Copper Yale Padlock

[cowboyup]

Hello everyone.
I hope you are all having a Happy Christmas season. If you get a chance, I'd love to know about this Yale padlock. It seems to be made of Copper and is stamped "Made in England" on the shackle.
Thank you so much and Happy New Year.
Rick Guenther

[jeffmoss26]

Never seen one quite like that, but the GH would be the keyway and the numbers would be a blind code most likely.
I have a couple similar locks but they are all brass and made in the US.

[oldlock]

It's made of Bronze, hence the colour.

[Doug MacQueen]

Here is a reasonably untarnished plate of phosphor bronze I have for making springs. The S&G comb lock is about 100 years old and I believe clearcoated. It is fairly orange in color, or pink. Really more light orange though. Not sure on the S&G mix either but it seems to be different from the Yale padlocks, as I remember. Oh and my Mersey lock seems to be missing the pin in the bottom??? Doug

[Huw Eastwood]

Wow- guys they've compacted them down to gun size? That's amazing- a company about 20 miles from here had a 'portable' mass spectrometer about the size of a computer printer but thinner. it folds up and down on a cantilever design for analysing material above or below it- it cost £40,000 about 5 years ago. What amazed me is it always showed traces of unusual or even 'mystery' elements, presumably used as additives to give alloys particular characteristics. Didn't matter if it was gold, brass or stainless alloys there always seemed to be a couple of mystery ones show up. Brass for example will show very different traces if it were volume cast, to grades intended as 'free machining' or for folding/bending etc. It is very interesting though- I never got the chance to go back there but would love another visit as I collect meteorites and would love to see what it makes of some of the Nickel-Irons and Pallasites I have

Doug I probably had way too much over xmas phosphor bronze was just a thought on these. If you're convinced it's something else I'm happy with that- if you get to test it I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out far weirder than expected and gives you another puzzle to investigate I forgot to mention lever springs- I had a load of phosphor bronze strip and always used to save it from any old levers- especially old Chubb 3G114's.

[Adrian Weber]

I agree with oldlock and was about to say the same.

Bronze padlocks are highly weather resistant even more than brass. The brass may corrode in some way being exposed to salt water, bronze will not.

[Jason Hillier]

hi guys they will have them on lock ups which contain
gas canisters so if you had to drill angle grind it wont spark also alot use them on the rail way with a 434 key

[Doug MacQueen]

Or it could be red brass, also known as gunmetal bronze. Then you would both be right. Red brasses are low in zinc content, making them hard to distinguish from many bronzes. Doug

[Adrian Weber]

Hey Doug,

interesting, very interesting, never seen a red bronze padlock but it makes sense! Thanks :)

Jason is right, I totally forgot about the "anti spark" feature.

[Huw Eastwood]

here's a quick comparison- I'm working with these all the time so always got off-cuts to hand-

Left is gunmetal bronze (LG2)- true gunmetal is probably the palest of the bronze alloys and best described as having a pale pinkish tint- the skin of the raw bar has bands of grey (lead) clearly visible and this often shows up on finished parts.

Centre is phosphor bronze (PB1)- probably the darkest/reddest of the bronzes- best described as a very deep claret red/copper colour- this pic doesn't quite show it as it appears to the eye- the colour is often a burgundy red on old bar like this and freshly machined or filed bar has a beautiful deep red shine. This grade was common for padlocks for its toughness and corrosion resistance. Many pin tumbler locks have springs made of phosphor bronze.

Right is a disc of basic copper alloy (C14700)-