Archive for April, 2007

who are you gonna call?!? Pickbuster ?!?

Friday, April 13th, 2007

Over the years Han Fey and myself have seen many solutions to the
bumping problem. Sometimes the lock companies engineers came up with a
good solution, sometimes they failed miserably.

pickbusters 'shots'

I am not sure in what category ‘pickbuster’ belongs. Looking online
and on their website, their solution sounds a little bit too good to be true :

Lock Bumping – The Solution

Almore Ltd has developed a radical solution to this threat, which
renders any existing cylinder far less susceptible to this Method Of
Entry. This is done without replacement, leaving the existing cylinder
and keys in place whilst acting to greatly increase the effort
required to access the cylinder.

Applied in a solvent carrier, PICKBUSTER is non–toxic and provides
excellent long term corrosion resistance. A single application will
provide protection for the life of the cylinder.

Today I have received two ‘shot’ of pickbuster and will give it a try
over the weekend. Needless to say I will shoot some video of the test…

Pandora’s Box part II, The plot thickens …

Friday, April 6th, 2007

I am glad to see so many people responded to my request for information about
the ‘pandora box’. The best lead was came by Jason Jones. He found a similar box
for sale on antiqenet.com … Price : $17,500.00 USD!

maze

There is a lot of info on the antiquenet site about it:

Description: A rare French antique iron clad three key strong box. Makers mark Brevete – Magaud de Charf – Marseille Oak frame, clad with iron plates and thicker 2-3 mm iron strap reinforcements. The round bosses are fasteners, large steel rivets found on all sides. The interior has iron sheeting formed to cover the frame. Oak sorting shelves finish the inside. – All three keys, latches and mechanicals fully operational. Opening instructions documented and illustrated.

Antique Decorative Objects
Antique Decorative Items
Decorative Antiques
See our store in Denver.
Status: Sold Reference#: DF7_101
Condition: fine Year: 17th century
Country: France
Height: 39 in. (99.06 cm) Depth: 20.5 in. (52.07 cm)
Width: 28.25 in. (71.75 cm)

The nice thing about the antiquenet.com add is it contains some very high detailed
images
of the keys. Enough to give us an idea what to expect and what it is going
to take to open it. The next challenge is to find blanks this size to modify ….

Maybe we will see the box in real life this wednesday. To be continued…