Lever Lock Help

[Chucklz]

I finally have stumbled across some lever locks installed in the US. Now before the rest of you get your hopes up... they are antiques and are installed on my friends door. They are in the process of refinishing the doors and they would like to have working keys. I told them that I would help if I could. All the locks are for doors inside the house, so security isn't a major concern. The locks are two lever without any antipick notches, and I must say now that I've had a lever lock apart in my hands, I really don't know why they aren't more common in the US... but I digress. What I need to know is the best type of lubricant to use for the internals (no WD40 war please). I also would appreciate some general guide to how to measure for a key blank from the lock case. I certainly can file a key for a lock once I get a blank.

[TheProfessor]

i dont have experience with lever locks so i cant help you there, however as far as lubricant goes im a big fan of food grade silicon.

[32768]

We had these kind of locks in our house when I was growing up, and there are some in my apartment now (both buildings were built around 1900). I think these kind of low-security lever locks were much more common then.

I've had luck in the past at the hardware store. They have sets of five or six skeleton keys which may fit past the wards for those locks. They're really meant for the even lower security warded locks, but I've found that they fit some of the old 2 lever locks. Once you have a blank that fits in the lock you can cut it to match the levers. If none of the skeleton keys quite fit, you may be able to file one to make it work. I vaguely remember that they're a buck or two.

Uh oh- I just remembered that my foley belsaw book said not to recommend those skeleton keys.

[Varjeal]

If you don't mind spending a bit of money and you can find 'em...buy the following keyblanks:

2B
3B
5B
7B
79B
27B
With that selection alone you stand a pretty good chance of finding the right one. If not, they can always be modified.

[Ultimatederrenfan]

Varjeal, i think, had a little dig at me, because I brought up the topic of using grpahite as lubricant due to the atoms are formed as sliding plates bla bla bla..... it's in another post.
Maybe i was of some help?
Dan

[Chucklz]

Ive got a bit more infor for everyone. The case is of cast iron and has 5164 cast into it. The lever has 5161 stamped into it. The keyway, well is slightly different than most, but it isn't anything a good file to a keyblank wouldnt solve. I will attempt a photoshop later.