Old Best Lock resources

[jarubel]

I've been searching the internets for old catalogs and/or information about old Best Lock padlocks. Not much luck. Some of the models I've seen reference to include 2B, 4B, 6B, which seem to be older models and the new ones which are in the current Best catalogs, 11Bxxx, 21Bxxx, 41Bxxx. I know that someone, somewhere must have more information but I can't seem to find that info. Would be nice to estimate the age of a padlock by it's model number.

[averagejoe]

As far as I know, the older 2/4/5/6B designations were when they only made padlock bodies from brass. Once they started to make them from aluminum as well they added 11/12B, 21/22B etc to differentiate between the materials.

You can usually tell the age by the padlock body style. The ones with round sides are previous to 1960 or so. They introduced the flat side with sharper corner model around 1958. If the lock says "Best Universal" on it then it was made between 1925 and 1935 or 1938.

There are also small differences in the writing of the logo with slight font differences and angles but I dont think those were ever recorded. Stanley Best started with the new logo around 2003 I think. Old Best logo locks were made with both locking dog and ball bearing lock models and the changeover from one model to another overlapped so it is hard to date padlocks by that method as well.

There are catalogs that exist listing the older models and sizes but those are still protected by copyright law so I cant copy them for you.

[jarubel]

Thank you for that information. As far as the ones with "round sides" do you mean the ones that look like a long oval when looked at from the bottom. I only have a couple of those. Both small but one is slightly taller than the other. I assume they are the 2B model.One is stamped on the top "Made in USA and Lubricate With Graphite, the other has "Made in USA and Lubricate With Dry Graphite. Did they make those in larger sizes too?

I'd love to see any of the old Best catalogs but it seems they are hard to find.

[averagejoe]

Pictures would really help with identification.

Yes, I mean the long oval shaped ones as the ones that have the round sides. Those are referred to as "Oval" padlocks while the others are called "elliptical".

From what I have it appears the oval ones were only made in 1b and 2b sizes. The 1b hs a really thin shackle while the 2b has a "normal" sized shackle. The differences in body height are only as they introduced longer cores. From 5-6-7 etc they needed longer padlock bodies to accommodate them. So some of the older locks will only accept a 5 or 6 pin core.

As far as I know there are none of the older literature online. Since best only sold to end users there were very few of the catalogs and price lists in existence and they were discarded when not needed any more. There are some in the hands of collectors and locksmiths but they do not want to give them up.

[jarubel]

Thanks. That helps a lot. Up until just recently I had only seen the oval 1B and 2B. Well, I might have seen some elliptical ones on ebay, but so often it's hard to tell the shape when they don't show a picture from the top or bottom.

I'm assuming they stopped stamping the top with patent numbers in the early to mid 1940's since that's about the time the patents would have expired, but do you know roughly when they stopped stamping them with "Made in USA and/or Lubricate With Graphite"?

[averagejoe]

Not sure when they stopped stamping them with the patent info and lubricate with graphite.

Personally I find it quite easy to tell oval from elliptical from just a straight on photo.

Here is a picture of all of the normal sizes that were made. From left to right 1*B, 2*B, 4*B, 5B, 6B




And here is a picture of an elliptical and an oval. The oval does not have the hard line corners so that is how to easily tell them apart.