Some hand cut Climax Detector keys and an unexpected find...

[Huw Eastwood]

Having found some more Climax Detector safe locks in storage, I've spent some time working my way through cleaning and making keys for them.

All were in extremely poor condition and sadly without any keys. They were also way beyond a light clean to preserve any patination. I always prefer to retain a locks original paint and patina, but the corrosion on these was serious and had no real choice but the clean and paint route.

Heres 2 completed with the closest example still in 'before' condition for comparison:





Key blanks were carefully sized to the barrel by hand, and the end bore drilled to suit the drill-pin in the lock cylinder:

These antique blanks already had a pretty accurate 1/16" pilot, so all they needed was careful drilling out and reaming by hand.

Keys were then carefully (more like tediously- especially on the deep cuts) cut, using a sharp 'knife' profiled needle file to match the contour and depth of each slider.

Working around the barrel cutting the slots to each slider in turn:



Nothing fancy needed here- key blank simply held in the bench vice to cut the radial slots:



These locks always seem to hold a few hidden surprises, or perhaps that should be a few hidden 'shocks'...

Worn-out Cylinders, packed with 150 years of muck and grime that actually look reasonably intact, with all the sliders in place...
"Great!! This ones going to be a good 'un!"
A complete strip down then reveals 4 or 5 of the springs are broken, often in 3 places each, and several cracked sliders actually being held in place firmly by the solidified muck. Not good...

Thankfully while doing these few there were also a few good surprises as well :-)

Working on an 8-slider lock and cleaning the steel bolt with emery cloth, I could make out what looked like writing in an arc on the reverse side of the bolt. A lot of very careful cleaning with jewellers fibre sticks eventually revealed the name:

J WOLVERSON



All I could find was from the late Jim Evans' Gazeteer of Lock and Key Makers which briefly lists Joseph Wolverson Union St, Willenhall as advertising in 1851 as manufacturers of patent rim and mortise locks.

There is also mention elsewhere of a patent date of 13th June 1840, and also his involvement with William Rawlett, but nothing as to what patent, or for which lock etc.

Apart from the 8-sliders (most are typically 7) and the slightly off-set cylinder nozzle there is little distinguishable difference between this example and any of the other types, cylinder, springs, sliders etc all pretty much the same.

In addition to this Wolverson example I also have a very grim condition Wilson- that's pre Cotterill-Wilson days with the bolt marked only Wilson. I've seen another Wilson before and both examples have all brass cylinders (no steel ring on the back) and also all brass bolts, making them slightly visibly different to the others.

This Wolverson has been a great surprise find though, and any info however seemingly small would be appreciated.

over the years I've owned and handled dozens of these locks but these and a few rusty scrappers are all I have now:

[Timothy]

Nice job Max. Wish I could have one of those lock here just to see what it really look like and how it work...Timothy...

[chubbbramah]

The keys I have have square-cut notches for the sliders.

I'm guessing there was still a good deal of out-worker production of parts, maybe even making keys, as much of the industry was still a cottage industry. Even makers with factories sometimes used outworkers.

[Warren63]

Wow nice work Max! My favourite lock and safe maker. I should imagine this work took a long time but you loved the results. You mentioned broken springs and I was wondering how you managed to replace what must be a minute spring? When you say spring are you describing what would be a conventional coil spring or a form of disc? Your talents never cease to amaze. Respect and admiration are words that come to mind! I too would love to be able to dismantle and examine how my favourite lock works.

[oldlock]

Nicely done. I would concur re the outworker suggestions.

How large a stock of blanks do you have Max ??

[Huw Eastwood]

Hello gents thanks for all the comments and apologies to Timothy I'd completely missed your early reply all that time ago. Always had a soft spot for these locks, despite their wobbles, snags and rattles they definitely have some sort of charm to them

Warren, the springs in these are indeed conventional coil compression springs like you said. The late great John Rattue 'Spring Man' used to make small batches of the springs for us, and everything else I'd make by hand or machine in our own workshop. We used to see quite a lot of them still in use back then so I was making keys and doing the easier repairs pretty early on from about 15 or 16 years old when I started.

Oldlock we used to have an old brown paper lined box full of them, but they've slowly dwindled over the years I think it's down to 2 or 3 now. I know one of them has got a massive bit unlike all the others had,never worked out why! Gotta go or I'll lose this post as well. Cheers again all, BFN

[chubbbramah]

MaxVaultage,
Where did you find all your Climaxes?
In over half a century of looking at locks, I've seen far more medieval locks than Climaxes. I've only seen 1 in service, a padlock. My 2 are a 2½" and a 3" drawer lock. They came via an old locksmith who had scrapped two safes after WW2. Don't know if they were Cotterill safes, probably not. Cotterill did make block locks as actual safe locks, but I've never seen one.

Incidentally, those 2 safes had been used in a quarry for storing safety fuse. He started to burn open the first one ... the BANG! alerted him to the fact that gunpowder had over the years sifted into every crevice. In the absence of electricity, drilling was a laborious task.

[Huw Eastwood]

Bit of everything really, most were removed from heavily used safes as a result of lock conversions where we'd convert over to a modern 7-Lever lock with an anti-drill plate- so they were already at an advanced stage of chewing themselves to bits- hence the poor internal condition of many. Some were from the 1950's firm my father worked for doing the very same work before me, customers would bring them in for keys and then never collect them when the knew how much. Some were just swapped/traded for other locks as i knew I could always sort them out.

Although I have a few by the well known named makers most of them have been the generic un-named climax copies. Typically marked just 'Climax Detector Patent' or similar, they lack any makers name having only matching letters or numbers on the component parts to identify batches. Those are definitely the commonest versions that most will encounter.

Although theyve all held a certain charm that's appealed to me, it is of course the really heavy Cotterill Bankers versions that are the real gems. Despite having dozens of these Ive Never seen a powder proof bankers version or encountered a padlock either, but I know oldlock has mentioned and posted about the bankers versions on here some time ago. As for the padlocks I sure wish I had a few full boxes of NOS...

[safeman]

Huw, with the possibility that you may not seen these extracts from Cotterill's publications, they may be appropriate accompaniment to your wonderful collection.



The Tann papers include handwitten correspondence between Mr Fear and Mr Tann in a
similar vein of challenges made and refuted. Nothing new there then as the same happened
with Milner v Price and Ratner v Chatwood.

[Huw Eastwood]

Amazing documents there safeman, thanks for posting those.

I did once handmake some double 'v' bitted blanks for a customers Patent Acme lock, but apart from that one example, I've never seen or encountered another out in the wild. Love the one in the illustration- looks a lot heavier build than the one I worked on. Always assumed the 'v' bitted Acme's are far rarer than the climax with radial sliders.

Thats the beauty of this site and the members that make it what it is- the wealth of knowledge, information with hidden gems like this is staggering. Thanks for sharing them.