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I was called to a 'lockout' a few weekends ago. When I arrived the lady told me her son and his friend had been messing around with the lock. The lock wasn't in use anymore as she had previously called a locksmith who had told her the lock was too old to service. So he butchered her door and slapped on a standard residential dead bolt.
Anyways, I had never dealt with something so old before so I was stumped. After a few minutes of repeatedly trying to turn the door handle while simultaneously trying to throw the latch manually it gave. Upon opening it I realized that the set screw which held the mortise lock in place had came lose and wedged itself perfectly against the latch (I set a silver bolt in where the old one was so it would be easier to see).
If anyone could give me a approximate year it would be much appreciated - this thing seems old as dirt.

Gut shots? Any security pins?

No security pins as far as I could tell by picking it. I took the key pins out and used locksaver on it to make a half-assed attempt at restoring it. It's so old/heavily used that the key barely works - I gotta tilt the bow down and wiggle it to get it to turn.
I'll bust the top pins out in a bit.

I have never heard of this lock, but there are 5 different blanks listed in the Ilco book.
I will have to check one of my books this evening, might have some information about the company.

I have the original key, as well as a Ilco copy. The blank # is 1034.

It looks like Peterborough Lock was based in Peterborough, Ontario. Neat newspaper ad here:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2 ... 63,3235304

Wow, very interesting - I hadn't been able to find any information on these locks. Besides the Lock itself and the set screw coming loose and jamming the latch mechanism, it still works very well. I guess it is rather old as I thought, if not older.
Thanks for the article!

Kind of funny how the screw came loose and fell the way it did.
Of all places it could have wedged itself, it had to be behind the latch!
Nice open up though.

I still see some of those around here once in a while, the home re-use center here has about 30 of them, I think they were made until the 60's.

I'm surprised a locksmith would say it's not serviceable anymore, then do a poor job installing a deadbolt.
All he had to do was perhaps service, clean, lube the lock and replace the cylinder.

Now that you have this one, may I ask what you replaced it with?

M.

I replaced it with an Assa Abloy Emtek mortise lock. They sell really nice stuff.

Ooooh! Emtek!
Yeah! Nice stuff.
I bet that cost her a pretty penny!?!

M.

Absolutely - but to me the quality and aesthetics makes it beyond worth it.