Deltana CH2525 Cabinet Hinge, 2-1/2 x 2-1/2", with Ball Tips (Pair)

Only if that mortise has square corners. The CH2525 is a square-corner hinge, so it drops into a chiseled square mortise but will leave gaps at the corners of a routed pocket, which is cut with radius corners by a hinge-boring template. Check the corners of the hinge that's coming off: rounded means you either recut the corners square or buy a radius-corner hinge instead. The leaf is .093 inch thick, so the pocket needs to be about that deep for the leaves to sit flush and the door to close without a gap at the hinge stile.

Two hinges per order. The CH2525 ships as a pair, each hinge measuring 2-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches with six screw holes and ball tip finials already fitted. For a run of cabinet doors, that's one order per door on a standard two-hinge hanging. A tall inset door that needs a third hinge in the middle means ordering a second pair and holding the spare.

It's specified for #7 x 3/4 inch wood screws, with no machine screw option, so it's a wood application: face frames, solid stiles, hardwood cabinet boxes. On a metal cabinet or a hollow frame there's nothing for a 3/4 inch wood screw to bite into, and that's the wrong hinge for the job. The six holes are countersunk for flat head wood screws at that size, so if you substitute, stay at #7 and keep the length short enough not to blow through a 3/4 inch stile.

Eleven, which is usually enough to match whatever pulls and knobs are already on the run: PVD Polished Brass, Polished Brass, Unlacquered Brass, Antique Brass, Polished Nickel, Brushed Nickel, Antique Nickel, Polished Chrome, Brushed Chrome, Oil Rubbed Bronze, and Paint Black. If you're matching existing hardware in a kitchen or a bath, match the family first (brass, nickel, chrome) and then the sheen, since polished and brushed in the same metal read very differently side by side on a face frame.

Same solid brass hinge, three different surface treatments. Polished Brass is a lacquered bright brass, and the lacquer is what eventually wears through at the knuckle on a door that gets handled. PVD Polished Brass is a vapor-deposited coating over the same look, and it holds up to handling and cleaning far better than lacquer. Unlacquered Brass is bare, so it will darken and patina with use, which is the point if you want a living finish on a period kitchen and a problem if you want all eight doors to still match in two years.

A 2-1/2 inch square mortised butt like the CH2525 is the common size for inset cabinet and casework doors on a face frame, where the hinge is let into both the door edge and the frame and the ball tips show on the outside of the joint. It measures 2-1/2 x 2-1/2 inches open with a .093 inch leaf. It is not a concealed cup hinge and not an overlay hinge, so if your doors sit proud of the frame rather than flush inside it, this is the wrong style and you want an overlay or European cup hinge instead.

Take the old hinge off and measure it before you order. The screw pattern lines up only if the existing hinge is also a 2-1/2 x 2-1/2 inch square-corner butt with six holes on the same layout; anything else and you're plugging and redrilling into the stile. Two things to check on the old part: corner shape (square, not radiused) and mortise depth against the .093 inch leaf. If the old hinge is thicker, the door will sit slightly proud at the hinge side until the pocket is packed.

Ball tip finials are standard on the CH2525, top and bottom, in the same finish as the hinge. Nothing extra to specify and nothing extra to add to the order. That matters if you're matching decorative butt hinges already hanging on the passage doors in the same room, since a plain flat-tip cabinet hinge next to a ball tip door hinge is the detail people notice.

Solid brass through the leaves and knuckle, not a plated steel core. On cabinetry that gets wet, a kitchen sink base or a bath vanity, that's the difference between a hinge that holds its finish and one that blooms rust through the plating at the screw holes. It also means the leaves can be dressed slightly if a mortise is a hair tight, which you cannot do to a plated part without cutting through the plating.