stopped by antique shop, got to open their locked safe!

[Squelchtone]

Earlier this year I moved to a new part of Massachusetts and noticed an antiques and curiosities shop on my way to work. Due to Covid it has been closed for the last 6 months but I noticed it was finally open this week!

I stopped by yesterday to poke around and see if they had any safe locks or padlocks and when I asked the owner this question, he pointed to a safe in the corner and said, we have this, but can't open it. They bought it from a seller who provided the combination and went on his way, and they can't seem to dial it open. I asked if I could give it a shot, and the owner presented me with an index card of hand written dialing instructions. The combination was L U C K, this dial had letters on it instead of numbers. I also did not initially see an opening index, but someone in the past did scratch a line around 12 o'clock so I used that as reference. I dialed the combination and it opened on the first try. I always get excited when a safe opens! The owner seemed pretty pleased but was busy helping other customers, so I went to the box of padlocks he took out before I started working on the safe and looked through it while I waited for him.

We decided it would be good if he practice a little, so he got down in front of the safe and tried to dial it open but he could not. I think he was struggling with changing dialing direction after arriving at a certain number of the combination on the dial. I had to explain the last turn which retracted the safe's bolt in order to free up the handle and bolt work. He suspects he was not dialing that last part after entering the combination. We talked about clearing the dial as well, which I do believe was mentioned on the index card.

I picked out WB padlock and key marked 620, and asked him how much he could do on it, and he said, "it's yours for helping open the safe." I asked how long he had the safe there since the seller dropped it off. He said it has sat there for 15 years! He will practice dialing it open this week, and we agreed that I would stop by in a week to see how he is doing and help again if he is unable to open it.

Always a happy day when you can get an old safe usable again, I was very pleased.








yes, there's a big WB logo on the other side of the padlock.

Squelchtone

[MartinHewitt]

Nice MacNeale & Urban. And you found a word, that is not in the official HPC MacNeale & Urban word list, even so it is much nicer than MICK.

And who got the gold, that was inside?

[Squelchtone]

Nice MacNeale & Urban. And you found a word, that is not in the official HPC MacNeale & Urban word list, even so it is much nicer than MICK.

And who got the gold, that was inside?

Ahhh, thank you MartinHewitt, I was going to ask what kind of safe this was. Was that lock made by them or for them?

Here is a photo of the inside:


Sadly, it was empty.

Squelchtone

[1d4]

Very nice WB lock! Haven't seen one with those fonts before. Any idea on the make of the safe dial? Not sure if Yale put out dials with letters or not, but the shape of it looks like an old Yale?

[jeffmoss26]

neat!!

[1d4]

Nice MacNeale & Urban. And you found a word, that is not in the official HPC MacNeale & Urban word list, even so it is much nicer than MICK.

And who got the gold, that was inside?

That answers my question. Thanks!

[Squelchtone]

I've been reading that the 4th letter wheel of the combination was always set to a K from the factory. This would certainly limit the amount of 4 letter words that end in the letter K at that period in time.

Squelchtone

[Squelchtone]

...Very nice WB lock! Haven't seen one with those fonts before...

Thanks, same here.

The other side looks like this:


Squelchtone

[femurat]

Always a happy day when you can get an old safe usable again, I was very pleased.

Well done Squelchy!

Cheers

[MartinHewitt]

Ahhh, thank you MartinHewitt, I was going to ask what kind of safe this was. Was that lock made by them or for them?
The lock has its own style and is found only in McN&U. I don't know who made it, but I would say they made it themself or they got it made for them by a manufacturer making locks only for them.

Sadly, it was empty.

A valuable Persian rug!

I really wonder who invented the fashion to put a Persian rug into the safe. I have never seen it here in Germany. I have also never seen a fluff covered gun safe here in Germany. But we also never have to squeeze two dozends of assault rifles into a gun safe.

[stratmando]

How much did he want for the Safe?

[Squelchtone]

How much did he want for the Safe?

Donno, it didn't come up and I wasn't looking for a whole safe.

I'll find out this weekend!
Squelchtone

[stratmando]

May be a Price you can't say No too? Looks Neat, Whats One more safe? Hard to find new Places to Hide another Safe.

[sign216]

Good job! It sat for 15 years, eh? Too bad it didn't have a well aged bottle of bourbon inside.

My neighbor passed last year, and my wife asked me to help his daughters out. They couldn't open his full standing gun safe. A modern one, with a standard S&G lock. They had the combo, but didn't know the drill. I had it opened before they were finished saying hello.

My neighbor was an avid hunter, so the safe had a variety of rifles, shotguns, and pistols. As a thank you, and because I had been a friend of my neighbor, the daughters gave me his vintage .32 H&R semi-auto pistol. I felt bad for the daughters, so I sold it for them and gave them the $. (It can be hard for a woman, unfamiliar with firearms and the laws, to sell off a gun). The rest of the collection went to my neighbor's hunting buddies.

Joe

[edocdab]

That's a great story Squelch. You could have guessed the combination if you knew the ending with a k part.

Martin, I think I see your point. Stuffing large amounts of weapons in a safe is a problem I don't face every day in NL.