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No John, friends are harder to find than boot locks, and I've calmed down now........
Bit of an update, the key is out. Having carefully looked at the barrel, there are/were two woodruff keyed slots on either side, these contained steel plungers and brass support cartridges, three on each side. One of the slots is pinned, this is because this side of the barrel also has springs behind the brass support cartridges, and is held in place by an interference fit steel pin. I removed the none pinned key, and the three plungers (there are also two blank holes), the key now came free, and I was able to insert the proper key, and lock/unlock the barrel.
On reassembly it became apparent that one of the plungers on the sprung side was misaligned, which will necessitate drilling out the pin and removing the woodruff key on that side (Note to self - make sure to do it on a large white towel, so as not to loose the springs, plungers, and cartridges).
I quickly disassembled it, moved the barrel into the unlocked position, and reassembled, so now I have a working boot closure, but it will need more work, a pillar drill to get the pin out, and making a new pin. Never mind, it's keeping the old grey matter ticking over.
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