That old barn in Ohio had the coolest sliding door latch I've ever seen

I went to visit my cousin near Dayton last month and he's got this beat up barn from like the 1920s. The sliding door had this homemade latch mechanism, just a piece of flat iron bent at an angle with a wooden handle on it. No springs, no bearings, just gravity and a lip that catches the door frame. Thing has been working for probably 80 years with zero maintenance. I stood there trying to figure out how it was cut and bent, because my modern hardware store latch keeps slipping out of adjustment every few months on my own shop door. The geometry is so simple I could copy it with a bench grinder and a drill. Has anyone else come across old farm hardware that just outlasts everything you can buy today? I'm half tempted to take photos and try to replicate it with thicker steel.

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1 Comment

the_sarah22h ago

That latch sounds like the kind of thing my grandpa would've just whipped up in an afternoon. One trick with old flat iron like that is to heat it dull red before bending, otherwise it can crack at the corner. For your copy, use a piece of mild steel at least 3/8 inch thick and drill your holes before you do the bend, not after. And don't bother with paint, just oil it once a year and let it get that gray patina, it'll outlive your shop door.