Hello there everybody. I’m new to internet lock stuff and have been amazed over the past two or three weeks of looking at what sort of lock info is available these days through the internet.
I’ve been collecting padlocks on and off since the early seventies (mostly just stuff available in Australia), being particulary interested in the engineering and innovation that goes into them and my interest forms a sort of mirrored bookend for my lifelong interest in antique clocks and pocket watches though somewhere in between those two bookends would fit my other hundred and one collecting hobbies which include classic cars, antique guns-tools-furniture-books-phones-houses-farm machines as well as cockatoos, mowers, lamps, fountain pens, bricks and the list goes on (and on)………….
As you can see, with the exception of a few things, most of what I collect has a sort of “engineering” aspect to it and I do have a love of looking at mechanical design and innovation and I also have an interest in fine tolerance manufacturing both bespoke and automated.
I’m a hands-on collector, doing all my own repairs on anything and everything and also trying to actually use pretty much everything I collect in some way or another which is why I do wacky stuff like clay target shooting with a black powder shotgun, tell the time by a hundred year old watch, sleep in an ancient bed that came out of a historic local mansion, drive cars that should have been put out to oily pastures years ago and lock up all manner of minimum-security boxes, doors, gates, cages and cupboards just so I can use my old padlocks.
I’m hoping that I can learn some stuff from your site, especially about English padlocks and safes because I kinda like them and they are so much more affordable than some of the other stuff I collect so I thought that I might hit ebay and buy some more but perhaps armed with a bit more in depth information than I’ve had before on what’s good and what’s not.
I am also intrigued by the way the English lock business grew and then shrunk over time and would like to see what parallels there were between it and the English watch and clock making industry.
