Old S&G Safe, Missing Combo

[Freestuff]

Short of breaking out a blow torch, is there any way to open this without a combo?




Thank you!

[Squelchtone]

Sure, there are plenty of ways to open it, but let's start with a quick question. Is this your safe, and why don't you have the combination to it?

As you can imagine, it would be silly, and not responsible of us if we told you how to open it and you end up being someone trying to get into someone else's safe, right?

So what's the scoop, and can we see a full picture of the entire unit, not just close ups? I think that would help us be more comfortable helping you.

To answer your question, and others may offer other advice as well, your options to open it in order of time vs money:

Need it open this week?
Then you will have to find a qualified safe technician at https://savta.org and expect to pay around $750 for them to come out and drill a small hole, then scope it and figure out the combination. Here's a video of that process: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFEOv36XVkQ if you get a safe technician who can turn the dial and use safe manipulation to figure out the combination, that's always better than having to drill a safe.

Need it open this month?
Then start dialing common test combinations and hope to get lucky. Dial a few dozen to a few hundred of them and you may stumble upon the right one. 50-50-50, 50-25-50, 25-50-25, 25-50-75, 10-20-30, 20-40-60, you get the idea. Here is a video on how to dial a Sargent & Greenleaf lock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEYjgOFKR1U

Need it open within a year?
Best and most fun option is to learn safe manipulation which lets you open that lock by simply turning the dial and taking some careful measurements. Takes some time to learn this, but there are youtube videos on safe manipulation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4IPsd9MDGM or you can download Matt Blaze's paper called Safecracking for the Computer scientist https://www.mattblaze.org/papers/safelocks.pdf, and learn how to do what is called safe manipulation, this will take months to get good at.

***Special note, resist the temptation to curt the hinges or break the handle or dial off the door. Doing this will not help open the door, and it just ends up costing more when you call the safe technician in to open it, plus it ruins the safe.

Hope this helps,
Squelchtone

[Freestuff]

Totally understand! It was in the house we purchased a couple years ago, and we were given the combo to the lower, larger safe compartment by the seller. The seller told us the safe was in the house when they bought it back in 1965, but told us they never had the top combo. So I can open the bottom but not the top. I was going to give it away, if someone can even move it (won’t even budge if I put all my weight into it!), but figured I’d try popping open the top before doing that.

The bottom combo starts by spinning left and is actually 4 digits (ending on zero). Is that normal?

[Squelchtone]

Totally understand! It was in the house we purchased a couple years ago, and we were given the combo to the lower, larger safe compartment by the seller. The seller told us the safe was in the house when they bought it back in 1965, but told us they never had the top combo. So I can open the bottom but not the top. I was going to give it away, if someone can even move it (won’t even budge if I put all my weight into it!), but figured I’d try popping open the top before doing that.

The bottom combo starts by spinning left and is actually 4 digits (ending on zero). Is that normal?

Thank you for the pic and for your understanding. Safes can be a touchy thing as they are meant to keep people out and it is not supposed to be easy to get into them.

That's a cool one you have, and I am wondering if the inside of the lower one offers any access to the upper one? I know it is a long shot, but do you see any holes going up?

The combination is really a 3 number combination Sargent & Greenleaf 6730 lock, that last turn to 0 when the dial stops is just to retract the bolt so the handle can retract the main door bolts. Does it stop at 0 or more like at 95 before you can't turn the dial any farther?

Lx4
Rx3
Lx2
Rx1 to stop.

Is that dialing sequence what you do currently for the lower one? should be the same for the upper one.

Combinations tend to be easy to remember, if your lower one is the same combo it has been for years and let's say it's 10-20-30, then it would be smart to try variations of those numbers on the top one.. maybe backwards, 30-20-10, or 20-30-40. If your bottom one is something random like 18-75-30 then that makes finding a pattern harder. I see a lot of combinations being set to end in 0 or 5 so 20-45-70 or 80-15-35 would be a common theme.

I take it you have already tried the bottom combination to try to open the top lock.


Your safe was made by Herring Hall Marvin, by the way

Thank you,
Squelchtone

[Freestuff]

I have tried the bottom combo and some variations of it. It is random numbers unfortunately.

No access from bottom compartment.