Mortise Lock

Our house was built around the 1920s and still has some of the original features, such as doors and their mortice locks.

As we slowly go around the house redecorating each room, one of the tasks is to rediscover these lovely locks from years of paint and grime build up.

Here’s the assembled lock

Old Door Lock

And here’s the knolled parts.

Old Door Lock

The parts that are covered in paint I put into a pot of warm water for 15 mins or more. This loosens up the paint so it can scrapped of with a plastic scraper. Then all the parts are lightly rubbed down with 000 steel wool and lightly sprayed with WD40.

After re-assembly the lock has a lovely and smooth action to it.

Extra: I noticed there is an instructable about cleaning mortice locks that I will read to pick up extra tips.