Emtek 8513 Solid Brass Surface Bolt, 18"

The Emtek 8513 is the 18 inch length in Emtek's solid brass surface bolt family, which is a lot of bolt for a typical French door stile. Emtek runs the same bolt in 6 inch (8511), 8 inch (8515), 12 inch (8512), 18 inch (8513) and 24 inch (8514). Pick the length by how much flat, unobstructed rail or stile you have above the bolt's mounting point: the 18 and 24 inch versions are meant for tall doors where you want the throw lever down at hand height while the bolt engages the head. For a standard French door or a closet pair, the 6 or 8 inch is usually the one that fits without running into glass stops or panel molding.

It ships as a complete set with three different strikeplates plus screws, so you can mount it into the head jamb, down into the threshold or floor, or into the edge of the inactive leaf without sourcing a separate strike. That is the main reason the same part number covers top-of-door and bottom-of-door installs: you choose the strike that matches where the bolt lands.

No. The 8513 is a residential-duty solid brass bolt and should not be specified where a fire label or a heavy-duty rating is required. For a rated opening, ZenSupply carries the Ives SB1600 heavy duty steel surface bolt with a 3-1/2 inch throw, the Ives SB1640 in brass construction, and the Ives SB1630 locking bolt with a 1 inch throw that carries a 3-hour UL listing. The ABH HD1805 is another heavy duty option, with an auto-locking 3/4 inch stainless steel bar.

Solid brass throughout, not plated steel or zinc. Brass does not rust, which is why this style gets used on exterior French doors and on the inactive leaf of a front entry pair. The trade-off is on the finish, not the metal: living finishes like Unlacquered Brass (US3NL) and French Antique (US7) will patina outdoors, while Oil Rubbed Bronze (US10B) and Medium Bronze (MB) darken and wear at contact points. If you want it to stay looking the way it arrived, choose one of the plated finishes such as Satin Nickel (US15) or Polished Chrome (US26).

Twelve finishes are offered on the 8513: Flat Black (US19), Oil Rubbed Bronze (US10B), Medium Bronze (MB), Tumbled White Bronze (TWB), Polished Nickel (US14), Satin Nickel (US15), Pewter (US15A), Polished Chrome (US26), Polished Brass Lifetime (US3), Unlacquered Brass (US3NL), Satin Brass (US4) and French Antique (US7). Those are Emtek's standard finish codes, so if the levers and hinges on the opening are already Emtek in US10B or US19, the bolt is ordered in the same code and will read as a set.

A surface bolt like the Emtek 8513 mounts on the face of the inactive leaf and throws into a strike, so the door is held but the hardware is visible and stands proud of the door face. A flush bolt is mortised into the door edge and disappears when retracted. Choose the surface bolt when the door is already hung and you do not want to rout the edge, when the door is too thin or too glazed to mortise, or when the exposed brass is part of the look. It is a hand-operated bolt, so it secures the inactive leaf while the active leaf carries the lockset.

The Emtek 8513 is a hand-thrown bolt with no keying. If the opening needs the bolt itself secured, the Ives SB1630 is a heavy duty steel locking surface bolt with keyed security and a 1 inch throw, and the ABH HD1805 uses an auto-locking 3/4 inch stainless steel bar. Those are the ones to look at for a storefront back door or any leaf where you do not want the bolt released by anyone who can reach it.

The Emtek 8513 is the 18 inch length; the same solid brass surface bolt is also made as the 8511 at 6 inches, the 8515 at 8 inches, the 8512 at 12 inches and the 8514 at 24 inches. If the shorter run needs steel instead of brass, the Ives SB360 is a heavy-duty steel surface bolt with a 1-1/4 inch throw in a 12 inch length.

Throw length is what closes a wide gap between the bolt and the strike. Among steel bolts, the Ives SB1600 has a 3-1/2 inch throw, the Ives SB360 has a 1-1/4 inch throw, and the Ives SB1630 and SB1640 each have a 1 inch throw. The Emtek 8513 is the 18 inch solid brass bolt, where the 18 inches is the length of the bolt body rather than the throw, so those two dimensions should not be compared to each other when specifying.

Within the same decorative, residential brass category, ZenSupply carries the Delaney solid brass surface bolt and the Delaney decorative solid brass surface bolt, plus the Trimco 4800 Series surface bolts. The Emtek is the one to pick if the rest of the opening is already Emtek, because the finish codes match across their line. Step outside brass and into steel (the Ives SB360 heavy-duty bolt with a 1-1/4 inch throw, offered in a 12 inch length) and you are buying duty level rather than appearance.

There is no handing on this bolt. The 8513 is a straight surface-mounted bolt, so the same part works on a left or right inactive leaf and can be installed to throw upward into the head or downward into the floor. What decides orientation is where you want the operating lever to sit and which of the three included strikeplates matches that landing point.