Wanted to try fitting a key to a warded lock. Used a candle to soot the key then filed.
This is the inside of the lock. An elegant design, too bad they offer such little security.
I remember reading in an old (1968) locksmith course that the student should get a supply of "flat wire" from their locksmith supplier and use that stock to grind and file out picks from templates in the course. I wondered if that flat stock might have been the sort of flat stock used in the lock. Seems like more than a few of those would have crystallized and broke over the years, or got lot when someone took the lock apart, and a locksmith even in the 1960's would have had a supply of that material on hand.
Took it out and measured it, it came to 0.020", which seems to be a common pick thickness. It looked kind of blue and was obviously a spring, 0.020" spring stock. Interesting on how maybe that is what picks were (and are) often made of, perhaps not because it was ideal for picks but because it was ideal for springs in warded locks and was what was at hand and it worked well enough for picks. Just a theory, but funny how things happen if it is true.
