Gate Key ID

[Brey]

A friend picked this up for me.
He was told that it was bought at an estate sale and it originally belonged to a sailor who used this key for a gate.

You will notice that the top bit is bent downwards. Not sure how that could have happened from casual use of a lock. Any ideas?
This doesn't look like a gate key to me but any thoughts or opinions on what it is for or when and where it was made would be most appreciated!

~Brey

[BBE]

A friend picked this up for me.
He was told that it was bought at an estate sale and it originally belonged to a sailor who used this key for a gate.

You will notice that the top bit is bent downwards. Not sure how that could have happened from casual use of a lock. Any ideas?
This doesn't look like a gate key to me but any thoughts or opinions on what it is for or when and where it was made would be most appreciated!

~Brey

Impossible to tell what, when and for what it was made, however, with that stated provenance you can try to figure out what/how it may have worked. It suggests to me that it could be a gate key and the lock may be operated from either side much like a mortise lock. Because of the debris in some of the wards and the extreme wear on the bit closest to the shoulder I would guess it was used to operate the gate lock from one side many more times than from the other side and that the case ward is only present on one side of the case. The wear would be from throwing or retracting the bolt. If it were a spring latch lock it would be opened more than locked with the key and that could account for the wear. Anyway, that's my guess.
BBE.

[chubbbramah]

Other sorts of lock could be used to lock a gate; however, the typical 19-early 20C garden gate lock is a mortice-style bridge ward lock, but they were almost as often fitted as rimlocks too. They are usually two bolt or deadlocks. They also usually have a longer bolt(s), which when withdrawn still protrudes from the lockcase. As mortice fitting, they have a rather short key shank, or longer if rim fixed. The wear on this suggests either abuse, or the bolt was binding? The style of key suggests later rather than earlier. These were exported to the US, so quite possible it was, as reported, a gate lock key.

For the record, there was another form of 'gate lock', used on farm gates. Like an old external surface-mounted chest lock, such as used to be used on luggage before modern plastic suitcases - but with the hasp on a chain with its end fixed to the gate. A good deal more expensive than using a chain and padlock, probably why it fell out of use.