My Mom found a key today that my Dad was hiding behind a picture. He died many years back, so I have no idea what it goes to and I was hoping that someone could help me. I have the picture posted at my website:
Thanks, GeekChick
Looks very much like a key to a bathroom or other interior door. He probably kept it here so you wouldn't take it when you were a kid and locked yourself in the bathroom or your bedroom occasionally.
It could be a key to change the combination on a lock, or maybe it is a key for thos 'keyed' light switches.
Bob
According to :
Yeah, looks _very_ much like the "key" people use to unlatch interior door locks on bathrooms for when the door is accidentally locked from the wrong side, or the kid locks themselves in. These days people usually use screwdrivers or roasting skewers.
[Or at least, I do ;-)]The other thing it's location suggests is that it might be a key for something they didn't want you getting into - like a very old/primitive/not-very-secure lock on a gun or money box or something like that.
Possibly a Nigerian safety deposit box :)
Looks like the key to a cheap metal storage box like this:
BTW the bathroom door keys that I have are more like nails with just the end filed flat. In fact, I've made a few out of nails and a grinder. The keyhole is round and wouldn't accept a flat key like the one in your picture. In addition, I think your's is too short to be a door key.
A friend of mine and his wife once bought a dresser at an antique auction, and when they turned it flat to load it into their pickup, they heard something rattling around inside. When they got home, they pulled out the drawers and found a metal cash box with about $7,000.00 in it. Perhaps the OP should start poking around the house...
It's not really a "security" lock, it's a "privacy" lock. The lock on a bathroom door is just to prevent folks from barging in without knocking.
I lived in a house where the bathroom door knob had a round hole and the key that came with it was a flat key stamped out of metal similar to the one in her picture. Your ebay cash box clearly uses a skeleton key. :^)
on 11/8/2007 11:09 AM GeekChick said the following:
Looks like a cheap jewelry box key. Just enough of a lock to keep the kids out of it.
I'm not sure where I implied it was a security lock...but thanks for that information anyway.
The "like this" referred to the cheap metal box, not the lock. I have a cheap metal box at home that has (had) a key like the one pictured.
Was the flat key to your bathroom less than 2" long? Just seems a tad short to be a door key, IME.
Did he fool around at all?
It might have been the key to a girlfriend's apartment, and maybe your mom hid it there so that he'd get no new key.
Jeff
Common style that was used on chastity belts. Looks like the master key.
That looks very similar to, though not identical to, the gizmo I got with my Taylor weather instruments to adjust the mechanisms precisely.
It's the key to my heart.
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