WARDED LOCK PICKS

[awol70]

These are some neat old warded lockpicks.
the cool old homebrew ones were found among a retired locksmiths belongings at a yardsale.
(among many other neat old barrel,skeleton and flat keys)

DSC05546.JPG

[THEsourman]

Where do you get this stuff from?

[awol70]

Where do you get this stuff from?

as stated, directly above, a retired locksmiths yardsale..

[s1deshowmick]

Lucky to find a glass without a chip out of it at a yard sale here, mostly crap stuff.

Well done on the find, looks like he enjoyed his job by the amount of homebrew keys.

[chris]

Very nice, great find!

[magician59]

That's the sort of thing I used to do before I ever knew store-bought picks were available! Nice quarry.

[awol70]

That's the sort of thing I used to do before I ever knew store-bought picks were available! Nice quarry.

perhaps you could enlighten me on the uses of the pronged ones? (#5&7, left to right.)
probably for something before my time.

[magician59]

They are pass keys for mortise locks. The "cylinders" were surface-moumted tubes that were warded. The operating keys were flat steel with parallel sides that were cut to pass the wards, and the prongs fit into the actuator, which had drilled holes to receive them.
Cutting the pass keys like in the photo bypasses every possible ward; and they became so popular that the key blank manufacturers just made them like that.
Only thing I don't recall is the brand of lock they fit.

[awol70]

They are pass keys for mortise locks. The "cylinders" were surface-moumted tubes that were warded. The operating keys were flat steel with parallel sides that were cut to pass the wards, and the prongs fit into the actuator, which had drilled holes to receive them.
Cutting the pass keys like in the photo bypasses every possible ward; and they became so popular that the key blank manufacturers just made them like that.
Only thing I don't recall is the brand of lock they fit.

Well thank you for the info.. totally been wondering about those.
if it ever pops into your head,(the manufacturer) please let me know ...