Door edges: angled or square?

I have an old salvage door and was thinking of squaring it up before I build a new frame. However, I noticed that both the hinge and lock side of the stiles are angled ( maybe 5-10 deg off square) so the weather stripping side of the door width is narrower. I checked several modern doors with a square and they all appear to have 90 deg edges. Someone told me this is so the space around the door can be tighter, but I wanted to get other opinions. Should I keep the angle on both sides when I square up the door or should I make all sides 90 degrees? I'm leaning towards simplicity and making the sides all 90 degrees, but then what would the recommended spacing be between the frame and the door?

 

The angled side faces the door stop. If it's not angled the door needs to be about 1/4" smaller than the opening in order to fit and not rub. The angle is a more precise way to do it... back when people cared about such things.

 

I just watched a few youtube videos on the subject. My door has the back bevel on both sides, but I only saw videos recommending a 3 degree bevel on the handle/lock side to prevent binding against the jams when the door swings open. That makes sense to me, but why the bevel on the hinge side?

So, if there is no beveling on either side, are you saying I should make the frame so there is 1/8" gap all around? What should the gap be if there is the 3 degree bevel? I looked at my old hinges and it looks like the gap built into the hinge is small, maybe 1/16", they seem to be in good shape but now I'm wondering if there is a reason to replace the hinges with modern hinges? Is there an good reason to get new hinges or will the old ones work as good?

 

Measurements of this door and other old doors in my house give a bevel of closer to 1.5-2 degrees, not nearly what I had guessed. So maybe it's worth it to match what's there when I square up the door a bit.

 

You say it's an old door. Years back--before flexible rubber & plastics took over-- it was common for there to be an angled brass weatherstrip nailed to the doorframe top & both sides. The door bevel was a matching angle and made an effective seal.

 

Yes, all my doors have that copper weather striping. I'm redoing this door with a new frame with the modern weather stripping that presses into a kerf. I trimmed about 3/8" off the sides of the door to square it up and so I put a 2-3 degree bevel on both hinge and handle sides. The geometry shows that a slight bevel will prevent binding, otherwise you have to make the frame have a larger gap. There are a few good youtube videos that explain why the bevel is a good idea and it's really a minimal bevel, you'd hardly notice it.