Antique York Fire Safe

vpool

Hello all,

New to the site. I just acquired a “new” safe and in doing some research on it came across this site. I thought you guys might be interested and I may get some ideas.

My fiancé and I were cleaning out her grandparents old house and opened a back cabinet door and discovered this old York safe. The house had been abandoned for about 10 years and we were allowed to keep the safe which had belonged to her grandfather’s brother.

It was locked and nobody had any clue on the combo so I had it drilled open. Everyone in the family thought it had been used at one of the family businesses to store cash and documents, so I was anxious to see what was inside. Alas, nothing was in it but an old high school diploma of the safe’s original owner.

The inside seems to be in great condition to me, especially the artwork on the backside of the door.

As you can see its original paint was covered by a coat of the flat green paint. You can see the original stenciling underneath the coat of paint.

A few questions:

A) Is there any way to look up information on the safe? i.e. manufacture date?

B) I intend to fully restore it later on, but I would love to try and remove just the top layer of that green paint and see what the original looks like underneath. Any tips? I was planning on trying mineral spirits, acetone, oven cleaner, and sand paper in small doses to see what works based off research online.

C) What is the best advice for restoration of the outside? Any specific paint or things I should know?

D) I absolutely want to keep the original artwork on the inside. Is there a protective coating I should put over it? Just leave it be?

Any advice would be great.

Attached are the pics and thanks in advance.

Vpool

Rog

nice looking safe -
was the tech good enough t help you figure out the correct combination ???
if not, that can be done now that you have the door open and the back panel of..

vpool wrote
Hello all,

New to the site. I just acquired a “new” safe and in doing some research on it came across this site. I thought you guys might be interested and I may get some ideas.

My fiancé and I were cleaning out her grandparents old house and opened a back cabinet door and discovered this old York safe. The house had been abandoned for about 10 years and we were allowed to keep the safe which had belonged to her grandfather’s brother.

It was locked and nobody had any clue on the combo so I had it drilled open. Everyone in the family thought it had been used at one of the family businesses to store cash and documents, so I was anxious to see what was inside. Alas, nothing was in it but an old high school diploma of the safe’s original owner.

The inside seems to be in great condition to me, especially the artwork on the backside of the door.

As you can see its original paint was covered by a coat of the flat green paint. You can see the original stenciling underneath the coat of paint.

A few questions:

A) Is there any way to look up information on the safe? i.e. manufacture date?

B) I intend to fully restore it later on, but I would love to try and remove just the top layer of that green paint and see what the original looks like underneath. Any tips? I was planning on trying mineral spirits, acetone, oven cleaner, and sand paper in small doses to see what works based off research online.

C) What is the best advice for restoration of the outside? Any specific paint or things I should know?

D) I absolutely want to keep the original artwork on the inside. Is there a protective coating I should put over it? Just leave it be?

Any advice would be great.

Attached are the pics and thanks in advance.

Vpool

[unknown]

vpool

Yes he was able to get me the combo and all of the keys for the inner door and boxes were inside.

thepianolist

Your safe looks similar to mine and mine was finished in October of 1929 according to the original sign-off card in one of the draws. I hope you can restore the outside. The original finish on mine is in pretty good shape for its age and you can check it out in my original post on this safe:

http://www.antique-locks.com/showthread.php/2274-York-Safe-With-Two-S-amp-G-Locks

I noticed a little plate riveted to the top. Mine has one as well. The one on mine is a UL plate attesting that the safe is burglar proof due to the inner vault. I can’t read what the plate on your safe reads, could you let me know what it says?

Thanks and good luck with the restoration! Don’t forget to document the progress for us. These old safes can look really nice!

Bryant Stott

vpool

It’s hard to read exactly what it says. Attached is a photo.

From what I can tell it says:

UNDERWRITERS LABORATORIES

INSURED SAFE BURGLARY ……. NO 1938

I can’t read the … Part of it and there appears to be some more small writing above the burglary part.

Vpool

thepianolist

Judging from the design on the inner door, it look as though your safe might have had the same outside design as mine. Do you plan on doing the restoration yourself or have a safe restorer do it for you. I have seen some masterful restorations by members of this forum. It is a real shame that horrible green paint was used on it. You might have been able to just clean the original finish. Mine is not perfect but it presents well for an 85 year old safe in original condition.
I would very much like to see your progress in the restoration.

vpool

Yes the outside of the safe had the same paint job as yours. You can see the gold pin striping lines underneath the green paint.

I am going to try and remove the green paint layer to expose the original paint. I’m not sure how successful that will turn out though. Eventually I will have a professional restore, but i would really love to see what the original paint looks like.

I’m still doing research online about the paint removal and haven’t started yet.

thepianolist

I don’t have a camera with good enough resolution to take a picture of the UL plate on my safe so I did the next best thing and copied what was on it. The order is a bit different than what is on your plate. If the numbers run consecutively, your safe is a bit older than mine. I wonder if there is any way to find out yearly production? According to the card I found in one of the drawers, mine was finished in October of 1929 so it is possible yours is from the mid-twenties.

