# The Pull Hewn Shop Notes · https://hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pull AI-drafted, not yet checked: Drafted by Chip, the writing system Hewn runs on Claude, from Hewn's craft corpus. Jonathan Salomons has not read this note yet, and no outside reader has checked it. Read it as a shop note: check a number before you cut to it. Cite as: "The Pull." Hewn Shop Notes, hewn.build/shop-notes/the-pull. Drafted 2026-05-04; AI-drafted, not yet checked. --- Here's how it usually goes. The case is done. The doors hang right, the drawers slide clean, the finish is cured. You go to the hardware store and pick the pulls that look good. Then you get home and find out the hole spacing is wrong. Pulls are not primarily an aesthetic decision. They're a spec decision with an aesthetic component. The hole spacing is fixed — it's a dimension the case was either built to accommodate or wasn't. You can't finesse it after the fact. You can fill the holes, return the pulls, or live with visible patches. None of those are good options. Spec the spacing first. Find a pull with that spacing second. Pick something you like third. --- ## Knob or Pull Before spacing, there's a more basic question. A knob has one mounting point. The load is direct tension, perpendicular to the face. Simple and fine — unless the panel is thin without backing. On 3/4" solid wood, a knob is no problem. On 1/2" plywood with nothing behind it, a knob can loosen and eventually pull through with heavy use. The rule: knobs on panels 3/4" or thicker, or confirm backing on anything thinner. A pull has two mounting points and the force distributes across both. When you grab a pull and tug, you're creating a moment arm between the screws. That's more tolerant of thin material and more durable in high-use situations. A kitchen drawer gets opened fifty times a day. A pull handles that better than a knob. Use knobs for low-use doors, lighter drawers, decorative work, and thick solid material. Use pulls for kitchens, high-use drawers, thin-panel applications, anything that gets abused. Both are legitimate. The mistake is choosing based only on how they look. --- ## The Spacing System The hole spacing is the constant. Everything else is the variable. Residential cabinet hardware runs on metric spacing. The standard options: - 96mm (~3-3/4"): smaller doors, narrow drawers - 128mm (~5"): medium drawers, most residential kitchens - 160mm (~6-1/4"): wider drawer faces - 192mm (~7-1/2"): wide drawers, larger furniture - 288mm (~11-1/4"): wide drawer banks, furniture-scale pulls These are exact numbers. A 96mm pull fits 96mm holes. The face length — how long the pull looks — can vary from barely-there to dramatic while the hole spacing stays identical. Two pulls can look completely different and share the same 96mm spacing. That's fine. What's not fine is assuming they match without confirming. On a full run — a kitchen, a built-in, any suite of furniture — pick one spacing and use it everywhere. Consistency comes from the spec, not from matching pull faces across manufacturers. --- ## Face Length, Projection, and the Functional Floor Once spacing is confirmed, the two remaining variables are face length and projection. Face length is aesthetic. Pick what you like, as long as the hole spacing matches. Projection has a functional floor. It's how far the pull stands off the face, and it determines whether fingers can get behind it. The minimum for a drawer pull is roughly 25mm. Below that, the grip is poor, especially on heavy drawers or for anyone with larger hands. On stacked drawers, projection also determines clearance — a 35mm projecting pull on the bottom drawer of a bank affects how close the drawer faces above it can be. Get that wrong and the pulls conflict with the case. Check this before you set drawer spacing, not after. --- ## Pull Families **Cup pulls** route into the face — minimal or zero projection. The right choice where projection would cause problems or where the piece should read flat from a distance. **Bar pulls** are the kitchen standard. Easy to grip, easy to clean, consistent projection, simple spec. If in doubt, use a bar pull. **Ring pulls** fold flat when not in use. Blanket chests, campaign furniture, table leaves, anywhere a projecting pull would catch on things. **Bow pulls** are curved bridge hardware with period character. The spec varies more than modern pulls — confirm hole spacing against your actual material before committing. The governing question is what the piece requires the pull to do. Answer that before you look at aesthetics. --- ## Material Notes Solid brass is machined to tighter tolerances than zinc castings. On fine furniture, you'll feel the difference after a few years. The threads are cleaner, the weight is right, and the surface ages predictably. On finish durability: oil-rubbed bronze and unlacquered brass are living finishes — they change with use, polishing at the high spots and darkening in the recesses. That's not a defect. But the client needs to know. Put it in the documentation. --- ## Installation Make a template jig for any production run. If you're drilling twelve drawers, a plywood template that indexes off the drawer face and positions both holes takes thirty minutes to build and eliminates twelve chances for error. Hand-marking and drilling twelve drawer fronts individually produces visible variation. The template is the craft standard. Also: confirm your spec on one drawer before drilling the run. Pull manufacturers are not always accurate. A pull marked 96mm sometimes arrives at 97.5mm. Find out on the first drawer, not the twelfth. Install after finish. Pulls are surface-mount hardware — bore after build, install after the finish cures. --- The hole spacing is the spec. The face length is the aesthetic. Build to the spec, then choose within it. The pull is the first and last thing anyone touches. Get the spec right first.