Yes, I know, we’ve already used this blog title! But this time, we really, really had to. That is because we are talking about the actual song, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door, first written by The Freewheelin’ (Bob Dylan), and later, covered, by many, many people. I have had several arguments during my lifetime over who actually wrote the song (with some claiming that of course it was Guns and Roses, or no, it was Eric Clapton), but Wikipedia (bless its reliability) proves me right that it was a Dylan song originally. The phrase itself sounds a lot like it is, was or should be a saying, for those who are dying … but people don’t tend to use it in daily conversation about people (at least, I have never heard it used – has anyone else?) Here we look at all the different versions of the song which is so useful for making our blog a little more poetic!

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore.
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door.

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore.
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel like I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door.

Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door

It was originally written by Dylan for the soundtrack of Pat Garret and Billy the Kidd, in 1973. When you know that, the lyrics start to make a lot more sense. I found it out only recently, and has always wondered what the significance of a badge was, in the first verse, and who the singer was meant to be, shooting guns in the second verse. It was in Rolling Stone magazine’s 500 Best Songs of All Time list, and is one of the most extensively covered songs in history. (more…)

If door knobs had a god, Architectural Classics would be at church every Sunday… there is, however, the next best thing. Janus is the Roman god of doors and doorways, as well as beginnings and ends. He is easily recognisable, as he is always depicted with more than one face – usually two, looking in either direction. Earlier representations of Janus showed him with four faces … can we draw the conclusion then that revolving doors were in use much before swinging ones, do you think?

Janus was, in his time a very versatile and much worshipped god. Doors have a beautiful romance and symbolism, and ancient Romans recognised this also. So while it might seem a bit pointless to have a god of doors (when might you pray to him? When there are too many mice coming in from underneath the door? When your hinges are rusting?!), he is really the god of many things. He was worshipped at all sorts of times – marriages, births, deaths and other life transitions – because he was seen as a middle ground between two states of being, and his help could make the change easier. Harvest and planting times were another popular time to worship him. He was known as the happy medium – a convenient middle ground. However, you could also choose to see him as the god of uncomfortable buttocks, because he always sits on the fence … ! War time was another time Janus came into his own – he was not supposed to have been born a god, but was a mortal from Thessaly in Greece (there is hope for all of us yet!). His reign was a Golden Age, and during it he defended the Sabines from attack by Romulus by making a hot spring erupt. Thus doors to Janus’ temples were kept open during war time, so that he could come out to help.

One of Janus and Camese’s sons was named Fons … I bet Happy Days didn’t know that Harry Belafonte’s character was actually based on the son of a Roman God! I don’t know if that would make the Fonz cooler, or daggier…

Unfortunately for Janus, his two-facedness is often now interpreted as being a negative symbol, although Janus himself was meant to be an absolutely upstanding person and one of the most positive gods about. Greek gods often have a chequered sort of history, sometimes involving rapes, wars, divorces and adultery. Janus, however, could not be faulted! It is sort of a pity, then, that his skill of seeing things both ways has been a bit too literally interpreted as ‘two-facedness’. Hardly fair!

It’s alright though Janus, you’ll always have dedicated followers here!

Photo credits: Janus Pater by Yuri Firsanov

Although probably the most common material for our hardware to be made of is brass, iron is definitely the most individual, the most romantic, and the oldest and most generally used metal of olden days. The iron, and ironing have been the bane of many a mum and housewife. Iron horseshoes are said to bring good luck. Burying an iron knife under your door can keep witches out, and iron fences keep the souls of the dead in. It was traditionally known as ‘cold iron’… although ‘cold iron’ really is just ordinary iron that isn’t warm! Ah, they had a sense of drama in the old days… So, we are going to look at some of, perhaps, the lesser known benefits of buying an iron door knob, according to olden day superstition!

