Tann ten Lever Locks 6.5 gauge

[Ant]

See these two locks I found the left hand lock case spare (LH pic) and as it occurred to me that it is handed the other way to the standard Right hand one (in picture).
As there was no bolt assembly or lock cap with it, I have made one up (just to see how difficult it would be) as no brass to hand used an old mounting block off a Tann anti Herding device just the right size, lenght and width only trouble is the bit missing from the bolt (where the fixing bolt went through) still can always braze a bit in there later.

So What I want to know is which way would the key hole be cut as for the life of me I can't ever remember seeing one handed this way Though I must have at some time But water under the bridge and all that, plus brain full up with other useless information.
Regards to all and seasons greetings Anthony.

[Huw Eastwood]

Ant- I thought I was familiar with all things Tann 10-lever until I saw these!

I've seen these locks handed on the old bankers and treasury safes- up shoot and down shoot, but they were always on the big 2 gauge keys with the brass curtain fitted- plus the keys were of course always about a foot long because of the thickness of the doors.

I've only seen the 6.5 gauge versions fitted on the Gov/MoD Grade 1A's- they always had the brass curtains as well, but oddly the Tann's were always mounted up-shoot with the keyway pointing horizontally out to the side, so the key went in with the key-bit flat. I've never seen those big brass case 10-levers with very short 6.5 gauge keys and without a curtain like you have.

They must be off something with a thin door but still needing a high level of security or they'd have used one of their other lever locks as used on internal drawers etc. Could be off Safe deposit chutes or rotary hopper/deposit perhaps?

With regard to the keyhole on your spare, looking at your complete lock on the right it's a down shoot lock assuming it was originally fitted with the keyhole the right way up from the outside. That would make the other handed spare an up-shoot lock which would need the keyhole pointing to the left in your photo. That's all I can come up with as I've seen countless Tann's and Grade 1A's but not any like yours without the curtain and short keys- hope this helps a bit

[Ant]

Hello Max, I thought it would be an upshoot bolt, so perhaps off a book room door that was under dual control. (perhaps locking in to the bolt strap?)I doubt that its off a N/Safe shute or the old Tann Rotary trap as they were less levers and on the rotary lock I think I seem to remember the bolt head had a concave curved bolt head to allow for the curve of the drum. Like the some of the old Chubb safe locks that locked into the B/Throw Scroll

But these Tann locks I've had in the workshop drawer unit and I've moved them around during 4 house moves and never stumbled upon them till the other week and decided to make it up to a working lock as trying to downsize by parting most of my old locks I've accumulated over the years.
Thanks for the reply

[Gary Stephenson]

Not sure if any of these will upload without reducing them too much.But will try. Someone wasn't looking forward to trying keys 3200 times.

[Gary Stephenson]

Cheers John, I have Heard of Bill Stanton, but not heard him referred to as WHS before, thanks for clearing that up. If they are the same tann books / ledgers that they had at woden road, then I tried the same thing, to take them home bit by bit and copy them so, the info would not be lost. I thought they had been binned, but have since been told that they went to Brian, hopefully this is correct. What was the key numbers book? was this a record of duplicate key cut for customers?

[Doug MacQueen]

Not that I always know what I am talking about, but it is not all that unusual for the big companies like Chubb, Tann, as well as Diebold and Mosler to make specials. I have only a 10 lever like that but with curtain and was told it was made by Kromer. Is this correct? Doug

[Ant]

Hi Doug, Yes Tann did make some strange locks as this one I've attached Though only a 5 lever;were made for a large UK bank for their Strongroom doors. As to if Kromer made your Grade III govenment Ministry 6.5 G lock am not sure, though during the early eighties Tann did contract out lock making to some different firms As I remember picking about 100 locks up from a firm down in Redruth. Though can’t remember what job it was for!

[Huw Eastwood]

Ant- I'm amazed- another one! Now I know how little I know about those brass cased Tann's and how few of the variations I encountered! A 5-lever- that's unbelievable- they even cast those locks with thinner cases then for versions with less levers- I had no idea. Don't tell me, your next surprise is a 2-lever version with 1 inch keys for office desks... Thanks for posting them Wish I'd kept the ones I had now for swaps

[Gary Stephenson]

Most of these are quite difficult to read.

[Cepasaccus]

Acquisitions destroy so much. In February, I think, the new owner of Lebtig said "junk it" and the complete Kromer archive was disposed off.