ASSA 7 lever lock, unkown age

[jimu57]

August Stenman bought a hinge company and sometime later made his first lock. His wife embroidered a pillow with August Stenman-Stenman August on it. That is where "ASSA" came from. Evidently he used ASSA-Stenman in the early days. I have never seen a lock with that on it. A rare find.

jimu57

[Lockhero]

Had a look at a FAS 309 "narrow profile" 9 lever lock today, with a hook "swing" bolt.
The design is actually quite different - probably for increased force resistance.
As you can see, the levers are quite tiny (relatively speaking...), and the bolt doesn't go straight into the levers. The whole side of the lock with the bolt assembly can pivot relative to the rest of the lock - I think this is to protect the rest of the lock and door if you start bending on the side of it. As may or may not be visible in the pictures this wouldn't help you actually get the bolt open either. When the thing is actually assembled there's also a cover over the lever assembly with lots of steel for drill protection.
I have seen even smaller versions in action, which would presumably use the same lever package but different "surroundings".
Interestingly enough the levers has serrations. Oddly enough the stump doesn't, so I doubt it does a lot for the pickability.

PS. Maybe time for a separate thread for these lever locks. And some actual picking of them!

lever.png

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5 false gates on the one lever- if they're all like that I wouldn't fancy many guys chances at an open.

[Patrick Star]

It's serrations, not false gates. There's no mistaking them for actually having set the lever when picking, they just make it harder to get there.
And they do nothing to stop decoding instead of "freeform" picking. For example using a make-up key and a wire to test the levers, or a pin-and-cam tool. Both of these would be greatly aided by the fact that the key for these locks is always symmetric so it works from both sides of the lock.
I noticed now from the pictures that there actually are some matching serrations in the stump though (very small and on the side towards the case, so not very visible), so at least there's something to make picking a bit harder:

gates.png