Very Rusty Ornate 1880s Mortise Lock Restoration | Random Restoration

Welcome! Today’s restoration will be a very rusty ornate cast iron double key mortise lock which was manufactured by Reading Hardware Co. in the 1880s. This old lock, like other old hardware I’ve restored by Reading recently, has a Windsor design cast iron faceplate. The Reading Windsor was manufactured starting in the mid 1880s, and based on the logo this antique lock has, this is an 1880s variant. I started off this rather rusty hardware restoration by removing the two case cover screws. These are usually pretty loose fitting screws, so luckily they almost always unscrew without any fight, even when the case is in bad shape. With the case cover off, I removed all of the rust covered interior components. Following this it was on to paint stripping. There was very little paint and japanning left on the parts, so it probably wasn’t really necessary haha. Next up was rust removal - Like in all my restorations so far, I threw the rusted parts in some Evapo Rust for a day or four. I