Gary,
In the recent FWW issue the Country Hutch that was built had glass doors. The other day while re-reading the article I saw something that made me wonder. The vertical muttion went straight through from top to bottom . I have built a number of replacement window for older homes and all the ones I have seen and built along with cabinet doors have the horizontal going straight throught. So the horizontal muttion and rails are all the same measurement.
Is there a “standard”?
Thanks,
Tom
Replies
Hi Kungur,
Let’s first clear up some terms here. There are no horizontal muntins, only rails, top, middle, or bottom rails. Muntins are vertical divisions in doors, drawers, backs, and panels. Mullions are vertical divisions in windows. The sash bars that you’re referring to I agree would be easier cut with the rails the same length as the top and bottom rails of the door. But if you’ll notice Martin Milkovits in the article puts those top and bottom rails in with loose tenons and his sash bars in with integral tenons so the convenience is already thrown out the window. Use the method that makes the most sense for your shop. Good luck. Gary
you wrote..."Let’s first clear up some terms here. There are no horizontal muntins, only rails, top, middle, or bottom rails. Muntins are vertical divisions in doors, drawers, backs, and panels. Mullions are vertical divisions in windows."Great idea....lets do indeed clear up some terms here.....My dictionary of Scientific and Technical terms lists "muntins" as a term for the strip of wood that seperates window panes.Antique Houses (friedland) shows muntins as a horizontal piece of a divided sash on pg 102The Architectural Millwork mfgrs assn glossary lists muntins as dividing " a sash or door" into smaller openings (not specifying horizontal or vertical)The Encyclopedia of Furniture making does specify that the vertical devisions between rails are known as muntins, while horizontal sash bars are known as mullions (note that the reference to vertical divisions did NOT refer to "sash bars")Sommer and Maca, glazier suppliers, describe and illustrate the same; not differentiating between vertical and horizontal as "muntin bars".So does CR Laurence, another rather largish current glazier supply house. Once again, vertical or horizontal dividers in windows, described as "muntin bars" , but then on another page, describe vertical fitting devices for panic hardware as "mullion" bars.Both those folks cater to the glass installers, so is it current trade expression that any window pane dividers are muntins? Can they all be wrong?Building construction illustrated ( FDK Ching), why it shows mullions as horizontals in it's x-sections of window details. So clearly then, these are enuf references to show that muntin and mullion been historically and currently used to describe BOTH horizontal and vertical members of sash joinery. Just as clearly is that the usage of these terms, at least currently, is absolutely confusing, used differently by different authors and suppliers without regard to vertical or horizontal placement.The only definition that I could find which came close to matching yours was that of Graham Blackburn (parts of a house) in that it differentiated muntins as part of a frame and panel construction, as did you. I trust my references have expanded your knowledge of usage. So can we indeed "clarify terms" before we add more confusion to the milieu with even more (unsupported) "clarifications". And ya know, if the Architectural Millwork folks are confused, I don;t know who you would go to. But there has to be some at least somewhat definitive answer out there. Eric in Calgary
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