Help with Mortise Locks

last year

We need to add privacy locks with emergency release to the bedrooms and bathrooms. Most of the door locks look like this. The mortise area is pretty much painted over in every room (including the door hinges). Skeleton keys we have don’t budge any of the locks, and as you can see in the last picture some of the holes where the skeleton keys would go into are quite off center. Not sure what direction to go in. Do we keep the mortise lock and replace the plate/knob and add a thumb turn? Is there anything compatible with this style of door lock that would be better? Or do we just fill the mortise lock and add a standard door knob/lock combo? Also need to refinish all the door hinges (those aren’t original and all mismatched/painted).

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

Sigrid
last year
Old keys are easy to find, but we didn't find any that worked our locks. We did eventually find a skeleton key that works with a bit of jiggling, but all our other doors have different locks. So, you could try jiggling with the keys you have.
millworkman
last year
Take it all apart and soak the guts in acetone and clean the parts well. Try it with one and see what happens. Filling in the face and stile edge holes to be able to use cylindrical locks will be a major undertaking. You may be able to clean up and use what you have or ytou may need to purchase new mortise locks. They do have somne that are not that expensive. Visit a local real hardware store, lumberyard or maybe a locksmith shop.
Related Professionals
Lawton Home Remodeling · Montréal Home Remodeling · Leamington Home Builders · Jacksonville Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Toms River Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Evanston Kitchen & Bathroom Designers · Johnson City Cabinets & Cabinetry · Tyler Cabinets & Cabinetry · Burlington Cabinets & Cabinetry · Flagstaff Cabinets & Cabinetry · Bakersfield Cabinets & Cabinetry · Magog Cabinets & Cabinetry · Odessa Home Remodeling · Bowling Green Bathroom Remodelers · Albert Lea Bathroom Remodelers
elunia
last year
^^yes, take out the lock and clean it up. We had this situtation — found a key that fit, but the lock wouldn’t budge. It turned out that the locking mechanism was fastened with a catch and once that was released the lock worked perfectly.
C B
Original Author
last year
Ok thank you millworkman and Elunia,
I’ll give that a try!
sacto_diane
last year
last modified: last year
You can add thumb turns to the mortise locks to allow privacy locking on one side or the other. It's just modifying the backplate to add the thumbturn. It may be difficult to find one that matches your existing backplates. You can also order a set of skeleton keys to find one that matches your locks

https://www.houseofantiquehardware.com/vintage-door-parts-new-york-thumb-turn