Wooden locks

[Lloyd]

Hi folks,

Just wondering if anyone has come across wooden door locks before.
I live in an old house and have a number of locks fitted/built into doors that are made completely of wood. None of them are working.
Does anyone know how old they would be?

Thanks
Lloyd

[femurat]

Well, I've heard about wooden locks used in Persia circa 700 B.C., but I doubt your house is THAT old

Just kidding. I like woodwork and would be curious to see a few pictures of your locks. There are some working wooden locks around the internet, most of them are just funny projects. Let's see what you have so we can try and offer some help in identifying and maybe fixing them.

Cheers

[Lloyd]

I have photos but can't post them with my iPad.
Can I email them for someone to post?

[femurat]

email sent

[Lloyd]

Femurat, I have sent you some photos. There are 4 more but some of them are wooden with metal inserts.

Lloyd

[femurat]

Here are the pictures, posted on behalf of Lloyd.







Very interesting, thanks for sending me the pictures. Feel free to send the metal ones too if you want.

I'll make a wild guess: these are simple warded locks. An L shaped piece of wire should be enough to turn the bolt.
Do you have the key? If so, what happens if you insert it and turn?
Are you able to move the bolt a little with your fingers?
From the first two pictures looks like the 4 big nails are keeping in place a wooden plate which covers the back of the lock.
You might try to gently pull out the nails and see if there's something broken inside one of your locks.

Cheers

[femurat]

Here are some more pictures from Lloyd:













After seeing the keys I can confirm these are warded locks.
About the year these were made, I let some expert determine that.
I think most of these can be disassembled, cleaned and fixed without much effort.
If I had such old locks in my house I'd definitely try and restore them.
You may start with one and see what happens... keep us updated!

Good luck

[Lloyd]

Thanks for putting the pictures up.
Three of the locks are inside the house and the others are in one of my barns.
The wooden ones are stuck fast and I don't fancy trying to remove the locks from the doors.
If I had nothing else to do in the house I might be tempted to get them working.
Can anyone suggest a date?

[Emrys]

Omg that's amish! Lol cool find.

[Lloyd]

Not Amish, English!

[Thursday]

Awesome stuff! Those are a marvelous find - why would you want to replace them? They aren't actually wooden locks, right? Those keys look like they demand a level of detail that wood wouldn't hold for long... If they are wood on the inside as well, then it's likely swollen and seized at one point at least.

Ideally, the nail heads can be severed with a Dremel tool or something similar, then the entire lock removed as one unit. Only take off one lock at a time, so there is no chance of mixing pieces.

If appearance is of secondary importance to you, you could simply (carefully!) cut away the cover, leaving the screws in place until you can get a better idea of what's happening in there. The biggest risk of doing it that way is gravity: things might come springing out at you or dropping to the ground once the pressure's off. It looks like you've got plenty of barnboard to replace whatever you remove, in any case.

Toughest part about guessing the ages of things in England is that you can't tell how long ago something was built just by the style: the number of things that are getting built in a traditional way could have a range of 300 years because some guy still makes them in his back yard in Cumberland... If you haven't yet, check the metalworking floor at the Vicki and Al in London: some brilliant locks in there!

That's about all I could suggest for you without being there, I'm afraid. Good luck, and keep us updated!

[Lloyd]

Hi Thursday, in the top photos everything you can see is wooden. The bottom ones have metal parts. I don't know if the keys are for these locks but they have been hanging on a hook in the house for the last 50+ years.
The house dates back 500 years. The barn is a cider mill and is 400 years old. They must have wanted to keep the barrels of cider safe because every door has a lock.
I'm not interested in replacing them or getting them working to be honest I just wanted to know a bit more about them and have some idea of how old they are.
I may try and contact the V&A and see if they have any idea.

Thanks
Lloyd.

[Capt_Tom]

Wonderful old locks... Beautiful Dog!