Glossary of Terms
Not familiar with a hardware term? Find many of these terms in our item descriptions to help you choose the right hardware for you!
Don't see the term that you need? E-mail your suggestions for additions to sales@baltimorehardwarecompany.com.
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- Adjustable Glide: Threaded foot for raising, lowering, and leveling furniture,
cabinets, caseworks, and chairs.
- Anodized: A material such as aluminum, has been subjected to an electrolytic process, which involves immersing the aluminum in a chemical bath and applying an electrical current to it, causing oxide to be produced from the resulting rust on the aluminum. This layer of oxide hardens the aluminum and makes it resistant to corrosion.
- Antique Brass: Darkened brass color simulating aged brass with golden
undertones.
- Antique Copper: Lighter shade of bronze plating.
- Ball Bearing: Rollers used between two adjoining surfaces to facilitate
easier, smoother, frictionless movement.
- Backplate: Accentuating, decorating background piece for knobs and
pulls.
- Black Plate: The black coating on hardware to give black color
appearance.
- Brass Plate: Decorative brass coating on hardware for beauty and
protection.
- Brushed Nickel: Decorative nickel coating on hardware accentuated with the look of a fine surface brushing.
- Butt Hinge: Hinges comprised of two connected leaves held together
with a pin.
- Butler Tray Hinge: Decorative locking hinges for tray top tables that allow the
table leaves to swing 90 degrees.
- Cam: Rotating plate on the back of a Cam Lock which engages a
strike to lock and unlock.
- Chamfered: Beveled or angled surfaces on an edge or corner to reduce
edge sharpness.
- Cushion Glide: Caseworks and furniture foot incorporating rubber or
similar soft material to absorb shocks and jolts.
- Door Dampening: Action or procedure to soften and quiet door closure,
usually accomplished by a hardware device.
- Embedded Steel Washer: Steel washer molded or built into the structure of an
item to give it more strength, usually in conjunction with a
mounting fastener.
- Equalizer: In table slides, the mechanism connecting each slide end to
work in conjunction with each other when one slide is
actuated.
- Escutcheon: Metal plaque applied over keyholes or other holes to offer
protection and/or decoration.
- Face Frame: Frame that is affixed to the front of a cabinet case for added
strength and to provide mounting surface for hardware and
doors.
- Flush Hinge: Allows door to be flush mounted in face frame application.
- Free Swing: Hinges and hardware that does not use springs or motion
enhancing parts for operation. Hinges move freely.
- Full Extension: Drawer slide style that allows drawers or surfaces to extend
their frames fully from their cabinet casework.
- Full Overlay: Type of door mounting which overlay the face frame or
front sidewall edge completely.
- Full Wrap Around Hinge: Hinge which has cabinet member leaf wrap around
each frame edge and run behind the face frame.
- Gauge: Scale of measurement for metal thickness.
- Grommet: Metal, plastic, wood, or rubber ring inserted into holes to
reinforce and decorate the hole.
- Gusset: A triangular metal bracket used to reinforce a joined corner and often produced with a threaded hole to accept an adjustable leveling glide.
- Hanger Bolt: Straight, headless, usually steel fastener with wood thread
on one end and machine thread on the other end.
- Heavy Duty Ball Bearing Swivel: Furniture, display, or chair swivel which
incorporates ball bearings for smoother operation in heavier
applications.
- Inset: Type of door mounting where door edges are fully inside
cabinet frame.
- Institutional Door Hinge: A heavier hinge for institutional and commercial
casework applications such as hospitals, schools,
government buildings and other related settings. The pin is cut and cannot be removed.
- Invisible Barrel Hinge: Soss style hinge using links to join the hinge leaves
eliminating typical pin/barrel/knuckle construction.
- Kerf Mounting Bracket: Brackets or braces which have flanges for insertion into saw
kerfs (cuts) in wood frames for added strength.
- Keyed Alike: Specification of a group of locks that use the same key.
- Keyed Different: Specification for a group of locks which are actuated by
their own different keys. Keys not interchangeable.
- Knob Hanger Bolt: Small, straight, headless fastener with wood thread on one
end and machine screw thread on the other end. Used to
mount furniture knobs.
- Knock Down Bed Bracket: Any bed bracket which allows bed frames to be
assembled and disassembled.
- Lazy Susan: Flat top and bottom adjoining plates which swivel.
- Left Hand Lock: Mortise or surface locks constructed to allow proper key
actuation on left side of door.
- Machine Thread: Standardized sizes of threads for external and internal
assembly fasteners such as nuts and bolts.
- Master Key: Special key which actuates groups of keyed different locks.
- Mortised Hinges: Hinges that are mounted in routs of doors or frames to sit
flush with the door or frame.
- Mounting Plates: Hardware pieces to which other hardware such as hinges,
legs, and levelers are attached.
- No Mortise Hinge: Hinges which are only one leaf thick when closed.
- Non Self Closing/Free Swing: Hardware, such as hinges and drawer slides,
which are not spring actuated. Open and close freely.
- Offset: Distance measurement from a flush surface.
- Overlay: Mounting style such as a door over sidewall edge. Also,
measurement of overlay such as half overlay.
- Partial Wrap Around Hinge: Hinge whose cabinet member leaf wraps around
face frame edge only and not behind face frame.
- Polished Chrome: Chrome finish which is reflective like a mirror.
- Powder Coat: Newer, advanced method of applying decorative, protective
coatings to metal by using electrically charged colored
powder and then baking the coating on.
- Residential Door Hinge: Heavier gauge butt hinges for household door
applications.
- Right Hand Lock: Mortised and surface locks constructed to allow proper key
actuation on right hand side of door.
- Rigid Adjustable Glide: Furniture leveler with a non swiveling base.
- Self Balancing: Feature of a spring loaded support that holds lids in open
position and prevents lid from falling closed.
- Semi Concealed: Type of hinge that has door member hidden behind the
door.
- Sewing Machine Hinge: A style of round end hinges originally designed for
sewing machines.
- Smove: A small shock absorber for cabinets to soften door closing
impact and eliminate noise.
- Statuatory Bronze: A darker version of copper finish resembling dark bronze
color.
- Stop: A feature built into a hinge which causes it to stop opening
at a pre-determined angle.
- Surface Mounted Hinge: Hinges which have both leaves mounted on providing
surface and not routed in.
- Table Hinge: A category of hinges made especially for drop leaf tables.
- Triple Pole: A style of magnetic catch that has three horizontal metal
plates around two magnets for extra strength.
- Unequal Leaf Hinge: A category of hinges that have one leave wider than the
opposite leaf. The pin and barrel are not in the center.
- Zinc Plate: A silver-colored finish of zinc, offering corrosion resistance and some decoration.





