Taiwanese Screw key padlock

[greyman]

I just got back from a lock collector's meeting in Willenhall. This is an important place in English locksmithing history and the original site of the old Josiah Parkes & Sons Union Works company. There's a small lock museum there where we had the meeting.

A colleague had a Taiwanese srew padlock. Quite an interesting item - the key screws in 5 full turns to actuate 8 pin tumblers, 4 per side by the looks. I didn't have any tools on me, but I would think it a challenging pick - especially because you can't really tension a round keyhole. The pins should be accessible but there's a drill pin. Here's some photos for those who are interested.





Cheers
Greyman

[maxxed]

That is definitly an unusuall lock, are they still being made? If not do you know when they were produced?

[unbreakable]

Wow, thats one cool lock!

Picking it would be very difficult

Nicely taken pictures as well, thanks for posting!

[Bittersweet]

Whoa! That is wierd. It looks like on the side of the keyhole there is a slight lip for the key to catch and turn, perhaps you can use that and something that catches on it to apply tension? Granted, you would probably have to put it in a vise or something to keep both hands free.
I'll be watching to see when you get it picked!

[axman92]

that key is so cool i have never seen a lock like that before. i wish i had one.

[lokkju]

Are there any notches of any sort on the central shaft, that you could brace against?

Even if there is not, one way to torsion it would be to have a rally long torsion wrench, that has an extremely short torsion bar - insert it all the way into the lock shaft, and apply pressure against the end (the deepest part) of the screw-way. Also, depending on the torque required, a simple reverse spring may work, or something that applies torque against the threads. Oh, and one more way - a piece of metal 1/3 the with of the keyway, propped under the start of the keyway thread.

As for picking it, at a guess, it looks as it could be a simple pin style lock on the inside, with just the flat portions of the key's threads acting as the valleys on a normal key. We can only see one side of the key - does the other side have flat spaces as well, and are flat areas the same on both sides?


Too bad the Taiwanese IP office only goes back to 1998 online...

[mh]

Thanks for that post!
A very interesting concept.
Not very practical, though, because of the many turns, I somehow guess that not many ordinary people bought it...
Cheers,
mh

[JackNco]

Wait willenhall Coventry?
Very cool lock. i was day dreaming about smithing similar but i was thinking 3 sets of 5 pins over 180º turn. must write these ideas down

[dmux]

i dont think picking would be that hard, just some kind of screw type of tool, or even some hard self-molding rubber

[quickpicks]

Thats a sweet lock. I wouldnt mind having a few of those in the collection.

[Jimmie]

may be you can put tension on ... with a long tensioner at the tip of the lock mechanism with a small hook like the one used on Abus/Abloy decoder ... in all case it should be interesting to try to pick it

nice post Greyman !!