Post your locks!!!!

[planejet42]

Post the locks you have found!!!!!

 

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[CASPER-2]

I wish I had taken a pic of the best lock I ever found - it was one of the largest locks ive ever seen
I found i think in like 1979 or 1980 - I was 16 or 17
was hunting a base ball diamond that was at a school that dated to 40s-50s
myself and some other THer were hitting here and finding lots of coins from the time frame.
When finds started to slow down ...so did we and one guy started finding real deep large cents here and there
I slowed down an started going for whispers and was rewarded with beautiful 1834 bust quarter.
Well I got a real faint signal not to far from where I got the quarter and got excited. Cut a large plug and started to check
-dig and recheck. Signal got louder and louder and i was about a 1 1/2 down and still no target. Object was now louder
than a coin or anything normal would be and one of the guys came over and said "It must be a huge piece of iron...I'd give up and just bury it."
I probed down with my knife and hit something solid just a few more inches down from where i had dug. One of the other guys came over and asked
"you still at it?... he went over it and said "sounds like deep iron" I scratched down to the target and saw green patina and told him I see
green. Back then if I had seen rust I would have reburied it, but not something with patina. I probed around it and finally got my
fingers under it and was shocked when I finally wiggled it out from the hole. Biggest lock I'd ever seen. It must have been for a boxcar I figured.
How it ended up in center field - there were many old houses around and on another trip there I asked an old timer if he grew
up around there - he said in the late 1800s early 1900s there was an old hospital there and supposedly before that
it was like the towns farm field - which could be the reason for the old large cents and other old items down deep.
The lock was bigger than my hand and about 2 ins. thick - it had a key hole swing door and on the back it
was stamped Ames Sword Co. Chicopee Ma. 1864 - the company made swords for the CW as well as locks and some cannons
as well as the mold for the Minute Man statue. I had just gotten a car and friend of my father collected Ames Co. stuff
and my father said i should sell it to him for gas money - and I did. Its one of the items I wish i still had
Ive never seen one posted since.

 

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[worldtalker]

Seems like my last reply didn't go through - so trying again.

It's a rare lock. Very early patent padlock. Manufacturer is Dr. Solomon Andrews of Perth Amboy, NJ. I believe it is the 3rd oldest American padlock patent, discounting a handful of "X-Patents" that were lost when the US patent office burned in 1836. It probably dates from 1840 - 1860's.

See other examples here -
https://arago.si.edu/record_53085_img_1.html

Here's the patent:
View attachment 1806768

Thank you for this information Chris,a little more of the history uncovered.

 

[tamrock]

I found this part of one at an old coal mine site. Eyeball find it was.

 

[sandchip]

I wish I had taken a pic of the best lock I ever found - it was one of the largest locks ive ever seen
I found i think in like 1979 or 1980 - I was 16 or 17
was hunting a base ball diamond that was at a school that dated to 40s-50s
myself and some other THer were hitting here and finding lots of coins from the time frame.
When finds started to slow down ...so did we and one guy started finding real deep large cents here and there
I slowed down an started going for whispers and was rewarded with beautiful 1834 bust quarter.
Well I got a real faint signal not to far from where I got the quarter and got excited. Cut a large plug and started to check
-dig and recheck. Signal got louder and louder and i was about a 1 1/2 down and still no target. Object was now louder
than a coin or anything normal would be and one of the guys came over and said "It must be a huge piece of iron...I'd give up and just bury it."
I probed down with my knife and hit something solid just a few more inches down from where i had dug. One of the other guys came over and asked
"you still at it?... he went over it and said "sounds like deep iron" I scratched down to the target and saw green patina and told him I see
green. Back then if I had seen rust I would have reburied it, but not something with patina. I probed around it and finally got my
fingers under it and was shocked when I finally wiggled it out from the hole. Biggest lock I'd ever seen. It must have been for a boxcar I figured.
How it ended up in center field - there were many old houses around and on another trip there I asked an old timer if he grew
up around there - he said in the late 1800s early 1900s there was an old hospital there and supposedly before that
it was like the towns farm field - which could be the reason for the old large cents and other old items down deep.
The lock was bigger than my hand and about 2 ins. thick - it had a key hole swing door and on the back it
was stamped Ames Sword Co. Chicopee Ma. 1864 - the company made swords for the CW as well as locks and some cannons
as well as the mold for the Minute Man statue. I had just gotten a car and friend of my father collected Ames Co. stuff
and my father said i should sell it to him for gas money - and I did. Its one of the items I wish i still had
Ive never seen one posted since.

Painful story to hear, brother.

 

[devldog]

Here is a pic. of a lock I dug behind an old church that was used by both armies during the War of Northern Agression. The brass lock plate cover is stamped U.S. (barely visible) which dates this from the war period 1861-1865. The lock is black from being treated with a product called Gemplers which treats and preserves iron. I found this about 10 years ago.

 

[sandchip]

 

[sandchip]

Found this one in my neighbor's yard a while back.

 

[MKW]

I found this lock today and I have no clue about it. If any of yall have any info about it, I'd love to hear it. A date range would be great.
Thanks

 

[villagenut]

found this rimlock a while ago and was helped to identify the maker by the good folks here on T-Net...

 

[Brendan75]

Hi all. Here is a couple of pad locks i have dug over the years.

Cheers and Happy Hunting

 

[Acagedrebel]

it
These are my best 3 I think I have a couple more but hey are more modern I had fun digging them all tho..

 

[greentree89]

Found this on my first ever day out detecting. I think I need to have another go at cleaning that rust off though! I tried molasses for a few months but didn't do much to this rusty padlock!

 

[devldog]

That is a great looking lock. Congrat's.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

My best one came off a lake bed this winter, I also have a little one next to it that came from the middle of the woods near a rev war encampment.

 

[devldog]

Ded Jim, Joe Dirt, that is one cool looking Display. That is a lot of Great looking relics and Saved History you have gathered together.

 

[Gene Mean]

My best one came off a lake bed this winter, I also have a little one next to it that came from the middle of the woods near a rev war encampment.

JD-
Nice display. I like the way you stacked the buckles, saves room. I laid each piece on it's own space but will do it your way and save money too.

 

[Torishaw]

How old?

Was told by a few people this was part of an old padlock. Any idea how old? Its magnetic. I found it in the stones river in murfreesboro Tn.

 

[snaps]

Heres mine.

 

[RustyRelics]

I went to go find a friends lost ring today (he found it under his truck seat when we'd finished, only after I dug precisely 193 .22 shell casings first.), and ended up scoring this really neat brass lock instead. It was in a farmfield, where he'd supposedly lost the ring. It rang up, and wasn't buried to far, but it had been run over by tractors a few times. I'd date it somewhere around the '30s maybe?



I've already cleaned it up, as seen in the picture.

 

[worldtalker]

I went to go find a friends lost ring today (he found it under his truck seat when we'd finished, only after I dug precisely 193 .22 shell casings first.), and ended up scoring this really neat brass lock instead. It was in a farmfield, where he'd supposedly lost the ring. It rang up, and wasn't buried to far, but it had been run over by tractors a few times. I'd date it somewhere around the '30s maybe?

View attachment 1816128View attachment 1816129

I've already cleaned it up, as seen in the picture.

Farm fields hold untold treasure,unfortunate it get plough hit,every once in a while you'll score a good one,the plough hits keep you looking for the elusive.....BIG ONE.