38 • HINTS&TIPS
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17th Century King’s Chest
Wrought Iron Strongbox
» » ONE THING I LOVE ABOUT
being a locksmith - is that every
day brings a new challenge and
you just never know what is around
the corner. A while back and out
of the blue I had a customer walk
straight into my shop carrying
this wonderful ornate steel chest
which he had just bought but
unfortunately had no key and no
idea what was inside. He asked if
we were able to open it without
damage and if possible to supply a
new key for it.
This wrought iron strong box
weighed 10kg and was 8” high, 14”
wide and 82” deep,
On the front it has two forged hasp
and staples either side of a large
escutcheon on a false centre lock. I
am no expert on antique locks such
as this but at a guess I would say it
was either German or Spanish origin
and dates back to the 17th century.
Many people wrongly call these
Armada Chests and claim that
they were treasure chests from the
Spanish Armada but unfortunately
they were not from the Tudor
period.
WHERE DO YOU START?
Obviously drilling into the lock
was out of the question – and I
knew that some pressure would
be needed to pull back the sprung
bolts inside the lid so bending
pieces of wire to bypass the lock
would probably not work either.
The first job you need to do on a
job like this is to source a suitable
blank and in this case a heavy
cast piped blank was found. The
size of the piping on the blank
was a fraction too small to fit over
the lanket pin but this was easily
‘I cannot
really
explain
how much
force was
needed
on the key
to release
all of the
x7 sprung
latches’
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overcome by opening the hole
up with a slightly larger drill bit.
Next the depth of the hole inside
the blank was checked against the
length of the lanket pin inside the
lock to make sure the blank would
sit fully down over the pin. In this
case I had got enough depth but if
I had not it could have easily been
made a bit deeper with the same
drill I had used to open up the hole.
The next step was to file the top and
side edges of the blank down to fit
into the keyhole and then stop filing
just as the blank is turning under
the case.
Once the blank is cut down
to size, I had to mark the blank
somehow and to try and get some
sort of impression marks on the
side of the bit whilst turning the
key when it makes any contact
against any warding inside the
lock... This can be done by smoking,
painting or polishing the bit and
then looking very carefully on the
bit for any small marks made by the
bridge-warding hitting against the
side of the bit as it comes to a stop
on its travel.
There is no easy way of cutting
these keys, it’s just a matter of
doing it all by hand with loads
of patience and several different
shaped small files including a key
saw with different thickness blades;