Dindigul Locks of Tamil Nadu

The city of Dindigul is widely famous for its unique production of hand crafted locks. The durability and quality of the locks is globally known thus landing the city with the name- Lock city. The abundance of iron in the region and the scarcity of water for agriculture were the two prime reasons for the people to turn towards lock making. Despite machine made locks being readily available in the markets, government institutions such as hospitals, prisons, temples, godowns etc. continue using these locally crafted locks. Currently there are over 50 varieties of locks made by the artisans. Earlier, there were more than 100 with the depletion of the population of lock-makers also from 1800 locksmiths in the 1980s to 200.

There are several varities of dindigul locks such as bell lock, mango lock/maanga poottu, nithra lock which is a mango lock with two keyholes placed adjacent to each other, mango button lock, vichitra mango locks, so on and so forth.

The lock making process involves preparation of the outer iron casing of the lock with a mold. Then a precision gear drill is used to drill holes of one millimeter into it. Crafting the inner portion of the locks by mere hands takes the most time ranging from several days to even weeks as each lock is  designed uniquely. The inner metal grooves and spring pieces are fitted together, and lined up with a keyhole.

Filing and polishing comprises the final stage of the lock making process. Tools such as bed-grinding machine which is essentially a device with two speedily rotating wheels that nick away at the metal surface of the lock for an even finish are employed for the crafting process.