I have been going through all of my research & I have some ?'s that will sound VERY strange to you-I realize this but it has to do with dating/time period & the type of lock. (Non-tumblers that have not been taken care of will tend to sound like a broken rolling tumbler-but they are handled very differently.)
1.)On the door hinges, is there a little acorn or do they just look like old hinges? (Earlier pieces did not have the acorns.)
2.)May need a flashlight for this next question. When you look through the attempted drill-in, do you see metal? If so, is it dark grey (blackish) and kinda rough feeling looking? Shiny black? Or a dull flat grayish color? (Has to do with the type of metal plating that was used as a lock stabilizer).
3.)On the lock, itself-can you see numbers/number letter combo or a manufacturer (Yale is WWII era, for example)
4.) The wood outer casing is a give-away that it is prior to WWII. Is there anyway to see under the safe or behind it (lower corner (usually left), right above the molding to see if there is a very small set of numbers?
You have made my day.