Blog

10/15/24

Some May Call It Coincidence

Ok, here’s the resolution to my cliff hanger!  If you haven’t read my post on Primus keys you might want to do so before proceeding. 

I was returning to the office in the middle of the day and needed to turn left off a major road onto a side street.  I noticed a few yards in front of me, in the oncoming lanes, a car with its hazard lights flashing.  The driver had managed to get closer to the curb before coming to a complete halt, but was still significantly in the right oncoming lane, which required all the other cars traveling that direction to merge into one lane and go around her.  No one had stopped to help and she was getting a lot of glares.  

When traffic was clear, I pulled onto the side street, parked out of the way of traffic and approached the passenger side of the car.  She sheepishly told me she’d run out of gas.  Had she not been on an incline, I might have tried pushing her the few yards to the side street, but . . . probably not.  I’m in fairly good shape for a ‘gently, aged female’ but . . . not really car pushing material.  

I also debated hooking up my tow strap since I was driving my truck, but sometimes finding metal on the car being towed is easier said than done.  So we decided we would leave her car where it was and I would drive her to a nearby gas station.  A police officer pulled up just as we were leaving and said he’d direct traffic around her car while we were gone. 

So . . . on the very short drive, she told me a little about herself and I told her I was a locksmith, to which she was very astonished.  Not because I’m a ‘gently, aged female’ but because she had a key problem.  Apparently, she’s employed at an agency that has a Primus key and they want more duplicates.  For weeks now, she’s been trying to find a locksmith to make a copy of their key, but every locksmith she’d contacted said they were unable to do it.

(Now, every Primus key is stamped with a number and I believe if she had called Primus they would’ve told her what locksmith owned that blank, but she hadn’t thought of that, so she was very frustrated.)

I asked her what number was stamped on her key and, though she didn’t have the key currently with her, she had it memorized and told me the number, which I recognized. 

“That’s MY Primus key!”, I said in shock.  Apparently, many years ago, our locksmith shop had installed Primus locks on that building!  

But the building was a couple miles away, the key wasn’t stamped with the name of our shop, all the individuals who were originally on the signature card had died or left the area, so apparently no one still working at the building had knowledge of the Primus setup . . . until I stopped to help her on the side of the road.  

Yeah, for real!  I don’t make this stuff up!

Some may call that coincidence, but the woman worked at a religious facility so . . . we call it Divine providence.  

And, just to neatly wrap up the story, she got some gas and was able to move her car, and a few days later we went to her facility to lubricate her very neglected locks and make her duplicates.

10/3/24

When it comes to the world of keys, you’ve probably heard of Schlage and Kwikset, and maybe a few others.  They are each shaped in a unique way.  But there are actually thousands of different shaped keys in the United States.  And other countries commonly use even more keys that don’t match any of ours!  (Had a guy bring in keys from his ‘vacation house’ in Mexico, and we couldn’t duplicate a single one because they were so different!)

Schlage and Kwikset are EXTREMELY common in the USA.  So common that you can make copies at key machines in some home improvement stores.  So common, almost everyone has one on their keyring, and so common, that in a large city there are probably a few houses that have the same cuts on their key!!!  

Common keyways are also comparatively easy to pick open.  

Depending on your desire for security, that may not ‘cut’ it for you!

So . . . higher security keys were developed that were less common and harder to pick.  There are even keys that state ‘DO NOT DUPLICATE’ on them, however, the blanks are easily purchased and there are no laws that prohibit a locksmith from duplicating a ‘DO NOT DUPLICATE’ key.  We do it all the time.  Go figure!  Is that really high security?

So . . . special keys called Primus keys were developed that were patented (meaning it’s illegal for anyone else to make the blanks).  Locksmith shops could purchase rights to a patented key from Schlage (who makes Primus keys) and ONLY THAT SHOP can ever purchase their patented key blank.  That means, if a customer, (let’s call him John) has Locksmith A install their patented key on a building, only Locksmith A can make duplicate keys for him.  John can take that key to Locksmith B, but Locksmith B won’t have that blank.  It is theoretically IMPOSSIBLE for them to duplicate that key.  It is theoretically impossible for any other locksmith in the WORLD to make a duplicate of that key.  

To add another layer of security, Locksmith A keeps a card on file with the signatures of the individuals that are allowed to request duplicates of John’s key.   That may just be John, or it may be a handful of individuals who are in key roles related to that building.  If one of those individuals brings in their key and asks for duplicates, Locksmith A compares their signature to the card on file and WILL NOT make duplicates for anyone, unless the signatures match.  

An even further layer of security is, these keys have two rows of teeth.  One row is low on one side of the key and the second is on the top like a normal key.  This makes the lock nearly IMPOSSIBLE to pick!!  

There are a few other types of keys that have this level of security, Medeco being one.  And, as you’d expect, these types of locks and keys are more expensive as they are specially made for each locksmith.  When we order our Primus cylinder, they don’t have any sitting around ‘in stock’ anywhere.  They make and ship only what we order, when we order it.  

