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The wooden trapezoid plate on the chest’s front, with the escutcheon hole in its middle.
Last winter, a friend gifted me an old cedar hope chest. The piece was made by her late father-in-law, an amateur woodworker. Since she and her husband were preparing to sell their home and move to a smaller place, she hoped to give the chest a loving home.
She said the chest was in perfect condition except for the lock, whose key was missing. After the key was lost, they had pried the lid open but unfortunately lost the catch plate, which retains the lock’s latches in the locked position.
The shallow mortise where the old catch plate used to be.
This summer, I had a chance to seriously examine the lock and decide on a course of action. Should I find an identical replacement, create a new key, or buy a new lock and carve out a place for it in the existing half-mortise in the chest’s front?
The disassembled old lock.
After removing the lock, I found out it was made by Yale and had the serial/model number #28. My first thought was to look for an identical replacement. I searched online, including on eBay, but found nothing. Either this lock had been out of production for decades, or I lacked the correct specifications and model number. Next, I contemplated going to a local locksmith store to see if they could broach the lock and create a replacement key. When I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, more than a decade ago, I was friendly with the owner of a local locksmithing store who was an expert in reproducing keys even for the most obscure locks. But since I wasn’t sure if I could find a local locksmithing expert, nor did I know how much it would cost, I decided to opt for a total replacement with a lock as close as possible to the original one.
I measured the size of the old lock’s faceplate and started the search. While many sites, including Woodcraft and Lee Valley, didn’t carry a lock of that size, an obscure showroom/hardware company, Vintage Hardware and Lighting, in Washington state, did carry a close enough lock. The store’s website looked like it was from circa 2004. It doesn’t allow you to create an account, follow your order, or track the shipping. Still, I decided to take the risk and order the lock. The lock arrived after a week, and I finally began the restoration.
The new lock upon arrival.
First, I inspected the new lock. Most of its parts were made of brass. The faceplate was pressed and bent at a right angle but wasn’t perfect, so I had to pull one corner back to 90 degrees using a small adjustable wrench. After inspecting the catch plate, I noticed that it, too, was not perfect, so I had to reform its shape on a small anvil. Now, I turned to the trunk’s half-mortise to see what sort of modifications I would have to undertake to ensure a successful installation.
Bending the lock’s faceplate to a 90-degree angle.
The new lock and catch plate after adjustments.
Stay tuned for part two, where I will discuss how I used a router to enlarge the half-mortise.
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