Vintage front hub
 

I have been given the task of rebuilding a Western Flyer bike from the 50's or earlier. Does anyone know if the front hub bearing cones were held in with a lock nut or by installing the wheel and the nuts that hold the wheel on the fork serves that purpose?
Note to self never volunteer on short notice.

Googling and Ebay listings show lock nuts

I can't imagine NOT having something to lock the cones in place.

I learned a long time ago to say- "Let me look at it first".
Too many times something was basically unrepairable and then it somehow becomes your fault.

My experience is that it could be either way but is pretty easy to find out by just looking. If there are no locknuts currently and the axle fits in the fork well then I would speculate there never were any. If there are lock nuts and it fits the fork well then they are likely OEM. But if there are no lock nuts and the fork's spread is more than the axle overall cone end to cone end length than perhaps lock nuts are missing. Or maybe the fork is misaligned...

Does the wheel look to be OEM? Is there a model name on the bike? What's the rear hub brand? Andy

Non lockout low end front hubs are fairly common, so could be either way. On those, you might find cones with serrated or knurled faces.

In any case, a measurement of the face to face axle width should tell you.

Once again I quote Yogi Berra: You can observe a lot by watching. The vast, vast majority of bike mechanical issues can be figured out just by looking closely at how things work/are set up.

Some old Raleigh front hubs use the axle nut as the cone lock-nut.

It should be obvious if it has one or not.
Yup, Raleigh hubs were pathetic junk with 3/16" or 7/32" bearings and one lock nut. OMG. I had a cheap 1973 5d. Lucky I still use the grips tho.
OTOH, My 1973 CCM front axle is fabulous with 1/4" balls and lock nuts. It has flats to integrate with the stamped 8 mm fork slot.
This wheel will spin for 3 minutes and then rocks back and fork like a Swiss watch.

I got the thing sand blasted, painted and in a box of loose parts. The fork spacing is 100mm and there was a big gap with the wheel installed. I bought thin nuts from Mcmaster Carr and have the problem solved. Had I not found the nuts I was going with 2 washers on each side.