Can anyone give me a date range on keys like these? They were found together in an area producing War of 1812 and fur trade relics. Any clues on what kind of locks they were used on? Thanks in advance for any info.
thanks for the comments, when these came out of electrolysis I about flipped out. I knew they were old before cleaning but i had no idea they were hand cut. It took me about three days to get the rust picked out of the patterns in between the tank treatments. Definetly one of my favorite finds.
the neatist key ive ever seen, wonder what that lock locked up.
also wonder if the lock would be harder to pick, with that kind of
tumbler the key fits
this guy g. taylor has, some keys sorta like yours
a couple of the ones ,that sorta look like yours, are from the 1700s
he has a store on ebay
tumbler was simple, One. These are cut for a gateway. Diferent on the one, I have no idea how old. Neat items, thanks for posting them.
Lostcauses, can you explain what a gateway is to me. I'm clueless when it comes to lock terminology. Thanks in advance.
Scratcher, The correct term is bit, a bit lock has wards that look like bumps. The key when turned has to be cut to pass these wards to operate the lock. Here's a simpler example. Here's a drawing of how they work (my artistic ability stinks). One trick the bad guys used to use was to cut one of these keys with the biggest cuts as possible yet leaving enough to work the lock. These got the name skeleton keys. Hope that helps explain for you!
Boogyman. I had to change a spring in my turn of the century skeleton key door lock. It's a pretty simple locking mechanism. My question is, since the wards are shorter than the cuts in the key. Are these fancy cut designs made to identify what the key opened?
tumbler was simple, One. These are cut for a gateway. Diferent on the one, I have no idea how old. Neat items, thanks for posting them.
Lostcauses, can you explain what a gateway is to me. I'm clueless when it comes to lock terminology. Thanks in advance.
Scratcher, The correct term is bit, a bit lock has wards that look like bumps. The key when turned has to be cut to pass these wards to operate the lock. Here's a simpler example. Here's a drawing of how they work (my artistic ability stinks). One trick the bad guys used to use was to cut one of these keys with the biggest cuts as possible yet leaving enough to work the lock. These got the name skeleton keys. Hope that helps explain for you!
Interesting, learn something every day.
have a good un.
SHERMANVILLE
In the academies many books, at the circus many sacks of peanuts, at the club rooms many cigar butts.
There is also a 16th to 19th century section . I can see where these keys I found are similiar to keys from both groups. I doubt if anyone could definitively date them, but I might try sending some pictures to the people from this site to see what they have to say.
LinkBack URL
About LinkBacks
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by lostcauses
)
