BosnianBill’s LockLab spotlights vintage French padlock FTH nº34 open

The newest Tallanpick entry on BosnianBill’s LockLab put a vintage French FTH nº34 padlock at center stage, and that alone tells you this was never just another routine open. The archive framed it as a lockpicking-and-antiques piece, the kind of find that draws collectors and pickers for the same reason: an old lock can be a puzzle, a survivor, and a snapshot of how a manufacturer thought about security.

That matters because antique padlocks do not behave like the modern stuff most people train on. Age changes the feel, wear changes the tolerances, and the design era changes the whole game. A French FTH padlock from an earlier manufacturing tradition can have a keyway, warding, or internal structure that pushes the picker to slow down and read the lock instead of forcing familiar assumptions onto it. In that sense, the FTH nº34 is useful even before it opens. It reminds the hobby that “old” does not automatically mean “easy,” especially when the lock has survived long enough to develop its own wear pattern and personality.

LockLab’s own archive makes that point harder to miss. The FTH nº34 post, published May 31, 2026, follows a clear Tallanpick trail through French hardware, including S071, “CANDADO VINTAGE FRANCÉS FTH UNIS,” and S064, “CANDADO LATÓN FTH nº8 DEL AÑO 1924.” There is also S129, “CANDADO VINTAGE FRANCÉS ZENICA 60,” in the same run. This is not a one-off curiosity. It looks like a deliberate focus on vintage French padlocks, the kind of niche documentation that keeps obscure hardware visible in a hobby built around shared reference points.

That fits LockLab’s broader pitch for locksport, which it describes as a fast-growing hobby supported by YouTube videos, forums, chat rooms, and a Lockwiki. In that ecosystem, a documented open of an FTH nº34 does more than add another clip to the feed. It preserves a case study in historical security design, the sort of object that can teach more than a modern practice lock ever will.

Outside LockLab, the FTH name keeps turning up in listings and clips that reinforce the collectible angle. An Etsy listing describes old FTH French padlocks as vintage from the 1950s and gives a set size of about 9.5 cm high and 6.5 cm wide. An eBay listing calls out an FTH No.36 brass padlock as vintage 1950s-era collectible hardware. Another YouTube result identifies FTH as Fernand Thirard and describes a vintage all-brass French five-lever padlock, while marketplace listings also show FTH-branded combination padlocks, including an FTH 4 Roll Code Lock. Put together, the FTH nº34 lands where the best antique locks do: somewhere between tool time and history, with enough brass, wear, and old-world design to keep both pickers and collectors paying attention.