A1 Lock and Safe has owned a patented Primus key for about 20 years now, and we have a number of customers using them.  Some are banks.  Some are churches.  Some are celebrities or politicians.  Many are normal businesses and individuals who simply want a higher level of security.   

So now you know a bit about Primus keys and that will help you understand my Tales of a Locksmith #17!  (Cliff hanger!  Yep, now you’ve just GOT to read it!)

9/7/24

The magic of locksmithing!

Customer texted me a photo of a wooden filing cabinet he’d bought used, had no key.  “Can this be rekeyed?” he asked me.  Now, if it’s unlocked, there is a chance we could remove the mechanism and rekey it, but . . . there is another way!  

I asked him if there was a code on the lock.  I’ve asked that question of other customers and they act like I’m crazy, that any manufacturer would just print the code for the lock right on it where anyone can see, but on many utility locks (filing cabinets, truck shells, tool boxes, etc. ) that’s precisely what you’ll find.  So, this customer sent me a picture of the lock and its code.  Woooooohoooooo!  

There’s a handy dandy database that lists almost every code ever used in America and the corresponding key cuts for that code.  I’ve mentioned it in earlier blogs when I was able to find the cuts for a car key once they got the code from the dealer.  The thing that blows me away though, is the fact that these codes have been used FOREVER!  Way before computers were invented.  How did locksmiths in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s find the cuts for their codes?  Books!  Yep, books.  Old locksmith shops had libraries of code books.  Talk about riveting storylines!  These books were page after page after page of . . . numbers, and more numbers and more numbers.  

Now, once they found the correct book, and the correct cuts in those pages of numbers, the locksmith also had to find the right key blank.  Luckily they are listed right in the books.  (Yep, I’ve got some of those books right here, tucked into the cobwebs!)

I also have an awesome key cutting machine that bluetooths to an app on my phone where I enter the cuts and, Voila!, the key is crafted with the cuts in the right location and the right depth!  But those old locksmiths didn’t have this machine (or bluetooth, or cell phones).  They used ‘depth keys’.  These are sets of keys, one set for each type of blank (so LOTS of different sets) that have the cuts in the correct position.  If that type of key has five possible depth cuts, there are 5 keys in the set.  One key is all 1’s, the second key is all 2’s, and so forth.  The locksmith had to switch out the depth keys and make sure he was putting the correct depths (the valleys) in the correct places.  

However, the valleys aren’t all that make a key.  The mountains are what push the pins up and down and allow the key to smoothly enter and exit the lock.  If the mountains aren’t at the right angle, or if they are rough they can make it very difficult for the key to go in and . . . worst case scenario, . . . impossible to get the key OUT!  And depth keys don’t help a whole lot with the mountains, so locksmiths had to file those smooth and even.

Now that I’ve made a short story VERY long, I’ll ease your mind by letting you know, I cut the key, the customer took it home, and it worked smooth as butter.  Happy customer!  And I got to feel like a Locksmith Magician all day!  Never touched the filing cabinet, but made it the perfect key!  Win, win!

7/24/24

Customer brought in two Burg Wachter locks.  Yeah, we’d never heard of them before either.  Quick online search, we learned Burg Wachter is a German company that has manufactured high quality locks for a long time.  The customer had lost the keys.  She wanted us to create a key that worked for both of them.  So, the first question was whether we even had a key blank that would fit and . . . to no one’s surprise . . . there was a Burg key on the big key wall, under International keys.  Who knew!!  Hurdle one crossed.  Second question, could we get the cylinders open?  We tried shimming, which means pushing a thin piece of metal between the pins, blocking them open, but it proved very difficult because the small locks had very little space for the shim.  So we picked them open, not super easy, but doable.  Hurdle two crossed.  Now, with the cylinders open, we could, in theory, remove them from the housing, but . . . something wouldn’t let them slip out.  We noticed an odd strip of metal along the base of each lock and wondered if that might be the culprit.  It had a miniscule opening on the side of it, but wasn’t giving up any secrets.  I emailed Burg Wachter to ask, however, they didn’t immediately respond so we kept picking at it, . . . literally, (I’m pretty sure we were using dental tools) and eventually were able to wedge out the piece of metal which turned out to be a rather large clip!  Super cool!  Hurdle three crossed.  Now, usually, when we remove a cylinder we replace it with a ‘follower’ which keeps the springs in their respective holes (otherwise the whole thing explodes and you have to carefully put it back together again) but these unusual locks didn’t take a normal size follower.  Getting creative, we used a shim with a slightly-too-small follower and it was enough to keep the springs in line.  Hurdle four crossed.  And lastly, did we even have pins that would fit these locks?  The answer to that was a resounding NO!  Dang it!  Did we get all the way to this point only to fail??  Well, here again, thinking out of the box, the locks already had the correct size pins in them, so reusing those pins and modifying other pins, we were able to key them the same.  BOOM!  Another successful lock mystery solved!  Burg Wachter did finally respond to the email and told us to have the customer buy new locks from them.  Little did they know we’d already conquered the job!  When the customer returned, she told me the locks were off an heirloom piece of furniture that was from Yugoslavia.  Yet another happy customer!

