HOW TO MAKE THE BOW-ARROW CABIN DOOR AND LATCH AND THE DEMING TWIN BOLTS,
HALL, AND BILLY
FIG. 209 shows the inside of the door with the wooden latch in place. You
may use planks from the sawmill for the door in place of splitting them
from spruce logs, as the ones here are supposed to be.
The battens (_A_, _B_, _C_) are made of birch, but you may use any
material at hand for them. The hinges (Figs. _E_, 211 _D_, 210) are made
of birch sticks whittled off at the top so as to leave a peg (Fig. _E_,
211) to work in a hole in the flattened end of the horizontal battens (_A_
and _C_, Fig. 209).
The batten _B_ is in two pieces. The top piece serves as a brace for the
spring (Fig. _G_, 209) and the bottom piece as a support for the bolt
(Fig. _H_, 209 and 212). The battens may be made of a piece of board. The
bolt (Fig. _H_, 212) works free upon a nail in the left-hand end and rests
in the catch (Fig. _K_, 215) on the door-jamb.
The guard (Fig. _J_, 216) fits over the bolt and keeps it in place. The
notch in the guard must be long enough to give the bolt free play up and
down.
The spring (Fig. _G_, 209) is fastened with a nail to the door in such a
manner that its thin end rests upon the top of the bolt with sufficient
force to bend the spring and hold the bolt down in the catch (Fig. _K_,
215).
The thumb-latch (Fig. _L_, 213) is whittled out in the form shown, and
fastened in a slot cut in the door by a nail driven through the edge of
the door (Fig. _M_, 213) and through a hole in the thumb-latch (Fig. _L_,
213). On this nail the latch works up and down.
Fig. 217 shows the outside of the door and you can see that by pressing
down the thumb-latch on the outside it will lift it up on the inside, and
with it the bolt lifts up the free end of the latch and thus unfastens the
door.
The handle (Figs. 217 and 214 _N_) is used in place of a door-knob. It is
made of yellow birch bent in hot water.