Half-Heart Padlock
The half-heart padlock is “distinctive” and “appears to resemble a heart sliced down the middle,” as Ivor Noël Hume describes it in A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America.
Though many examples can be found in museum collections, I find that half-heart padlocks do not seem to be as prevalent as other locks from the same time period. Perhaps it was because ultimately they proved to not be very secure as stated by Duhamel du Monceau in Art du Serrurier:
“It is a pity that it only takes a few hammer blows to knock out the shackle of this little padlock; for it is most ingeniously imagined, and it is hardly possible that it could be opened by a key which was not made on purpose.”
Unlike the typical shackle that pivots open, the shackle of a half-heart padlock is fully removed from the lock when open. A retaining wire, on the left side of the lock, is all that keeps it connected to the lock body. The simple mechanism of this lock solely relies on compressed and expanded springs at each end of the shackle.
To find out more about these locks or to learn to make your own, check out my book: Handmade Padlock II