Here’s a little education if you’re missing siderails for your antique bed. I get a dozen calls a week from people all across the country wanting to buy an extra pair of side rails for their bed. What most people don’t know is that each foundry that made these beds back in the 1800’s, had their own molds and poured the ends on the siderails that slip down into an exact opposite “hitch” that has been cast on the head and footboard. They are sometimes referred to as “drop in” side rails. They’re made in the shape of a tapered ice cream cone that is on the end of the siderail. So when it is put in place or “dropped in” the opposite shape on the head and footboard, it self tightens. Here comes the dilemma when a pair of siderails are missing……..No two companies had the exact same molds. So because there were thousands of small independently owned foundries with their own molds…… the taper and shape of the siderail ends was always slightly different…..rendering a pair of rails for one iron bed, useless for another. Bottom line side rails for antique iron beds are NOT interchangeable.
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