Locks

Keys

During the years I lived in Africa I occasionally needed to repair or rekey a lock, yet there were no locksmiths around to provide this service. So I began learning about how locks work and the technical details for the various types of locks. As I did my research I found on that locksport is a growing hobby. Many people think this is for illegal purposes but the fundamental principle of locksport is that you only work on locks that you either own or have permission to work on.

Sometimes I can buy a lock cheaply at the local thrift store or get one from someone thowing away an old lock. Often these locks come without keys, so I enjoy trying to make a key for these otherwise useless locks. My wife once bought me a 90 year old 6 lever padlock without a key. Three days later (not three days of work) I presented her with a working key for the lock.

A friend on mine works for a humanitarian organization and they had a box of school locks donated to them. None of them had combinations but they did have a keyway at the back. I was able to work out the combinations for several locks as well as make a master key that fit the back of the locks. You will note that I wrote two combinations on the back of this lock. Most combination locks like this can be opened two different ways depending on which way you turn the dial - R-L-R or L-R-L. If you click on the image below you will see that the last number is identical for both combinations but the other two numbers are a few numbers different.