Any antique lock experts out there?!?!??!

[MuseChaser]

I'm going crazy. Just drove to NH and back to pick up a couple pieces of my grandparent's furniture from my brother-in-law that have been in the family for generations and are fairly valuable, both sentimentally and fiscally. In order to load and transport them safely, we locked the doors and drawers (have all of the original keys).

Now that I have them home, I can NOT get one of them unlocked. It's a typical old-style lock ... a barrel key w/ a flag, and the flag has two small cutouts on the side of the flag that's inserted. I've attached a bunch of pics. The yellow arrow indicates where the key flag contacts what I believe is the bolt when unlocking, the red arrow indicates where the key flag contacts the bold in the locking direction, and the green arrows indicate unknown components. The pics were taken by a cheap wifi boroscope, so they're not real crisp. I can't get in any further to get more detail... the lock is too small.

Behavior of key..

Key inserts fine, although the pin guide in the center of the lock is a bit loose. Rotate the key clockwise about 145 degrees and you can hear and feel it lightly engage and move something, and then at 180 degrees from the insertion point (or 35 degrees from where it first engages something) it stops cold, like it hits a brick wall. Haven't gone FULL gorilla on it, but it is NOT moving. Return to insertion point, rotate 180 degrees counter clockwise to about the same point, and it stops cold again.

I've tried paper clips bent in every possible direction, small allen wrenches, smaller wire, tiny screw drivers, in all kinds of combinations, with and without the key, and have yet to find or contact anything that I can move and release the bolt. Literally, I have messed with this for about eight hours so far, NOT including hours of trying to find a cutaway view of a similar lock on the internet. Even joined a lockpicking forum. The catch is, I have the key. The lock must be broken, and I can't figure out how to open it.

To complicate matters, the hinge pins are captive and can't be tapped out to remove the door, and the clearance between the door and the other door into which the bolt engages is too tight to even insert a credit card (not that it would do any good).. I can get a piece of paper or thin plastic card in there, but that's it. I toyed with the idea of using a hacksaw blade or oscillating tool to cut off the bolt, but it'd really mess up the cabinet. There's no way in from the back either. This is a SOLID piece of furniture, about 100 years old.

Asking here just because there's a LOT of people, and a LOT of expertise in all kinds of fields. Reallly hoping someone can help.

Thanks for anything anyone can offer.

[Sapphireho]

Bummer. I know nothing about old locks, but if it were me I would stop poking things in it, and see if I could take it to a locksmith. Could be reasonably cheap if you can take to them.

[Tcoat]

Go full gorilla and see if that does it. If doesn't work then call a locksmith. Be a shame to mess up a nice piece just to get it unlocked.

[Impureclient]

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm9...8W8JigLoZOh6FQ

That guy probably will help.

[qcbaker]

Well, I wouldn't call myself an expert, but I do have some lockpicking experience. If you haven't already, you could try spraying the interior of the lock with some kind of lubrication agent (something like this: https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-IN-ONE...0074/205864344) and see if that loosens up the mechanism. If not, I would guess that some interior part is either broken or so badly misaligned that the lock cannot be unlocked, period. In that case, IMO brute force is your only option. Hacksawing through the deadbolt seems like the option that would cause the least damage to the rest of the cabinet. Once you do that, you can probably remove the lock as a whole and replace it with a working unit.

[humfrz]

Bubba suggests (after you spray silicone into the mechanism) to move the unit on its top and jiggle it while trying the key again. Maybe the mechanism got lodged sideways in the move.

humfrz for Bubba

[MuseChaser]

Thanks, all, for the suggestions. Just spent another four hours on it, to no avail. Took a knob off, then shoved the screw inside so I could get the boroscope to take a look at a catch that is holding the other door shut.. the one the lock bolt engages into. THAT door is held with one of those spring-loaded hooks; virtually no way to get that open with a hook on the end of the boroscope, even if DID have an angle that would allow me to apply any force at all. Soooo... that idea is out, too.

I've tried lubricant, but I think the problem is that whatever ward or plate that is supposed to move out of the way of the bolt when the key is rotated is broken or out of place or something, and there's a flat spring in there that doesn't look like it's in the right place. I just can NOT get anything to move, nor can I move the spring. What a mess. So bugged. I've probably put more scratches on it trying to get it open than we prevented by locking the@#$@#$ door for the move.

Hopefully, a local pro can be of some help. Ahhh, the tangled web...

[soundman98]

so here's what i'm seeing in these 2 pictures





something i've run into on antique hardware is that everything is done 'simple' because they lacked serious tools to do anything better at the time. there's also a 'good-nuff' quality to all of the serious mechanicals of the time.

perhaps something else to try is to bang/push/pull/lift on the door that the mechanism is attached to-- it's possible that everything is just off enough to jam the mechanism-- i've got 4 cabinet doors like that in my current house.

what i'm seeing in those pictures is that the lock mechanism appears to be a turn-and-pull-out type mechanism, but they cheaped out on the woodworking, and neglected to make an opening for the pull-out part. there's no particular indication for it, but certain mechanisms require the key to be turned and removed for the mechanism to pull the clasp out of the way, which can't be done with what's currently accessible.

it also looks that the lock mechanism is misaligned with the woodworking hole with the actual mechanism, which could also be binding things up in some way.

and finally, you're working on the assumption that you have the correct key.

i think it's definitely of the style that you posted, or something like this, but again, without knowing more about the make/model of the lock, there's nothing more that can be known.