" Well, restoring a house is always a challenge but when you have to figure out what kind of trim and shutters and hardware, you know, this is not easy picking the shutters? "

" No, but at least we had a style to go by."

" Yes"

" We found this hidden back up in a wall, where this is one of the original 1806 shutters. It's a raised panel shutter."

" Yes."

" Here's the top rail"

" You can see, Where we just saw in------"

" Yes! When they, they put an addition on the back of the house and they just shut the shutters into the window, saw it off the [unk] really funny."

" But, you know we can't make these on site and we're fortunate enough in Charleston to have a, a millwork company, Withers industries, that makes all our Period shutters "

" Exactly! Watch."

" Bob, this is Wilson Perkins."

" Hey! Wilson."

" Nice to meet you Bob. How are you?"

" Fine."

" So you're the shutter man here huh?"

" Yes, Sir"

" Why don't you? These are replicas of the ones that we're talking about at our house; you wanna take us through the geography of the different parts of the shutters? "

" Alright, a shutter is actually pretty simple. It consists of the stiles which are the vertical parts and the rails which are the horizontal parts?"

" Okay, top and bottom and in this case, also a center rail."

" Yes, sir"

" And we put these together, we use a mortise and tenon joint. We tenon the rail and then we mortise the stile."

" So, when you say you tenon the rail, you're actually cutting the male piece that, of the joint on one machine?"

" Yes!"

" And then, when you talk about the mortise, that's the corresponding piece. Is that done on a separate machine?"

" Yes, we have a chain mortise that cuts this and then we have a tenon machine which all it does is cut this."

" Okay, and this is mark up or rather, this is an actual sample, of that kind of a joint"

" It's the, it's the set up and we set it up where they'll fit very tight, like this."

" That is a tight mortise and tenon "

" Why do you do that?"

" Well, we do that so we don't have to worry about gluing it and then we put it together with staples"

" You don't use any glue?"

" No"

" Now the slots are all run right through the stiles, how do you cut these?"

" We do that with a Radial Arm Saw"

" Let's take a look"

" We know Bob, the way these are made and the way they were made originally is pretty simple. Originally, they might have been done with just a hand saw, and today they are just made with a radial arm saw."

" This is a pretty old radial arm saw."

" Yes, but you know, most do-it-yourselfer's will have this type of thing in the shop they can use."

" Sure."

" And this marking out in the intervals in cutting, very simple"

" And here's a completed stile, okay, this is for one of our shutters and you see where all the joints will come in for rails. But nothing but a series of slot fits. Now this is has gotta be expensive work, it's pretty labor intensive"

" Well, this would be something you'd see more like in a, a home shop or"

" This is more contemporary you've got, the, the slats are lead in right into the stiles"

" Yes."

" And you don't need any molding applied. So this, how do you make these?"

" We can mass produce these. We have a specialized machine that cuts out the slots for the louvers and they go a half inch deep in each side and they're held together when you close the joints."

" And that's it? and again there's no glue in the joints?"

" No, the joints are tightened. These are also fairly tight so they help hold it too."

" That's wonderful. Hey, what about the raise-paneled shutters? "

" They're making them right over here"

" Let's go take a look"

" Yes"

" So, have these been made in the old-fashion way, exactly the way the originals were?"

" Yes, I mean all of the construction is exactly the same; we've just got modern tools to do it with."

" How do you go about crafting a, a raised panel like this?"

" Well, in the old days, the carpenters are plaining those by hand. They just take their hand plainer and go around all four edges. Now, we use a shaper. And ours is probably 50 years old but it still works real good. We just run it around all four sides and the knife cuts the profile for you."

" That's a beautiful job! Again, you put this all together without any glue?"

" Yes."

" Let's, let's get started, how do you do it?"

" Always start in the center. Put your center rail in then we go with the panels."

" That's half there and then [unk]"

" And then your next rail over here, then the other panel here, and the top rail, put it together."

" Got this one."

" You do."

" There you go. There you go."

" Then just always drop this on the top."

" And then you just drop this on the top?"

" There you go."

" Give them a little tap."

" A tap up there."

" And no glue. Pretty nice. Thanks for the tour Wilson."

" No problem Bob"

" So, just about all the hardware that we're using to hang the shutters is antique."

" Yes, we like to salvage old hardware like these shutter doors and they match the original that were left on the house."

" There's a lot of treasures in Charleston."