Yet another "What is this lock" Thread

[Jeditar]

Hi there. I've been reading these forums for a while now. I've been interested in picking locks for a few years now. Im an automotive technician and have always been interested in all things mechanical.

Anyway, to the meat of the question.

One of my friends has a lock that I have never seen.

It looks like a regular 6 pin Tubular lock, but, the center section, the main part of the lock, is a star shape, instead of a plain circle, and it is also inset about 1/4 in instead of being flush with the casing. If you think of an invereted Torx bolt, that is what the center looks like. My Southord pick cannot do it due to the irregular shape of the center.


Unfortunately, neither of us have a digital camera How sad is that, in this day and age.

Has anyone ever seen a lock like this? Everything is the same as a regular 6 pin tubular, with the exception of the star-shaped center.

Thanks.

[n2oah]

I've never seen one of those, but you can just pick it by hand if you ever need to.

[Octillion]

It may just be an ordinary tubular lock, with the star shape being a security feature, in that ordinary tubular lock tools may not fit it. But you can still do like n2oah said, and just pick it by hand.

[p1ckf1sh]

Is it something like this?
http://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/bramah/

[raimundo]

could be the nixpix if that is hexagonal, I think the torx bit is pentagonal based isn't it. you might have something really new to the forum

[mh]

could be the nixpix if that is hexagonal, I think the torx bit is pentagonal based isn't it. you might have something really new to the forum

TORX is hexagonal, cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx
mh

[Jeditar]

Is it something like this?
http://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/bramah/

As a matter of fact, it looks a lot like that. Well, the internal anyway.
The outside hoursing is the same size as a tubular, but the center is that same shape. Im going to see if I can scan a hardcopy picture of it.

I hvea feeling it is more modern than that one in the link though.

Edit : Wow. Typing with a bandaid on my index figure looks horrible

[p1ckf1sh]

As a matter of fact, it looks a lot like that. Well, the internal anyway.
The outside hoursing is the same size as a tubular, but the center is that same shape. Im going to see if I can scan a hardcopy picture of it.

I hvea feeling it is more modern than that one in the link though.

Don't be fooled by the fact that th company and the lock concept has been around such a long time. They are still considered very secure locks. I have heard from some people around here that a lot of jewelry shops in London still use exactly that kind of lock.

[illusion]

We had Jeremy Bramah, the descendant of Joseph Bramah on the forums not long ago, but unfortunbately he hasn't been on for a while. He could have answered your question better than I.

The Bramah mechanism is very old, and is very secure, even the older models are formidable. Nothing has changed, aside from greater protection from drilling, and more pick protection (like it needed any anyway!)

Despite being relatively unchanged, it still conforms to British insurance standards and this should give you some insight as to how, secure these locks are, regardless of age.

[p1ckf1sh]

We had Jeremy Bramah, the descendant of Joseph Bramah on the forums not long ago, but unfortunbately he hasn't been on for a while. He could have answered your question better than I.
[...]
Despite being relatively unchanged, it still conforms to British insurance standards and this should give you some insight as to how, secure these locks are, regardless of age.

It's weird, looking into the past I can't really see the Brits as a nation of great engineers, i.e. look at the old mailboxes that are so solid (over-engineered) that they would stop a tank in its tracks. But when it comes to locks, this seems to be totally different, clever, ingenious designs. Correct me if I am wrong, but Chubb, and Bramah both made lock design that remain in use to today, with little to no changes. Am I right to assume that disc pack locks (safe combination dial locks) were developed in Britain as well? It would fit my theory.

So, what does this say about the people of Britain? There are are/were lots of thieves therefore creating the need for good locks among the few honest people? Or are they just paranoid?

EDIT: This is not meant to be a flame toward british engineers. I am just referring to the "big" inventions of the past that still shape our lives today. And I can't make out a lot of things (except the locks I mentioned) that were invented/designed by british engineers/inventors (to my knowledge). I might just as well be wrong and will endure correction of my views with my head bowed...

[Shrub]

Nah we sent all our crims to Oz

Weve got a lot of great inventions under our belts, were a very inventive nation or at least we used to be before football and beer took over and killed the brain cells.

Its my belief that todays inventers are the ones who dont drink and watch football

[illusion]

We used to be known as the 'workshop of the world' and for good reason. Now we make almost nothing, and rely heavily upon imports.

Well the mailboxes are still used today, in fact I did a backflip off one several days ago, which demonstrates that although they were over engineered they were well made.

Hehe... now you know why Skold is always angry - his ancestors were the scum of England.

You know I'm kidding skold.

[Shrub]

Tose post boxes incidentally are the same height under ground, they are formidable things to try and remove and solid things to hit with a car (no i havent hit one, i dont think anyway lol).

The security on them is pretty poor however considering and they arent fire proof or at least they dont stop lit fireworks being 'posted'.

[mh]

Well the mailboxes are still used today, in fact I did a backflip off one several days ago, which demonstrates that although they were over engineered they were well made.

During my studies in Germany, a professor showed pages from an old German engineering text book.

It first showed a bridge in U.K., and told that English engineers used way too much metal, much more than required.
Then it showed a bridge in the U.S., and told that this one had less metal than required to be strong enough for all that could happen in the future, but that the Americans would buy all kinds of insurances for these cases.
At that time I found this quite funny

(And of course the task of a German engineer would be to use exactly the right amount, according to that book...)

Cheers,
mh

[p1ckf1sh]

It first showed a bridge in U.K., and told that English engineers used way too much metal, much more than required.

During a visit to London I was in some pretty huge museum, and they had some old British telephones on display there, I think it was from the 40s or 50s. Could even be they were just intercoms for communications inside a big building or something like this, but the point - they had a power cord running into it that about as thick as my thumb. Looked like it was powered by 10.000 volts.