Help Identifying Unknown Lock

Ephah

Hello, I have a chest of drawers of unknown make with a brass lock as depicted below. There is no key for the lock and I am trying to scrounge together some info to see if there is a way to open it without the key and without cutting it free. If anyone has information or advice on what kind of lock it is and how the inner mechanism works that would be awesome! I have tried picking it but have had no luck.

Dean Nickel

That is a Chinese barb spring lock
http://www.1st-net-lock-museum.com/ot1.htm
a few locks down on this page for how they open

Ephah

Halflock wrote
That is a Chinese barb spring lock
http://www.1st-net-lock-museum.com/ot1.htm
a few locks down on this page for how they open

Thanks! I looked around at a few 19th-20th century Chinese brass splitting spring padlocks but none had this rectangular key way. I tried compressing the springs simultaneously on the inside but had no luck getting it open. It has one center beam with two adjacent beams hanging below it. It looks like bringing the two hanging beams parallel and level with the center beam is key in compressing the springs.three springs off the center beam and one spring a piece off the bottom two beams. Any advice on how to open it or pics of a working key would be great!!

[unknown]

Dean Nickel

I know they made 2,4 and I have seen a 6 spring lock of these. The key will have to be made by hand to compress all the springs at one time and there are not going to be many locksmiths that will be able to do it. Ask around at a few shops in your area. If you were in the Puget Sound area I would offer. Jobs like this are not common and I have only made 8 keys for this type of lock.

The only thing I can say here is the key has to be shaped like and L and the bottom of the L has to go into the lock and have a hole that matches the “Beams” and compresses the springs.The key is not inserted straight into the lock.