I saw an episode of The Woodwright’s Shop in which Roy Underhill was making a wooden lock. This is a design that’s been around since Ancient Egypt.  It’s pretty clever, especially since it’s made entirely from wood. I wanted to make one, but wanted it much smaller than the ones I’ve seen online.

As a thought exercise, I decided to not set a goal for what I was making. In other words, I knew that I wanted a lock, but I purposely didn’t set out to put the lock on a specific item. I wanted to tackle this project one phase at a time and see what naturally comes up. In the end, it turned into a pretty cool wooden box.

I turned my ancient Egyptian lock into a mechanism for lifting and lowering a locking pin. I hadn’t seen this design before so I wasn’t sure if it would work. When the lock bolt slides into place (locks the lock) it lifts a pin. That pin slides into a notch cut on the underside of the box lid. When the bolt is pulled out, the pin drops down, allowing the lid to pivot open.

If you’ve never tried to make an ancient Egyptian wooden lock I recommend giving it a shot. It’s a really cool woodworking project.  Oh, and as always with my videos, make sure you watch until the very end.  I often hide things in my videos!