September 12, 2004
#216 :: Nepalese Iron Lock
This wouldn't keep out a crackhead with a crowbar. It's crudely hammered iron, cold-forged (but for the hasp) and pickable with a couple of well-placed screwdrivers. But in old Kathmandu, where they paint the great Swayambanath stupa with ghee and chant to honor Buddha, it's probably big and gnarly-looking enough to do the job. The key is inserted through a top slot and shoved into the lock, where it compresses leaf springs, letting them slip out through the hole. More hand-wrought locks here.
Great web site. You've got some very cool stuff here, I really enjoyed looking through all of your posts. I've been collecting unusual objects for a while now and just started looking for others who do the same, you're only the second that I've found so far. I just recently started putting photos of mine on the web and have been linking to my site at the newsgroup rec.puzzles for people there to guess/figure out what the items are. Hope you don't mind if I post a link, if you're interested please stop over and take a look:
http://puzzlephotos.blogspot.com/
My image host has been having server problems for the last day or two, if photos don't appear please try again in a day or two.
Rob