Looking for source of hardware

I am looking for an escuhteon plate to match the one pictured. The plate itself is about 2” wide x 1-1/8” high, with the key opening about 5/8”.

I’m also looking for 3 skeleton keys that might fit the opening. I don’t care if they work the lock; I just want to use them as the pull hardware.

Lastly, the paddle looking things are shelf pins. They’re pretty heavy. Any chance I might be able to buy a bag of them? I need about a dozen.

Thanks!

 

That is an unusual escutcheon plate, turn of century perhaps? Worth looking, but I doubt you find an exact match. But you are lucky, it is very simple and easy to reproduce yourself. Just find a sheet of scrap brass, trace the shape, and cut it out with a fine tooth saw then file the edges. Ammonia fumes can be used to match patina.

Skeleton keys are easy to find, most antique stores have a drawer of them. Bring in the lock, or trace the size, to make it more likely to find ones that fit.

Your other pieces are shelf pins, they were used at the turn of the century, around 1900. I have original built-in book shelves in my home library (house circa 1895) that use those, and a few were missing. I tried hard looking for recent replacement shelf pins that would work, and finally found some that kind of worked, though definitely not as well as the originals. Pic below. They allowed me to use the shelves until I found some originals.

I finally found a few original ones mixed in with miscellaneous unidentifiable door hardware, but it wasn’t easy. I doubt you’ll find a whole bag of originals unless you luck into a tear down at an architectural salvage place.

These days I would try using a 3D printer to make some out of strong plastic. Once you define the shape, you can turn out as many as you need.

Or you could look for the type I showed a pic of, since they worked well enough as a stop gap. If you can’t find them at a local hardware store, pm me.

 

Thanks. I don’t have the tooling right now to cut one myself. I might go by Lowes and see if I can pick up a dremel tool cheap - or leave it until spring when I finally build the garage workshop.

 

Have you already tried:

Keyhole Escutcheons - Ball and Ball, LLC

Keyhole Escutcheon - Keyhole Escutcheons | House of Antique Hardware

These two suggestions are in the USA... you don't say where in the world you are located but you mention Lowes...

 

I have a dremel, but wouldn’t use it for this purpose. A fine tooth hand saw would work much better, look for a coping saw for less than $10.

 

Funny, I just sold a small bookcase with those same shelf pins. It was missing a few so i went to the local Ace yesterday and bought the brass pins in Jeff's picture and wrapped the ends in masking tape so they would stay in the holes. Ebay is a good source for stuff like this. There's a lot of 20 for sale now for $50 - not a bad price compared to others I've seen. A company called Columbus Architectural Salvage is selling them for $24 per pair.

 

You could also try this style with a sleeve (7mm). They are cheap at $2.00 for packs of 20 at woodworker.com.