Milner's Safe 6 Lever Internal Draw Lock

Tripod

I have recently bought a Milner’s Safe on Ebay which I plan to restore. A great winter project. I have searched through the forum and found quite a bit of information about the safe. The serial number starts with an X, which I think dates it to 1912. It is a List 3, four corner, banded Safe and is in urgent need of some TLC. As often is the case, I have absolutely no experience, no tools, but a good deal of enthusiasm.

The safe came with a key for the door, but not the two internal draws. So the first job I have completed is the making of a new key from a blank. I had never attempted anything of this nature, but after looking through threads on the forum and a couple of videos of YouTube, I am proud to say the lock now works. Unfortunately, the second draw lock is completely different, but I now know it is possible and I have a new job for the next rainy day.

The backing plate for the lock is stamped with an “H”. Does this mean it is a Hobbs ? I thought I read somewhere that Milner’s were making their own locks by this time ?

The paint work on the door is very faded and I wondered if anyone had a safe in good condition and could send a photo of the detail to give me a better idea of the colours I will need.

To any newbies pondering about making the first step, I would recommend jumping in - the water is lovely !

Huw Eastwood

Welcome, any old Milner that gets a new life has got to be a good thing, but to be honest your safe looks to be more ‘barn find’ condition and best left as it is.
All the original paint, lettering and markings are intact with just signs of age- a shame to ruin that and cover it all over with new paint for the sake of doing a so-called ‘restoration’.
An example in rusty wrecked condition would be better for that. There are dozens of them out there on eBay and gumtree.

The letter H is probably just an ID mark used when fitting the drawer locks to know what’s being fitted where. Btw your drawer key in the pic is still a blank!

Huw Eastwood

Forgot to add it is good what you’re doing though, although a clean one like that needs no more than sorting the keys out really, and then get a rusty scrapper for restoration. You would have to really ‘key’ the surface up on that one anyway, ie go pretty much through what’s there to re-paint it properly, and that would be a shame for one in that condition.

Plus, for every one in barn find condition there’s probably 20 out there all blinged up to look new. Everyone from have-a-go ‘antique dealers’ to your next door neighbour have been doing them!

Either way There’s countless references to all things Milner’s on here that you can search, and if you’re doing it for the project or the ‘challenge’ then I’m sure you’ll have fun whatever you decide :-)