Need help identifying an old Mortise cylinder

[LockButcher]

Hey everyone!

Got this old mortise lock in a lot on ebay. What attracted me to it was the ornate face of the lock cylinder. I finally cleaned the housing of the latch enough to read that it is an old Yale. But cannot find any markings on the mortise cylinder itself as far as manufacturer and was hoping someone on here had seen it before and could verify it was Yale too? The tooling in the face and the serrations on the pins point to Yale but I would think those guys would have stamped it somewhere.... thanks for any help!

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[Korver15]

It does have a stamp, and it looks like a yale. I couldnt make out if their are patent numbers but something else is there.

[Korver15]

cleaned the housing of the latch enough to read that it is an old Yale.

woops. You already knew this. cant help you on the lock, maybe do some cropping and do some google image searches. Maybe google can pick out the pattern?

[xeo]

That is a very cool looking mortise cylinder. It looks like there is very little warding? That is very odd. Can you gut this and post pictures? Have you picked it at all?

[LockButcher]

That is a very cool looking mortise cylinder. It looks like there is very little warding? That is very odd. Can you gut this and post pictures? Have you picked it at all?

Xeo

I'm glad you brought that up cause it is also a sign of Yale. Their first pin tumbler locks didn't have warding on the keyway. They just had flat keys with the bitting on them. The first thing I thought of when I saw the smooth walls on the key way was Yale's solid body padlocks that you push the shackle up and spin it with the key after its inserted.

[Korver15]

Talked to Locknut1 he told me that it is a yale. Yale would use a cylinder like that with an expensive fancy escutcheon set. It is a Yale cylinder as they used those serrated pins, which were not an anti-picking feature, but rather to hold the graphite to lubricate them. It is 1800's to very early 1900's because of the flat, rather than paracentric, keyway.
Hope that helps!

[Robotnik]

Did not know the reason behind Yale's use of serrated pins. Very interesting. Any one have an idea on when they switched over to smooth pins?

[LockButcher]

Talked to Locknut1 he told me that it is a yale. Yale would use a cylinder like that with an expensive fancy escutcheon set. It is a Yale cylinder as they used those serrated pins, which were not an anti-picking feature, but rather to hold the graphite to lubricate them. It is 1800's to very early 1900's because of the flat, rather than paracentric, keyway.
Hope that helps!

That definitely helps! Hahaha. Thanks man! I'm ashamed to say that even though those serrations weren't for security, the cylinder put up a good fight. Took me over an hour to pick it because they were still pretty sharp. I don't think that thing was used very much. Thanks again!

[Oldfast]

.....It is a Yale cylinder as they used those serrated pins, which were not an anti-picking feature, but rather to hold the graphite to lubricate them.....

Now THAT is interesting! I've never heard that before... but it does make perfect since.
I can certainly see our anti-pick pins of today originating from this 'graphite-holding' motive.

[Papa Gleb]

Very interesting indeed. Thx for the info.

[MBI]

To me that rusty date looks like "July 2503".
Clearly this lock is from the future!

[Korver15]

Maybe July 25 1903?

[innerpicked]

i think this may help;

[LockButcher]

i think this may help;

Thanks. I soaked the thing in soap then a gentle degreaser and scrubbed it with a tooth brush and still can't make out what it said. Hahaha.

[LockButcher]

Next question. Now that it's all cleaned up, do I take all the rust and old paint off and give it a nice black powder coat or just leave it be? Basically what I'm asking is what can I do to it with out making Farmall mad?