I have never heard of that.

I believe locksmiths use graphite when they install locks,it acts as a sort of lubricant on metal. Anybody?

My sister has this problem with all of her hinges, and it's so bad that the black dust has stained her light- colored carpets. I have this problem with only one of my doors so thanks for the info.

btw, I don't think these are cheap hinges.

Mapletex, I have the same exact problem and I never knew the cause!!! I mean I assumed it was caused by the hinges but didn't know why. I'll have to try to clean & lubricate them and see if that helps. Ugh, I dread more housework! LOL

It is from the graphite lubricant. A locksmikth once told me he uses a drop of liquid dishwashing soap as a lubricant.

Can u paint over the stain?

Believe it or not it was recommended to me to use a little bit of gasoline on a cloth to remove it from the doors. It actually worked. I'm not sure though how long it will be before it comes back.

We have this -strangely enough - only on 2 closet doors. The strangest thing makes no sense but yes a gray black film that does not wipe off easily. It's actually the 2 closets in our entry way- painted white with white trim. Will think about the gasoline fix... (how did you get it? we don't have a lawn mower anymore so no carry can that I know of).

You really don't need much. Maybe you can get a small glass jar from someone. That would be enough for the lifetime of the doors for sure.

Gasoline not a good idea. Dangerous poisonous fumes that that take some time to dissipate in a closed area. Clean the area as best u can. Mr. Clean sponges work. Rub hard. Then just paint over it. Take the door off and coat the hardware with beeswax to avoid any further soiling. Worked for me. Some people say liquid dawn works in place of beeswax.

I don't have too much trouble getting it off with fantastic and magic eraser but I don't know how to get it off rugs. It stains them and I'm concerned of how to remove it without making it worse.

I just used regular rubbing alcohol and it worked like a charm. It wiped right off.

Buy a toilet wax ring in plumbing section of hardware store. It's real purpose is to replace toilet to floor. Remove pin from door hinge then roll and rub the pin on wax ring to coat it with wax. Wipe away any wax excess from pin. Replace pin in hinge. If this is done each year prevents any shaving or filing of metal leaving dust on hinges or door frame... much less chance soiling or staining carpet. I have white doors throughout my home and it has worked. My home builder supt told me about this method.

Try Houdini lock lube. It cleans locks very well for smooth operation and cleans graphite nicely.

I made the mistake of spraying WF40 on hinges and paid for it. NO QUICK CURE, but this worked best for me. Take one hinge off door and clean area with a detergent. Do one at a time completely. Take pin out of hinge and put all parts in a small dish with BOILING WATER with dish detergent and let sit. Clean the flat surface areas. If pin has blackened, i first wiped most of it off with a bit of gasoline, then after rinsing gas off pin, i used a fine 400 grit sandpaper and/or Dremel wire wheel attachment to clean pin surface. For the important hinge pin guides, I used my gun cleaning kit’s bristle brush and cloth patch barrel bore cleaning liquid. Great stuff. Dry inside with a dry patch. Dry and assemble hinge and reinstall on door. I DID NOT add a lube and would ONLY if the hinge squealed. If it does, add a DROP of dish detergent to top of hinge and let it work in. Put something on floor for any drips.

Thank you so much for bringing this up. I have this problem on one of my doors and I was completely mystified as to what was going on. I will look into the suggested fixes soon.

Me too!😞 I use Goo Gone. Works pretty well. Will try cleaning & slightly lubing. Constantly cleaning otherwise nice white doors gets old. Hopeful!

I just noticed the same thing!

Did anyone try the wax ring from the plumbing section? thanks!

As a carpet layer for almost 40 years when I worked residential I had to take doors off and black dust would get on carpet don’t wipe the dust it will smear into the carpet use a vacuum hose or shop vac is better

I took mine off and cleaned the plates and pins with a bike chain cleaning product, reinstalled and that seemed to slow it down, but it did not fix the problem. I need to try one of these other solutions and see if I can get better improvement

As someone else mentioned I really hate cleaning these al the time.

BTW when I installed them I sprayed the pins with Triflow teflon lubricant, didn't help at all.

I have the same problem. I'm convinced this has nothing to do with graphite, but is related to the hinge not being properly lubricated. For example, In my home office (unused bedroom, of course) my passageway door has three hinges. Only one hinge squeaks, and not coincidentally, this is the only hinge with the black dust next to it. When you hear the squeak, I'm pretty sure this indicates a stop/start vibration in the hinge that actually flings metal filings away from the hinge surfaces that are squeaking.

I took a magnet to the dust, and sure enough, some of it stuck to the magnet (no I didn't actually touch the dust to the magnet, the dust jumped across the distance from the molding to the magnet). So this dust is actually iron filings, coming from the door hinge itself. (note that what you think are brass hinges, are almost always steel hinges with a brass finish)

The best idea I've read on this forum is the idea to use wax on the hinge pin. I suspect that any heavier wax or grease would work well, although with less expensive hinges, nothing will last forever. Lighter oils will likely just leave a mess (I think I tried light oil a few years back).

If you want to avoid the black dust, ante up the extra money and upgrade to a hinge with real bearings and not just metal-on-metal pins. Good hinges are expensive, so that's why many of us don't have them.

I've had this same issue since the house was built in 1998. The baseboards are always covered with black dust by the bottom of the doors, and it's even on the walls across from the hinges! TSP did a decent job of cleaning it off, but I had to scrape off the old caulk the builders used on the top of the baseboards and reapply then paint to make it look "clean" again. The plan is to try the wax remedy, but in the meantime I covered the hinges with cut pieces of large plastic straws to stop the back dust from going on the walls and baseboards.

Bees wax less messy than the plumbing wax. Hardware stores have it

This is happening on my 30 year-old frameless kitchen cabinets. I have black stains on the faces of the cabinet boxes, directly adjacent to the site of the hinges. For the most part, they are hidden by the closed doors, but I can see them through the gap between the door and the face, when the doors are opened. The photo shows a cabinet next to an open shelf, where the stain has spread to the always visible face of the open shelf unit.

It is graphite dust. A disgusting nuisance too much maintenance. Ball bearing hinges spendier, but worth the money, unless you like wasting paper towels, cleaners & your prescious time here on earth. I have better things to do. All about maintenance free everything.