Cremone Bolts And Their Uses

You may not be familiar with Cremone Bolts, also known as cremone locks, but they are a common form of antique hardware used on windows and doors. If you have a vintage home, apartment building, office building or a public building, you will want to become familiar with Cremone Bolts in order to preserve the vintage look of your period building.

What Happens Behind The Scenes

Cremone Bolts are a decorative type of locking mechanism used close a window that swings out or even French doors. The cremone lock is the type of lock that has a handle or a knob that you turn in order to unlatch the window or open the door. There is an outer covering to the cremone lock in order to hide its workings from view. Inside the cover of the cremone bolt set is a gear system that slides up and down when the knob is turned. Attached to the top and bottom of the gears are round slender bars. The bars in the cremone bolt set are what are used to actually lock the window or fasten the door, and the bars go inside the door or the window sash at the bottom.

Uses And Styles For The Cremone Lock

Cremone locks are widely used in historic homes and buildings as a period means for window closing. Medicine cabinets also often use cremone locks as well. A sturdy cremone bolt set offers the perfect means for keeping French doors closed. As you look around your vintage building you may see that the cremone lock is used in other places as well. This is why replacement cremone locks are so important to find, in order to keep the look of your home appropriate to its era and style.

Some of the locks are finished in silver or gold tones. Brass is also a popular look as well. There are some very elaborate old bronze bolt sets available that have swirling carving and floral designs fashioned upon them, which will finish your windows and cabinet doors so beautifully that you will not want to use any window coverings to hide them from view.

The knobs also vary in appearance. They might be oval, a common shape used. Some of the knobs are fashioned with a central pivot point like the oval ones, but then extended longer pieces are added, making the knob larger and thus easier to turn.

Because there are so many of these gorgeous antique bolts available, it is best to visit an architectural salvage website in order to see them for yourself if you need to match some in your home, or to add class with a new set for your windows, cabinets or doors.