Donnie wroteHi, while sorting thru a box of padlocks that I have had no interest in, I found 2 Masterlock’s with a milled finish…laminated , but smooth…I have not taken photos of these yet, but am getting kinda interested in collecting a few…I don’t have them in front of me to provide #'s but would like to know if they were plentiful & about when were they made…What I can recall is that ! of them has a long tail on the M / left side of the letter..
I guess, I am wondering if they are hard to find & when they were made….I have boxes of Masterlocks that I bought to get something else that was sold in the lot…The Masters just kinda got tossed aside………..Since I just found a # 19 on Ebay,, I’m torking up..Donnie🙁think):
Those earlier Master padlocks with the smooth finish, in general, are not super rare, but are a lot more rare than the common old Master padlocks that are frequently listed on eBay, so I consider them rare® and collectible. Many of Master’s early warded padlock models (including the smooth-finish ones as well as a few non-smoothened ones) seem to have died out during the 1930s, after Master introduced their “Secret Service” pin-tumbler padlocks starting with the No. 1 in 1931; at least one of the early smooth-finish warded models seems to have survived as late as circa the late 1930s, however. In the first and last posts of the thread bbcci linked to, I posted examples of the earliest type that has the rivet heads smoothened down also, making the padlock look even more like a solid block of metal.
The marking style on the bottom that you mention, with the M having the long curved left leg, likely dates around the late 1920s to early 1930s, as a later style that is seen much more frequently on 1930s to circa 1940s padlocks shows up in the October 1931 The Master Padlock magazine.
None of Master’s warded padlocks were marked with a model number (but were stamped with a key number, and, at one point, the model name) during the earlier, collectible years, so photos would likely help with determining which models you have.
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