I FOUND A PIC ON THE WEB.
AND I BELIEVE I HAVE AN IDENTICAL PADLOCK IN MY COLLECTION (SEE ALL PICS).
I BELIEVE IT IS A DISPLAY CASE OF JAIL ITEMS FROM TOMBSTONE.
DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THIS TYPE OF PADLOCK WAS USED IN THE PRISON SYSTEM?
AND PERHAPS AROUND WHAT YEAR?
ALSO IS THIS TYPE OF PADLOCK DIFFICULT TO COMPROMISE (PICK)?
I WOULD THINK SO CONSIDERING HOW MANY LEVER TUMBLERS IS MUST MANIPULATE.
I MUST SAY IT IS ROBUST, HEAVY AND IT STILL WORK FLAWLESS.
THE KEY IS QUITE INTERESTING ALSO.
MM
The type of lock you have was indeed used for prison service, Early on, prisons used all sorts of robust padlocks, however, without being marked as such, there is no way to be certain where or if a given padlock was used.
As far as pickability, they are quite resistant to the common methods of manipulation, in fact (attempting) picking them without being EXTREMELY careful, could set the tumblers in an "overpick' condition, jamming the inner mechanism, thus requiring, at the very least, drilling a small hole and inserting a thin wire to "reset" the overpicked tumblers. These locks however, lend themselves to use of a "comb" style attack, whereby all the tumblers are rotated a specific degree, but at the same time remaining in a relative position to each other during "picking". This method is employed when making a key if the lock is locked in the closed shackle position. (paraphrased from Reed's codebook - padlock volume c1970's)
The Climax Co was located here in good ol' NJ. (Newark) By coincidence? the Romer Co (of course no one ever heard of them? ) who made many nearly identical wares was also located in Newark. I have no idea if employee(s) from one company branched off to form the other, or vice-versa? but its always been in the back of my mind.
The Scandanavian type padlocks were made in great numbers, including and up into the 50's, but the later ones were not as nicely finished ie: larger grain sand was used in the bodies' molds.
Just a word of caution, the locks were assembled by mashing the end of the body over the baseplate, dissasembly is not recomended for any reason, due to the fact that the repair, nomatter how careful, will upon completion, resemble an abortion. I have repaired all sorts of cuffs, locks and other stuff, many of which was not made to be dissasembled, but these Scandanavian type locks fall into a catagory all their own.
Hope this helps some,
--Vince
