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We bought a piece of property last year with a lot of locked gates locked with an assortment of old master locks. The gates we need to use have already had the locks cut and replaced, but there are several that are still locked. The previous owner had lived on the property since 1947 and when he died last year, his house was like an episode of Hoarders and the family never did locate all the keys.

Im just now trying to open some of these gates. Old, rusted no 3 masters that just won't pick. I've sprayed them with penetrating oil and let them sit overnight, still no joy. Today, I realized the shackle was frozen and would not move at all. I finally picked up a chunk of wood and gave it a few good whacks to loosen the shackle. It will now wiggle a bit, but still won't pick.

Is it possible the pawls are rusted closed?

Or are these just tough because they haven't been opened in 20 years? Do they rust and corrode that easily?

I have an old no 3 sitting on my desk that was tough to pick the first 6 or 7 times, but now it's so smooth, my 6 year old son can pick it pretty easily.

Thoughts on opening these old locks other than lube? Should I just get some bypass tools instead to break loose whatever rust is inside?

Picking for fun is one thing, in situations like this there is no shame in cutting the locks off.

Yes I would think it's a combination of years and years in the elements with no maintenance with few openings. I've had master 3s that wouldn't pick or rake. It's a huge difference picking a lock on a gate that is rusted and not opened in 20 years. If it really interests you go for the bypass tool. Soak them in oil and give give em douche in non chlorinated brake cleaner to try picking them.

http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsea ... olt+cutter

ENOUGH SAID...

And you Stills can try to pick them after the bolt action!

Hugo Martel

Man I have a soft spot for Master Locks too but there have been a few I've tried everything with and couldn't get them working again. So I did the next best thing and made keychains out of them.

They are really cool when they are all old. This is a brass one I'm growing my own patina on haha.

Dang, that's a nicely made keychain you made there LockButcher. I like it.

Or you can do this for picking purposes....And now it even has spools....

As much as I hated to admit defeat, played around with this for another hour trying to get it to open. I could get the cylinder to turn past the false set, but it wouldn't go beyond that, even if I "helped" it with a screwdriver. So while I had it picked, the mechanism was frozen. It felt like cheating to use bolt cutters, so I tried using a 14 pipe wrench thinking I'd break the lamination by twisting it. Nope. The shackle snapped very easily. I couldn't believe it was that brittle. I put the remains in a vice and then sheared off the base plate with a 24" pipe wrench and started going through the guts. It was packed full of rust even though the outside was pretty clean.

There was no way it was going to open, even if I had the key. That should be satisfying, but it's not. Kinda like watching the Crying Game and finding out 2/3 of the way through the movie that you've been had.

looks like you made the right choice.