BURGLARY PROTECTION CLASSIFICATION T-20
UNDERWITERS’ LABORATORIES INSPECTED NO. 8714

I wonder if the information on the two plates is a bit different because the safes are different models or if it is just because they were made at different times?

Anyone have a York Safe of the same vintage who could share the information on the UL plate with us?

Bryant Stott

Rog

The interior door lock looks very similar to a lock on one of my safes. If you have the key, would you mind telling me if it has a number on it and what it might be?

If they are the same I would really like to get a copy somehow…

also,

here is what the exterior of my 1910 York safe looks like -

vpool wrote
Yes the outside of the safe had the same paint job as yours. You can see the gold pin striping lines underneath the green paint.

I am going to try and remove the green paint layer to expose the original paint. I’m not sure how successful that will turn out though. Eventually I will have a professional restore, but i would really love to see what the original paint looks like.

I’m still doing research online about the paint removal and haven’t started yet.

[unknown]

thepianolist

Beautiful artwork! Do you have any pictures of the inside of the door? My York is just a few years too new to have such nice door work. Do you think at one time the hinges had the acorn finials on your York?
What kind of camera did you use to shoot the front of your safe? The resolution is GREAT! I don’t have any realy good pictures of mine, only phone pictures. It gives you the idea but not much detail as in the picture you have.

Bryant Stott

Rog

Here’s a shot of the backside of the door.
The door does have finials; but, only two.
So those are currently off and a friend is machining two new ones.
For some reason I never took a shot of the finials, which I might just do tomorrow and post that as well.
Some time ago I splurged on a Canon EOS Rebel T3i camera - and I rarely ever leave home without it….
If I am correct my safe is dated Aug 1 1910.
I found that a coat of good liquid car polish really does wonders on a safe!

thepianolist wrote
Beautiful artwork! Do you have any pictures of the inside of the door? My York is just a few years too new to have such nice door work. Do you think at one time the hinges had the acorn finials on your York?
What kind of camera did you use to shoot the front of your safe? The resolution is GREAT! I don’t have any realy good pictures of mine, only phone pictures. It gives you the idea but not much detail as in the picture you have.

Bryant Stott

[unknown]

wylk

Rog wrote
If I am correct my safe is dated Aug 1 1910.

Where did you see that date? It’s most likely a patent date, which means it was built some time after 8/1/1910.

[unknown]

Rog

You may very well be correct…
when a local lock/safe man opened this safe,
then removed the inner panel and showed us a stamping which
he stated was the date of manufacture -
(see photo)

wylk wrote
Where did you see that date? It’s most likely a patent date, which means it was built some time after 8/1/1910.

[unknown]

vpool

Rog,

Sorry for the delay, been very busy.

Attached are the pictures of the inner door lock and key.

It is numbered 43.

Vpool

vpool

Well I have been busy and moved states, but my safe finally arrived on Sunday.

I have been looking up various ways to remove the green top coat of paint and tried just using paint thinner but that did virtually nothing.

I also picked up a green no harsh chemical paint stripper and gave it a try to good effect.

Only let it rest on the surface for 15-20 seconds then wiped it off then wiped the area with water to ensure it didn’t penetrate too far. I started on the back corner of the safe for this initial test run and after wiping away with water was pleasantly surprised with a clear shot of the original black paint with an unexpected pinstripe.

I think this process might work how I hope, just going to take a long time.

Will try to clear some more area tomorrow.

wylk

That is good news, I hope the paint remover lives up to expectations. Could you be more specific about the paint remover?

vpool

Here is a picture of the stripping agent I’m using.

Hit it one whole side of the safe that had some scratching on it for my first pass. There is still some fine tuning that needs done but essentially the whole side is down to the original black.

As I got to the top however new paint layers developed. There was the top coat of green, then khaki, then yellow, then the original black. However the gold pinstripes are still intact running around the entire safe. Some of the black paint has been effected pretty badly by rust.

vpool

Forgot to add the photos.

vpool

Ok, changed techniques a little bit just by using a higher quality cloth to wipe down with. So leaving stripper on a little longer _1min, gently scraping with plastic scraper, wipe down with water soaked rag, gently dry with clean rag.

Getting great results. Just did the back of the safe this way on the graphics I could see under the paint.

Attached pics are one whole side I did the “old” way and the back I just did with the new cleaning cloths.

-Vpool

Huw Eastwood

It’s looking good vpool. Those old safes look good in black with the gold lettering and lining etc, and it’s great to see them ‘used’ and shabby instead of all the gleaming restored examples that look brand new.

Not easy to remove top paint layers and muck etc while leaving what’s underneath intact, so looks great to me and prefer to see them like that any day 🙁y):