7/5/24

Customer had a gate lockbox he’d ordered online.  It came with the key locked inside which would’ve been fine if the factory set combo had been accurate, but . . . it wasn’t.  It took a minute because the keyway was very small, but we were able to pick it and figure out the combo it was currently set to.  Another happy customer!

7/3/24

Call from a mechanic shop, a very stressed manager – 5pm the day before a holiday.  Apparently one of his mechanics had lost a customer’s car key and the customer had no duplicate.  The car was sitting in their parking lot, unlocked.  Couldn’t go home with the customer and couldn’t be moved into the shop and secured because . . . key was lost.  Luckily it was a 1993 vehicle, so it had a plain metal key, (not an expensive smart key) but in order for us to cut it, we needed a code which can be obtained by taking apart the car (it’s engraved on various car parts IN the workings of the car) or by calling a dealer and giving them the VIN number.  The manager tried calling one dealership but they gave him the runaround, so he was thinking he’d have to take the car apart over the holiday and find the code.  We advised him to try a second dealership, which he did and they were very helpful.  He called us back with the code which we input into our system which gives us the cuts for the key.  We then cut him a key (2 actually) and . . . they worked!  (That’s always exciting because keys cut from code are kind of a hit and miss thing).  By 5:45 the business was able to secure the car and get it back to its owner!  A great way to go into the holiday!

7/2/24

Call from a dentist’s office.  The key for the women’s bathroom was left in the bathroom and the door locked behind the last occupant.  This is a true emergency!  . . . even though there is a men’s bathroom right next door.  Men think this is a funny truth, but . . . women understand exactly what I’m talking about!  We were able to get the door open (much to the RELIEF of the female employees) and made copies of the key so this unfortunate event wouldn’t happen again. 🙂

6/25/24

Got a lockout call at 10:30pm.  A young lady had locked her keys inside her car while getting ready to go to work, and did not have a second set of working keys.  She’d called one locksmith who took one hour to arrive, gave one half-hearted attempt at inserting his airbag and then gave up, stating he couldn’t do it.  The car was a beautiful, red, convertible 2018 Ford Mustang. The way the roof was attached and the fact that there was no door frame around the window, must have made the other locksmith concerned.  We went out and tried some tools that go inside the door compartment to ‘pick’ the latch, but that wasn’t working.  So we tried some wedges to open a space for our long reach tool.  We were able to get the long reach tool inside, but the door handle was very difficult to hook, and the unlock button was far towards the front giving us bad leverage in our attempts to push it.  Then we realized . . . the key was sitting in the woman’s purse on the passenger seat!  So, with our handy, dandy long-reach tool, we picked her purse!  We got the key and brought it to the space in the window where we inserted a metal tool to push the unlock button on the key!   Voila!  Open door!  Sometimes you just gotta think outside the box!

Photo by Brian Matangelo on Unsplash

6/17/24:  A student housing location with numerous dorm-like spaces called for assistance.  One resident couldn’t get into her room.  The key would go in and turn, but it turned an entire 360 degrees and didn’t unlock the door.  Usually this means the tailpiece is broken on the lock.  It doesn’t help to pick a lock with a broken tailpiece, because, even when picked, the tailpiece still won’t engage and open the door.  Part of the difficulty at this location was, the locks throughout are ‘interchangeable cores’ or ICC’s.  That means there is a special key called a control key that can remove the cylinders on each lock quickly and easily.  So, in the case of a dorm, when one resident moves out and another moves in, someone with the control key can walk up, remove the old core and pop in a new one, and immediately the door is rekeyed and secure.  In theory this means the maintenance man should have been able to remove the damaged core and put in a new one without the assistance of a locksmith, however, at this location they appear to have lost the control key, which is . . . BAD!  That means the only way to get into these cores is to drill them out!  Which is exactly what our technician did, leaving the maintenance man to find a new cylinder and . . . hopefully . . . the control key!  LOCKSMITH TIP:  Never lose the control key!

6/15/24: Gentleman came in today with an old lockbox.  It was very old and quite heavy for its size.  He stated it was his grandmother’s and the key had been lost.  It appeared the cam lock was riveted on, so replacing that was going to be problematic.  Impressioning a key can be done, but it’s often a frustrating process.  He was debating leaving the box with us to try impressioning when we remembered we have rings of example utility keys – lots of cut keys that are commonly used for random things like cabinets and tool boxes.  There has to be at least 60 keys on those rings, but the customer was game to try it so he set to testing each key.  Miraculously, the fourth key he tried worked!!!  We were all very surprised and immediately cut him a new key which he tried in the box to see if it turned the cam.  It did, but . . . when he lifted up on the lid, it still opened, even though the cam was in the locked position.  WHAT!!!  We decided, when the key was lost, someone had forced open the box and bent the cam!  The customer was still excited to have a working key and planned to take the box home and bend the cam back into place.  Another job well done!