big ol' church keys

[Rickthepick]

Are the big cast church keys of any value? I got a couple in a job lot of locksmith stock i bought. They look pretty old

[criminalhate]

probably to someone somewhere

everything has somebody who collects them.

[Rickthepick]

Heres what i got:

one is a blank! must be pretty rare i reckon



Also got some cool old locks:

A union 6 lever double bitted padlock (key doesnt work and i havent picked it yet)



And a well made yale warded lock with silver key



Im really starting to like the old locks

[aussielocky]

Both the keys are modern. Made by Keys of Steel in willenhall. Used to sell through major suppliers for about 15 quid each.

The 6 lever padlock & key is worth about a fiver.

The Yale is nicer, probably 10 to 15 or so.

[Rickthepick]

sweet nice little bonus. cost me £2 for the lot, il prob just keep em to play with

[peterwn]

"And a well made yale warded lock with silver key"
These padlocks have 3 to 6 levers depending on size. Key goes through a hole in the levers. There will be a few wards too.

[KPick]

To the right buyer at the right auction, you can probably get, lets say 50 bucks a piece! (but lets be honest, a key is a key and without a lock, they aren't very valuable.)

[Mikeh727]

My version of a church key...



My wife and I went to a benefit last night and they were passing these out to everyone who attended.

-Mike

[femurat]

Hey Mike that key bow looks a bottle opener to me.

Cheers

[Mikeh727]

Femurat,

Yep, that's right! A bottle opener is also called a churchkey. Actually, the term churchkey used to only refer to can openers that opened up the old flat top cans of beer but the term seems to have spread to anything that will open a bottle of beer, at least around where I live. Here's a link that discusses it a little bit.

http://www.churchkeycanco.com/faq.html

-Mike

[femurat]

Thanks for the explanation Mike. Now I know one more thing. You brought to my mind the canned fruit juices my parents gave me many years ago. They needed a big hole to let the juice out and a small one on the opposite side of the lid to allow air in. I was too young for beer...

Cheers