This is the post to share them with you
Kinda like a virtual tour of Italian locks
The quality of the photos leaves much to be desired, I apologize for that.
There are several reasons for that, one is that I tried to avoid suspicion, I did not want to get in trouble in a foreign country. (I know, it’s not illegal, but without much fantasy one can see malicious intent into a slightly foreign guy taking photos of locks and voilà: trouble.)
Also a cheap camera in untrained hands is not a good combination
Anyway they are how they are, I think they are interesting and enjoyable
So without much further ado here are the photos.
Enjoy.
As a warmup, this is a fairly common keywayed (yale Y1 I believe) AGB lock. A standard European lock.
This is what must be the most common lock there, I saw it on every 3rd door. Or even more often.
Now here's one of the specialties, a lock called Potent. This particular version locks in 3 directions, quite a serious lock. The Mottura push lock on other pictures looks fairly similar from the inside.
I'm not sure if it's a push lock or a strangely profiled lever lock. I'm leaning towards push lock.
Sorry for the small size, this Cisa Astral was on the door of Tiffany and the armed guards posting next to it did not seemed to be too supportive of the whole lock-photo idea.
This is a Cisa shutter lock. I found it to be fairly commonly used by the shops, it appeared on at least 40% of storefronts. I took a closer look while "tying my shoelaces" and it looks like a solid steel lock, no rust. Not sure how good the core is.
Here is another more exotic lock, this is an ISEO push lock, not unlike the Mottura push locks, but with a peculiarly shaped key "profile". It's fairly common in Italy while I believe it's rare everywhere else.
This one was a more exotic shutter locks, it had few markings, from the shape I think it's one of those Meroni padlocks.
A Mottura push lock you can find a detailed description in Graham Pulford's fantastic book titled "High-Security Mechanical Locks: An Encyclopedic Reference" (page 255).
Also extremely exotic where I live, but I found it has it's fair share of Italian lock market.
Another Mottura push lock of the same type, plus an unknown lock.
If you would like to add or correct anything you are always welcome to do so
This is the inside view of a typical lock there.
In Italy there is a plethora of thick, old wooden doors which often get this kind of lock on the inside. Here it's usually used on older cellar doors. It's key operated from the outside and knob operated from the inside.
The lever to the left simply pulls back the latch if it's not locked.
This is a similar one, but built together with a buzzer.
A better shot of a Viro, a push lock as well, plus and interesting (unidentified) French style push lock.
It was on a nice old wooden door. I have to say there are a lot of beautiful doors in Italy.
Well, there are a lot of beautiful things in Italy not just doors
.For the newer people: this is how NOT to install an Europe profile lock. It stick out far too much, a huge mistake.
This is quite a strange lock I found in a metal door from the 80's or so. It is shaped ovally, exactly like a Scandinavian cylinder, but it's much smaller. I found it interesting since I never really seen like that before.
Now this is a strange lock I could not definitively ID. It look like sth between a KESO and a KABA though I'm more inclined towards a Kaba. No writing on it. The pins are placed like in the Kesos, (straight up, right, left but the build looks like a Kaba) Maybe a Kaba 8, as of now that's my best guess.
On the way I found a nice blacksmith who had this old safe in his showroom. I got really excited since it looked beautiful and had quite a few secret switches in the opening mechanism. Intriguing.
I took some photos plus I also made a short video of the opening which I uploaded to youtube.
Outside with door slightly opened. (Duh
)
This is the inside, again, my apologies for the quality of the photos.
The keyhole, a nice elaborate profile, and the key itself.
Look how nicely the outside door is decorated. In those times they put a bit more effort into the decoration of safes...
The inside view of the lock with the leg of the kind Italian blacksmith.
Finally, the brief vid of the opening:
[youtube]http://youtu.be/u6hzlNwMvHk[/youtube]
(I don't really have much of a channel now, later on, time permitting, I will upload other vids
)So to sum it up my experience was
-that the most common makers are Cisa, Iseo and Motura. Very patriotic
, supporting the Chinese workers LOL. Just kidding though I do believe Cisa and Iseo also has some manufacturing base in China.-Push locks, especially the Mottura is much more common than where I live.
-Italy is an enchanting place.
Lastly these last photos are a bit of a taste for those who have not yet been to Italy (or even Europe). This is the cathedral of Siena and the other is the view from some smaller Italian city.
Built in the early middle ages between 1196 (!!) and 1348. Amazing how could plan and build such buildigs without any modern technology 900 years ago.
In case I managed to instill some hunger for some (European) culture:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siena_Cathedral
This city was inhabited continuously since the Etruscan times. (from 750 BC until the roman alliance/conquest 264 BC so let's say it's been inhabited city for like 2500 years...)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_civilization
I hope you liked it guys. If you have anything to add or correct or just feel like sharing an opinion please do so
I would be curious which lock did you like the most. I would say my, from the few things I know of it is that favorite is the Viro or the Potent, but I like the Meroni padlock as well
