Tooth course
Dentil crown
Dentil crown casts the row of small rectangular blocks into the molding, which is the fastest way to get a classical tooth course without spacing blocks by hand.
Related style: dentil crown.
- Best for
- Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, and any exterior cornice that should read as traditional millwork.
- Scale
- From 6-inch room crowns to 20-inch cornices. Dentil size and spacing are on the cut sheet.
Dentils are the small blocks under a classical cornice. Spacing them from loose blocks is slow and easy to get wrong at the corners. Spectis dentil crown repeats the block and the gap in the mold, so every stick matches.
MD1760 is the room-scale version: 3 1/2 inches of projection, 6 inches of height, a 12-foot-6-inch stick, with a dentil and space of about 1 1/16 inch each. That is a real dentil, not a texture. MD1701 is the other end of the catalog: 16 7/8 inches by 19 7/8 inches, a full exterior cornice. The same number is also sold as left and right 6.5/12 pitch pieces for a gable rake. Order the straight run and the pitch pieces together if the cornice turns up a gable.
The repeat dimension matters more than people expect. A 7-inch repeat, like the one printed on some large dentil cut sheets, has to be planned so the corner does not land in the middle of a tooth. Lay the repeat out on the wall before the first cut.
Paint-grade urethane dentil takes caulk in the same places wood does: the ceiling line, the wall line, and the butt. Do not caulk the shadow inside every tooth or the profile goes flat.
At a glance
- Ornament
- Integral dentil course
- Rakes
- Some large SKUs have left and right pitch versions
- Layout
- Start from the repeat on the cut sheet
Profiles in this guide
A sample of this filter. See the current price on spectis.us. The category has the rest of the line, including pitch pieces.
| SKU | Type | Projection | Height | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MD1760 | Dentil crown | 3.5" | 6" | 144.5" |
| MD1701 | Dentil crown | 16.875" | 19.875" | 144" |
Questions about dentil crown
Can I flip dentil crown and use it as a chair rail?
The face can look convincing, but the back is cut to bed against a ceiling or soffit, not against a flat wall. Use a dentil molding from the dentil category if you need a wall trim.