A source of quality lever locks?

[MaximumCheese]

It looks to me like the lever lock has gone the way of the dinosaur here in the US. I recently purchased a house that was built in the 20's, and I found an old door in the shed with a beautifully-made 5 lever lock. The lock itself is sadly rusted, and I'm trying to save it.

Since I'm now fascinated by lever locks, I have been trying to find one of a decent quality. It seems as if they're just not made anymore. Does anyone know where I can buy a new lever lock that has a decent level of complexity and quality? Thanks.

[Schuyler]

Many of our UK members should be able to help you get your hands on something worth installing. Lever locks are awesome, I wish I had more myself.

[Gordon Airporte]

I'm afraid I don't know of any places in the states to get nice new lever locks (although Target carries a kind of iffy Master brand lever padlock), but I think you might be able to clean your old lock up nicely using electrolysis.
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/andyspatch/rust.htm
That's just the first Google hit, but there are plenty of other guides out there and it seems to be a pretty reasonable DIY procedure.
I know of it from people cleaning up old wood planes, although I haven't tried it myself yet.

[Kaellman]

Lever locks are awesome. Ebay usually has one or two lever locks on sale every month. Should be too hard to find urself a good ol' chubb 3g110 there. Also make sure u check the trade section here atleast 2times every day to be first on those rare lever goodies. There are also alot of good deposit locks on ebay right now which are usually pritty cheap.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ERA-5-Lever-Morti ... dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHUBB-5-lever-SEC ... dZViewItem

Found on ebay.co.uk by searching for, thatt right, lever locks!!

[MaximumCheese]

Thanks for the links; I would never even think to check ebay UK. At the local hardware store, they have some locksets that claim to be "mortise bit key locks," but these aren't locks at all, just cheaply made privacy locks for inside a house. The keys are cast zinc!

[toomush2drink]

Your better off searching for "chubb lock" as thats what a lot of uk residents know them as even though its only a brand.
Other terms are "era deadlock" or "deadlock" or "Mortice lock" note the spelling on the last one.

[Kaellman]

I dont know why but for some reason iv found alot of good lever locks on UK ebay. Make sure u check both the .com and the co.uk tho

[raimundo]

I read a story about a hardware store on long island, had a fire sale or something, there were original leverlocks in the box that had been in stock for generations. waiting for a customer. when a really old hardware store goes out of business, theres no telling what tools or other stuff you might find, they arent making hardware like they used to. Makes me want to get over to St Paul and go to the west seventh street hardware.

[Shrub]

I dont know why but for some reason iv found alot of good lever locks on UK ebay. Make sure u check both the .com and the co.uk tho

Its beacuse we use them to secure our doors still

[RangerF150]

So in the US what do you use to secure a front door ?
I have what would be a standard setup, a nightlatch lock and a lever lock.
I would consider a door with only one lock to be less than secure !!

[freakparade3]

So in the US what do you use to secure a front door ?
I have what would be a standard setup, a nightlatch lock and a lever lock.
I would consider a door with only one lock to be less than secure !!

In the US it's gererally a deadbolt and a key in knob lock and most only lock the deadbolt.

[Schuyler]

In the US it's generally a deadbolt and a key in knob lock and most only lock the deadbolt.

I would have said most only lock the KIK when not at home, and deadbolt + KIK at night.

[Gordon Airporte]

In the US it's gererally a deadbolt and a key in knob lock and most only lock the deadbolt.

And usually a screen/storm door with a wafer lock just in front of the entrance door. I don't think anyone bothers carrying keys to the screen door since they only lock them when they're inside at home but want to leave the entrance door open for ventilation or whatever.

[greyman]

Lever locks are made, and in large quantities. Much of the EU still uses them and the UK makes it pretty much mandatory to use a lever lock to get a BS 3621 insurance standard rating. Main UK brands are Chubb, Union, Era (and some others I can't remember). Chubb ones are the best. Base models are 3G114 and 3G110, both 5 lever.

[Bump]

Without wishing to start a "Best Lock" thread I can't agree that Chubb are the best! They are certainly expensive and trade on their cachet but there are many equally good lever locks on the market and some much better. The weakness of the Chubb and ERA locks is the brass material from which the key is made, the bitting wears and bends in a relatively short time and I see a lot of Chubb/ERA locks reported as becoming "stiff" due to key wear.

To get back to the OP, obtaining lever locks isn't difficult (come see my scrap bin), postage and transport is another matter as would be what you do with them, unless you have the corret picking tools they are just a hunk of old metal.