Some questions about an old Abus Granit 37/55

[primitivebeasty]

My wife and I are moving soon, and I began investigating good padlocks to secure the moving truck. End of the story is, I bought a new old stock Abus Granit 37/55. Evidently made while West Germany was still a thing, which is interesting.

The lock:


The English side of the box, for any who might be interested:


I have a few questions about these locks, and this one in particular.

Firstly, a question about a strange marking on the side of this lock. Letters that spell "IKEA".

A google search turned up nothing whatsoever relating the company Ikea and Abus. It occurs to me it might just be a code of some kind, maybe original or maybe not, and it just happens to spell IKEA by coincidence. The lock does appear to be unused, so if the marking was added by a previous owner, they didn't use it after it was marked.
Just a little strange thing I noticed, and thought there might be something interesting there

What alloy is the shackle (and lock body, for that matter)? All I can find anywhere is "hardened alloy steel", which isn't very informative. I'm sure it's good, I'm just curious.

I understand these older locks are easier to pick because the first and last disks are always number 6 - and I think I understand you can harden these locks a little by replacing those disks with the new number 7 disks? If so, I would like to know where I can get them, as I haven't been able to find them. I realize that here in the US these locks are not that common, so the tools to pick them are pretty uncommon, and I should be a lot more worried about some dude with a hacksaw than someone picking the lock... but if I could, it would please me to make it a little bit better. You know

Thanks for any insight you can give me!

[GWiens2001]

Nice Granite. Hoping to get one of the old stock ones myself. Where did you get it?

Unfortunately, I can't answer your IKEA question.

Gordon

[Squelchtone]

Don't make the mistake I did in getting all gung-ho about putting a bad-ass lock on my moving truck, only to find out that the shackle was too thick to fit on the eyelets of the locking mechanism. The next lock I chose the shackle was too short to go around and through the mechanism, finally I had to choose a padlock that was good but not the high security Abloy PL350 I wanted to use, and the Medeco shrouded's shroud made the shackle too short to work.

I honestly do not think you will find anyone who will sell you the internal discs piece-meal, you have to buy repinning kit from a dealer or the factory or buy into their program as an in network locksmith who has the machine to cut keys and the pin kit, signage for your shop, etc.

Same goes for the alloy. I doubt anyone here would know the exact percentages of steel, chromium, carbonite, or unobtanium that is in that shackle, but I'd have faith in the fact it is made by ABUS and is probably better than a Master lock high school padlock.

As for the IKEA thing.. it's either a date of manufacture code, or the lock actually came from IKEA and was used on their trucks before it fell in your hands.

cool lock none the less, bring it to the moving truck place and see if it even fits before going further. The hasp/eyelets on my Penske straight truck did not feel like the same size as an 18-wheeler trailer.
Squelchtone

[nite0wl]

That is a very nice lock, wish I could add it to my Abus collection.
Not being as familiar with Abus's marking practices prior to reunification, I can only suggest two possible scenarios for how that marking came to be on that lock (these are just theories with no real authority):
1. Abus currently marks their locks with a 2 character code indicating when it was made, it is possible that at the time your lock was made they used a longer code and it just happened to come out as 'IKEA'.
2. The lock had been prepared for an order by/for the Ikea company but was surplus to the final delivery. Thus the lock was inscribed for the purchaser but not delivered (rather like the 34/55 'NYCHA' locks that can be found on EBay).

The tools for the Abus Plus mechanism are pretty rare in the US as are parts and kits to service them (or locksmiths who will service them for that matter). The current service kit for the 37 series is the Abus 37SK-1 Rekeying Kit. You might have better luck than I have finding somewhere that can order it for you.
Currently I would say that your biggest threat is more likely to be destructive attacks on the shackle rather than picking so finding some way to protect that would be important if you plan to leave things unattended for a long time. I believe that Abus makes separate shackle guards for the 37 series which may be available as as an aftermarket part.

[primitivebeasty]

Thanks for the helpful replies, everyone.

I do realize a successful pick of this lock is really the last thing I have to worry about, since an attack on the shackle or the actual truck will probably be the path of least resistance to a potential thief. Having already accidentally dumped this thing's guts everywhere, and subsequently learning how to put it together, I thought putting in some of those new disks wouldn't be too bad. Turns out getting them is the hard part, of course Thanks for the pointers, though.

I did do a little research on the shackle size before I bought it - it looks like 7/16 shackles fit Penske trucks, so this one should be good.

That the IKEA is a date code sounds as good an idea to me as any - or an order overflow. Thanks for the suggestions. I didn't know if there might be any interesting stories there or not.

I bought this lock on ebay. The seller stated he bought about a dozen of these from a locksmith that went out of business. The item was re-listed after I bought it, so I didn't buy the last one. I checked just now, and that one has been sold (probably one of you guys, right? ). Maybe he will re-list again, maybe that was it. He does, however, still have a listing for this lock with the 2" shackle.

I wasn't aware these older ones were desirable. I bought it because I needed a secure, hard-use lock. If anyone wants to save it from that fate, I would be interested in similar sized locks of equal or higher security. PM me if you want to trade.

[3616]

IKEA, the Swedish furniture warehouse sells/sold ABUS locks with their markings on it.