Yale Padlock found during excavation

Tristan

I am currently taking part in a part-time internship as an archaeologist and need to identifying a lock found during a recent excavation of an old cabin. Amongst a pile of horse-tack, I came across what I believe is a Yale & Towne padlock. From what I have ascertained online, it could date anywhere from the late 1800’s to the 1920’s. A concrete date would be of great value since it could give insights into the cabin we are excavating (the cabin is associated with a house dating back to the 1850s, and can be identified in ariel photographs from the 1930’s, but we have no real idea when the cabin was built or what it was used for - a nice minimum date would be great). I have attached a photo of the padlock after having cleaned most of the dirt off of it. No writing or numbers are legible in its current state.

I am planning on restoring this padlock so that I may include it in a showcase. Obviously I am not intending to restore it to working order, since the key was not found (I imagine that is why the lock was discarded). I have experience restoring First World War artifacts using a simple combination of wire-brushing and vinegar to remove the patina of rust, while not causing too much damage or removing any interesting markings. I am planning on using this method on the lock, but would like to be certain that it does not cause any deterioration of the internal mechanism, which may be comprised of very fine components made of different metals.

Any help identifying the age of the padlock, as well as tips on restoration, would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Dean Nickel

That body style was made by quite a few lock makers for a long time. Your time line maybe a bit off as I would put it from 1860 to 1930, but I can be wrong on padlocks. As to more you would have to see if there is a name under than rust. Without that we will not be able to help more.

I don’t know if ultrasonic cleaning will work on this lock or not.

oldbiscuit

Tristan, If I was you I’de use electrolosis to remove the gust. I restore old Hit & Miss gas engines and use electolosis on most of the parts. It will remove the rust and leave the base metal. As far as the internal workings of that lock,the levers are probably brass,but the springs are more than likely steel and probably rusted away already. I’ve also used this process on a few older steel locks like yours and it worked fairly well but it won’t remove all the rust from the insides. Electrolosis will only attack rust and won’t harm brass,copper or the base metal. You can put together a eletrolosis vat very easily with just a plastic bucket,a battery charger,a sacrificial anode and some Arm & Hammer washing soda, just make sure you do it in a well ventilated area awaay from any flames or sparks. Mark

Tristan

oldbiscuit wrote
Tristan, If I was you I’de use electrolosis to remove the gust. I restore old Hit & Miss gas engines and use electolosis on most of the parts. It will remove the rust and leave the base metal. As far as the internal workings of that lock,the levers are probably brass,but the springs are more than likely steel and probably rusted away already. I’ve also used this process on a few older steel locks like yours and it worked fairly well but it won’t remove all the rust from the insides. Electrolosis will only attack rust and won’t harm brass,copper or the base metal. You can put together a eletrolosis vat very easily with just a plastic bucket,a battery charger,a sacrificial anode and some Arm & Hammer washing soda, just make sure you do it in a well ventilated area awaay from any flames or sparks. Mark

Thanks for the advice - I’ve gotten a 1 amp 12V battery charger which I hope is enough to catalyze a reaction (in a pretty small container), and some iron rebar for the anode. Not that many stores seem to sell Washing Soda but I should be able to substitute it with Baking Soda, although I’ve heard that its not as strong. Again, thanks.

[unknown]

Dean Nickel

You would be correct that it wouldn’t be strong enough, As they are not the same. I don’t know that it would work in place of the other.
Sodium carbonate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sodium bicarbonate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is another thought for you too.
Phosphoric acid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

wylk

A Google search for “electrolysis rust removal” (without the quotes) comes up with many hits and should result in some specific suggestions you could consider.

Brian Denyer

Tristan I wouldn’t waste my time on any restoration of this Padlock.
It most likely isn’t part of the original Cabin.
I have seen Advertisements in 1880’s magazines for this type of lock.
But the condition only provides a shilhouette of what it looked like before.

Brian ……………………………….

Tristan

Thanks for all of your contributions. I was able to get some washing soda and after some experimenting on other artifacts, I successfully removed the rust from the lock. A very faint inscription reads ‘Eagle Lock - 6-Lever - Terryville CT’ so it is not in fact a ‘Yale’ padlock. I have attached a photo. I am not sure if I have ‘restored’ the lock since after reading several period advertisements for this type of lock, it appears that many of its kind were cadmium or brass plated, or even painted over (‘black ivory finish’) but the electrolysis method has worked very well nonetheless.

If anyone would happen to know an approximate date for this particular brand of padlock, that would be of great help. I am aware that Eagle Lock existed from 1833 to 1954 and that in most of the ads I looked at, this style of lock shows up between the dates of 1915 and 1938, however I have not yet found an exact match for this lock.

Tristan

wylk

It would be interesting if you could describe your experience with electrolytic rust removal. Power (volts and amps), solution, and how you knew when to stop, for example.

Tristan

wylk wrote
It would be interesting if you could describe your experience with electrolytic rust removal. Power (volts and amps), solution, and how you knew when to stop, for example.

Most of my information came from online, but of course there was some improvisation and learning along the way. I found the easiest and cheapest way to get iron for the sacrificial anode was to buy rebar from a local hardware store and to cut a short (4″) segment off of it. I had to scrub the lock down with a wire brush until I could expose a tiny section of bare metal on the corner with which I could conduct a current, since the rust covering the lock was producing some 5 Mega-ohms of resistance.

As for the charger, I simply got the smallest, cheapest one I could find, a 1 amp car battery charger with 6 volt/12 volt switch for around $20. The circuit breaker in the charger would shut the charger off temporarily if I used the 12 volt option for too long, so I tended to use the 6 volt option which still worked, albeit less effectively. It apparently doesn’t take too much power to get the reaction going.

As for the solution, I was never too precise and sometimes added some washing soda in the middle of the process if I felt things were going a bit slow, but tended to use 1 part washing soda to every 4 or 5 parts water (I would also boil the water beforehand to help mix the washing soda more thoroughly).

Online it said that the process of electrolysis simply ends itself after there is no more rust to convert, however I have yet to see the process fully stop (stop fizzing, anyway) on even my most thoroughly cleaned examples. I tend to stop using electrolysis on an object after I can no longer see any effects being produced.

All of this is just from experience - I am an anthropologist, not a chemist. Your best resources will probably be online, and there are many to choose from. Three weeks ago I had never even heard of electrolysis.

[unknown]

oldbiscuit

Electrolis is a really neat solution for rust removal. I’ve used it many times on old engine parts,some weighing as much as 40 lbs.The main thing to remember is that the current only flows one way moving the rust with it. Usually I make my vats out of big plastic drums,small 5 gal buckets or big fiberglass tubs. The sacrificial anodes are spaced around the outer inside surface and all wired together to form a grid.I’ve used rebar,old mower blades,sheet steel,brake rotors,just about anything that will rust. Don’t use galvanized metal as it puts off a deadly gas (same with stainless steel). You will notice that the rust will still be inside the lock as it move in a line of sight so to speak. On a cylinder I was working on I stood the cylinder upright in the vat and suspended a anode down into the center(careful not to touch the cylinder with the anode) It cleaned up real nice. I usually use a heavy duty battery charger 20-40 amps or more and add the washing soda till the amps quit rising. The trick is to remove the anodes once a day and wipe the rust off of them then reinsert them and start it up again. the more rust on the origional part the longer it takes.Some parts are done in a matter of hours ,others might take several days. try it some time it really is a neat way of removing rust without damaging the base metal. Mark