Iron is supposed to repel evil spirits, and iron in the shape of a horseshoe is meant to be especially good at this. Unfortunately, horseshoe shaped door knobs are hard to come by… however the real things are not! Antique shops often have plenty, and you can get the new and improved version from a farrier, or possibly a veterinarian. They do tend to fit nicely around door knobs as decorations, and have convenient nail holes, though! Further from this too, horseshoes are meant to protect a home in general, as well as the people that live in it, and bring peace and prosperity. Use seven iron nails to place your horseshoe, and you can bring extra good luck into your home. Why, you may never have to work again!

As workers of iron, blacksmiths themselves were considered lucky and powerful – it would have taken some special skill, a lot of guts and some big, big biceps back in the days when it was necessary to use brute force and very, very hot open fires to work metal. Iron was also much stronger than other metals, and could withstand much more heat. So, it makes sense that it could keep the souls of the dead in place, doesn’t it?!In Tibetan traditions, meteoric iron is highly prized for creating religious and spiritual objects and charms. The connection makes sense here – the metal has fallen from the sky, and depending on who you talk to, various powerful beings live in the sky. Even in Tibetan Buddhism, their dominant spirituality, the sky and universe is a place of mystery and other-worldliness. Personally, I would also prize iron that had fallen from the sky! Although if you are lucky enough to have any of this, you would have to have your door knobs made specially from it… meteoric iron door knobs are most unfortunately out of our scope! (more…)

Now, we are sure that if you have Architectural Classics handles on your door, you’ll be standing there holding it open for people who haven’t even entered the room yet (!), just for the pleasure of touching the gorgeous antiques a little longer.

A different proposition entirely though, are shop and public doors. In many things in life, there are two types of people in the world – those who will hold open a door for somebody behind them and those who simply let the door go as if the person weren’t there. This used to be a gender-assigned task – men were completely responsible for holding open doors for women, and a woman that held a door open for a man would cause a miniature riot around them! We must take into account the fact, though, that in the times this custom originates from, women often wore huge bustles and skirts with metal hoops in them … making it quite difficult to do things like open doors for yourself! Not to mention the corsets many women wore, which left you little lung power for doing anything other than basic subconscious bodily functions.

Nowadays few women have the problem of skirts with hoops! But how far has the attitude carried into popular culture? Do women still expect to have doors held open for them? Do men still feel the need to hold doors open for women (but perhaps not other men)? To find the answer, we went to the highest authority on this and many other subjects… the online community!

On Yahoo answers, 100% of people surveyed said that they hold doors open for people behind them. A large percentage of the respondents were female, though there were a few males in there. And some usernames that were a bit hard to call either way! Some people did qualify this with saying that they hold the door open for elderly people, kids, or people carrying things, but tend to ignore them otherwise. One person said that they hold the door open when people are older or younger than them, but not for their own age group – but nobody said that they hold the door only for women, or expect to have the door held for them simply because they are a woman. These results are exactly what you would expect from people using the internet, and especially forums like Yahoo answers though. The population is a little skewed. What do other people say on the subject?

(more…)

Before we go any further into this post, can we just say that every single one of our door knobs is meticulously cleaned before it goes anywhere near a postage box! Something you’d take for granted, I know, but you’ll be glad of it before you finish reading about this…

Earlier this year NBC’s Dallas office reported on a Texas invention that saves people from touching public toilet doors with their hands. It is basically a foot pull that allows you to open doors without touching them with your hands. We know, nearly everyone in the world has been touching bathroom doors all of their lives, and never contracted dysentery or hepatitis … but the inventors definitely aren’t scaremongers. Scientific research supports the fact that the majority of invisible matter on bathroom doors comes from faeces … Incidentally, I have also read in several places that seven out of ten door handles worldwide have traces of semen on them.

Still think the foot pull is overkill? I dare you to pick up your food with your hands after using a public restroom. Go on, I double dare you!!

I was thinking about how great it would be to have yet another excuse to adorn your doors with their own brand of art-cross-jewellery, and how to use some of our handles (especially lever handles) as foot pulls in your own home. Immediately following that though, I started to realise what sort of message that sent about the hygiene standards in your home! Unfortunately you may need to check out some of our other blog posts for interesting and offbeat ways to use door hardware in the rest of your home – we don’t necessarily recommend this one!

Photo credits: footpull.com