did chatwood do a 12 or 13 lever single bitted invincible lock?

[Gary Stephenson]

Have turned up some old keys the original one of which has invincible stamped on the bow and looks to have up to 13 possible lever steps, there are also two copies of the same key from chip vine Newcastle, single bitted and the stem of the key looks to have a slight taper on it, 5 guage at the tip, getting slightly thicker as you progress down the bitting, invincible made me think chatwood, but no chatwood name stamped on the bow, just invincible and 29672, any ideas?

[oldlock]

Could they be single bitted keys cut to suit the double-bitted lock ? I recall seeing one of those locks where the keyhole was single sided but everything else in the lock was the same as normal ?

[Tom Gordon]

This one has a key that says Chatwood Milner
but is in fact a Bolton Chatwood lock serial no 98615 Invincible - for an 8 inch door
the fanlock had a very unusual single bitted key with 8 levers and 4 fan levers while the Bankers 12 lever lock was double bitted.
My memory suggests there is a 13 lever lock but that may have been just for a Scottish Bank.

[Gary Stephenson]

Cheers, I have seen the fanlock keys and the 12 lever double bitted ones, but never the 13 lever version like from your photo Tom, my keys are much shorter, will post up a picture.

[Tom Gordon]

Cheers, I have seen the fanlock keys and the 12 lever double bitted ones, but never the 13 lever version like from your photo Tom, my keys are much shorter, will post up a picture.

Er, the picture is of a 12 lever one.
Do you have any Chatwood dual control locks? I dont remember seeing them when I visited...or you were hiding them :-)

[Gary Stephenson]

Tom, so was it a single bitted Kromer lock? and why would someone go to the bother just for one extra lever?

[Gary Stephenson]

miscounted the steps on yours, have seen an impregnable dual control, but don't have one unfortunately

[Doug MacQueen]

Back in the early 90's I was making picks for many of the safe lever locks that were currently in use. The only Chatwood safe I ever worked on was a Chatwood Milner Isolator using a 16 lever double stump Lips lock. Obviously this was a late model safe. Can you tell me the approximate date when the Invincible and Impregnable ceased to be used? I am guessing around WWII. Doug

[Gary Stephenson]

Hiya Doug, not sure on the dates, but over here the CM isolator normally had a 6K115 double bitted lock fitted rather than the lips lock and was called the duplextra mk13.

[Gary Stephenson]

Finally managed to upload those pictures