. The mechanism I’m dealing with has a square metal spindle which I think is called a mortice bar. This is normal in the UK and but in the US there’s a different more complex set up. I have found replacement knobs on a UK website but the cost and shipping is high. Then it dawned on me that it should be possible to make my own door knobs and spindles. However, I don’t have a lathe, I haven’t used on in 30+ years. I don’t mind a challenge though but where to start? Would building a simple lathe from a drill be good enough? Would I be able to produce good enough results as a greenhorn? Is this a rabbit hole I need to escape from ASAP! Thoughts and experience appreciated.

This is what I’ve trying to replace:

Edward, I just purchased a box of knobs on ebay for a project. I use the crystal knobs for dragonfly eyes on copper garden art. Brass and porcelain knobs are on there too. No problem making the spindles use keystock and a die. I don't think a drill lathe would be robust enough.

Robert Ray wrote:Edward, I just purchased a box of knobs on ebay for a project. I use the crystal knobs for dragonfly eyes on copper garden art. Brass and porcelain knobs are on there too. No problem making the spindles use keystock and a die. I don't think a drill lahithe would be robust enough.

Cheers Robert for the info. Hadn’t thought about ebay. I have been to a couple of local antique / junk shops but haven’t found anything yet.

You might try googling architectural antique shops in your area. I am in a relatively small midwestern town and we have 2. I would think they would be plentiful in your area. Probably not cheep if you need a lot of them.

I think as long as you have the internal mechanism and the face plates, knobs turned on a lathe would be a real cool alternative. Just watch Craigslist or the Facebook market place. You could find a used lathe for the price of a half dozen knobs.

We'll definitely want to see the process and results if you try this!