Residential & Commercial Security - Locks, Keys & Dead Bolts - Sargent & Co. antique mortise lock - reassembly

I have not been able to find anything on repair or maintenance on antique mortise locks, like a technical document that illustrates the parts and the proper placement of internal parts. I have a Sargent & Co. mortise lock (my front door) with a toggle circa 1900 to maybe 1920 at the latest. I removed & disassembled it to clean & relubricate everything inside the lockbody (no bit keys but that's another matter), and now, despite the rough orientation prior to & in disassembling it, I can't seem to properly orient all of the moving parts--it's the locking mechanism with the deadbolt--there are two different parts with a tine that works as a spring; the bevel cylinder & doorknob mechanism was easier to remove and reassemble properly after cleaning (and cleaning) the rust & the dirt/dust, and that works properly. Sargent only has technical documents for their modern day mortise locks, but their internal designs are very different from the victorian era design. An internet search only sends me to places that are determined to sell you something like new mortise locks, but nothing for restoration. Does anyone have any information about these types of locks?

Having worked on many and varied brands and models of locks, I can safely say that most of the modern era mortise locks (post 1879) are quite simple in design. I strongly suggest you take it to a locksmith, as they will be able to properly repair and rebuild it.

It is a rule of this forum to not post any particular business, publicly, but I suggest you look for ALOA locksmiths with in excess of 20 years experience.

Depending on where in NC you are...I know of reputeable ones in Charlotte and Raleigh.

PM me for details.

Is it the bolt spring and lever that is the problem? I can probably dig up some documentation, but it might be appropriate to post some pics here so we can recommend the repairs, if you are unwilling to go to a reputeable locksmith.

I have had the pleasure of working on a couple of these lately. The first thing I do is take a digital picture of the outside, remove the cover screws and take a shot of the inside just in case something goes badly. The internal parts are soft, maleable and bend easily. The damage I found in both units was due to bent parts allowing springs to slip out of place. The units are beautiful in their design. Write me directly if your'd like and I'll send pictures.manitouharbor@aol.com

I second the motion for some photos....old bit-key mortise locks are becoming rare, and I'm glad you're taking the time to restore it. A note of caution--on a lot of these old mortise locks, the case-halves were made of a cast metal which rendered them very hard, but brittle; when re-assembling the case halves, be sure they seat properly to avoid breaking the flat half as the screw(s) are tightened.

Hi,
I saw this thread offering assistance on a Sargent & Co mortise lock. I'm having fits with a similar problem -- the "plunger" suddenly stopped extending on our exterior Lockwood. When I opened up the case, I found two leaf springs that had become dislodged from their "homes". While my observation and mechanical skills say I should be able to figure out how to put them back into place, I just can't find the magic way to do it. I hate to bother you with such a stupid problem, but I'm at wits end trying to get this thing back together correctly. I'm including a jpeg link that shows the innerds. The two leaf springs in photo are of different widths, so I doubt that they are actually broken -- just need to be put back into their proper position. Any suggestions?
Hey, many thanks!!!
Snapfish: Share Photo:Registration (http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=255729462/PictureID=6901078894/a=149825793_149825793/otsc=SHR/otsi=SPIClink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish)
Jim

it's a little difficult to see in your pic, but thanks for posting as it shows that the feather spring is broken. You need to replace the spring with new steel.

I think you should be able to use the longer spring to locate between the latch and the bolt mechanism, leveraging off of the bolt mechanism, to press the latch out.

you could of course replace the whole thing with a Baldwin mortise lock, which will fit in exactly the identical place.