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Hi People

Here are the latest additions to my collection.
An old Liberty 6 lever.
An old American 700
And a new Abus (made in Germany) Disc with “high precision 4-pin Cylinder”







I got the Abus because I had read how well made and difficult to pick they are, plus it has low, high, low biting.

What a disappointment!!! I inserted a small diamond to feel the pins and the bugger just popped open!!!
This can’t be right….. even Masters put up more of a fight then this….. tried it several more times and same thing. I wouldn’t even call this thing a lock!!!! I have popped many, many pin tumbler locks and a few are surprisingly easy (even some expensive ones) - “Show off” locks – but this Abus is a total joke !!! I would hope that this one is an aberration, a dud that slipped through.

Perhaps they should get their locks made in China. I have five Lockwood disk locks (made in China) and have NOT been able to open them (yet) and have been trying for a LONG time.

At least the American will provide some entertainment and a bit of a challenge.

The Liberty, well, I always wanted a push key lever lock (with key) and got this one for a good price.

REQUEST. Can anyone make or get me a spare key for the American? I’ll pay.
It looks like the biting is stamped on the key (not all that familiar with these locks and there is no one around here that has blanks).
The numbers are 48854

Cheers.

More – I finally popped the American !!!! Yeah !!!!



It took a while to get to know the lock. Reading Oldfast’s post on them and finally using a TOK wrench made especially for this lock (because of the two number 2 cuts BOK wrenches get in the way). Thanks Oldfast for the great article on the old Americans.
I’m actually quite chuffed at popping it - sort of a milestone. Like shooting a 500+ in Sports Pistol.

The pick that conquered it was one that I made from a bike spoke and an old cigarette holder that was broken. My wife has a small collection of antique cigarette holders and this one fell off the stand and broke the ivory end. When throwing it out I thought “ what can I use this for?”. The hole in the end fitted a bike spoke perfectly so I made a small hook and epoxyed it into the holder.



Works, comfortable and a little crazy. BTW bike spokes are extremely strong and are great for making hooks (bend and grind down the sides) but are difficult to put a good handle on.

Anyway, back to the Lockwoods……..

Sure I can make that american for you. pm me the cuts.
Keymaster.

the cuts are 48854
American stamps the cuts right on the original, now everyone on the forum could make a copy
but your in australia, so little likely hood that anyones gonna make a key and open your shed.

if you have a few old american original keys, they will have the cuts stamped on them and you could find all the numbers from 1 to 9 on a small selection of keys and use them as reader keys for the depth of cuts, use a caliper to take that and put it on a blank.

because the keys have the cuts stamped on them, its a security flaw, and any one could read the numbers an get a key.
therefore after getting a copy on a new blank, use the copy on your keychain and keep the one with the numbers as the backup.

The easiest handle for a bike spoke is a loop that you can put on the second finger first knuckle, then the spoke goes across the first finger and is bent after the first finger about 30 degrees, this looks like a 6 with a hook on top, the offset bend is what makes for very good control of the orientation of the hook.
there are photos of such picks on this site somewhere, look in the 'tribute to rai" thread for one in Gordons hand. that only a page or two back in the index.

NICE job with the American! Very exciting

The core looks to be turned counter-clockwise?

edit: And with the Abus.... I have a horrible time with some of them,
while others pop easily. Maybe you just happened to get an easy one.

N0, the core is turned clockwise.

Click on the pic and you can see the pins are on the left and you can see the stops more clearly.

It was a buzz. I've done it more than three times now, so it's MINE. BRAH HA HAH HA AH!!!!

As for the bit cuts stamped on the key - really strange as the lock was the mother of hi security padlocks - as per Oldfast.

I'm not worried about someone making a key and breaking into my shed as I got it to play with. Anyway, now that you can get battery angle grinders all a pad lock does is to keep out the curious.

Cheers.

Ah yes, I see that now. At a glance I was just looking at it wrong.

And the stamping of the actual bitting on the keybow. Certainly a security flaw that more than
handful of companies share. I always get a chuckle when someone sits down next to me in a
meeting and proceeds to drop on the table a messy filled lifelong keychain. A heep of keys
that represents everything materialistic in their life. Funny how much you can tell about a
fella just by their keys, lol. But yeah, as I glance through them (habit), I normally spot at
least a couple with this shameful downfall. The code is there for the taking.

100% on this LOL ! great example lifted of the net last week