Help!

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

My guess is that they are old and European. Obviously blacksmith made and one is held together with a horse shoe nail and a band. Whether for horses or humans is the question.
Paul

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

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interesting, I would yell help also.

The bottom two appear to be padlocks, the mechanism appears Barbed spring and common to asian countries more than where the design first began which was Nordic. I would hazard a guess as Tibetan or general area.

The top one could be several things. It is obviously lock around sometime and has a projecting loop to hold something else and chain (?) might be locked by a padlock or wedge.

Could it just be a strap to hold a chain to a fence post on a farm to tether an amial to??

More info need, I guess.

Nice find, where did you get them find them??

Ian

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Re: Help!

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

These thing always open up a can of worms with different opinions. The Easy-out is to call them horse hobbles.

I have something similar to the top one. There is a lock case there with rivets showing, The center "rivet" may be the post for the key showing through the back. Only a photo of the other side will tell.

Bottom left looks like what Ian describes, with a flat key pushing a spring mechanism.
Bottom right is similar but that blob which is protruding is probably a barbed spike which can be remove with a push key.
Both appear to be made for comfort, or to not cut into the subject. ie a curve in the material of the arched bow?? Huh!
I have several "slave shackles" - bottom left appears similar to part of such shackles - missing the chain and puzzle lock.
I still think European considering the "W" and the horse shoe nail. A normal hand made nail might have a rounded or even square head, not rectangular.
Paul

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Was commonly used in medieval period restraints. Not just in padlocks.

And not just in ones of Asian origin.

Many, many, many ancient German, Swiss, and Slavic irons were made during the middle ages with spring wedge lock mechanisms.

I believe all of your irons are restraints.

There really would be very little need to make a padlock in a shape where it would fit an ankle unless that is just what it was intended to do.

Of course, others may disagree.

S.S.

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

They are Belgian. Can't you tell from the beer?

Seriously, though, to me they look more middle eastern than European. And I would guess that they are the end locks for puzzle shackles.

Anyone help with identifying these??
Thanks in advance

Click to expand...

A normal hand made nail might have a rounded or even square head, not rectangular.

Rectangular cross section nails were pretty common. The iron would be hammered into a sheet of the requisite thickness, and the nails then cut out with a chisel, then headed.

Wire nails and round heads are pretty recent by comparison. Wire was expensive to make by hand. It's dirt cheap to make by machine.