Category: Blog

Had a customer with a misbehaving Baldwin mortise lock on their houseboat, I told them about Baldwin’s lifetime mechanical warranty and how they could get a replacement for free but they were not the original purchaser of the lock. Rather than buy a replacement for $800-1000, they asked about other options.

These people had a worn out hub so their knob didn’t retract the latch, they could get locked inside or outside. I proposed making sure the Baldwin no longer locked and using a deadbolt above it, using a ballcatch to hold the door shut. You could use a magnet to hold the door shut instead.

The trick was to replace the strike plate (in this case already missing anyway) with a blank plate. Then one can open or shut the door by pulling on the knob. When the door is pulled shut the springloaded ball catch goes into an indent on the doorframe. This was an especially nice solution because the door was a custom made mahogany.

I remember five years ago when somebody told me they had a TSA lock on their luggage to open I would think to myself, “Five minute job.”

It turns out there are hard ones, watch out for T06 TSA locks found on expensive luggage. I had one today manufactured by Abus using a dimple configuration. I think it took me fifteen minutes and some sweat. It made me work for my money! This is a good development, the other TSA locks were way too easy to unlock, even a beginner could have picked them open pretty quickly I think. These dimple pins were giving me false sets and were generally a pain with a hook pick and a standard tension wrench.

Before heaping too much praise on Abus, if they manufactured the combination part of this lock the reason I had to unlock the TSA portion was that it broke. I’ve seen the cheap plastic parts of luggage locks break before which is funny to contrast with the luggage locks made 200 years ago by some Swedish blacksmith I unlocked. That was because the key was locked inside, the lock was still working great after 200 years.

Effective communication is difficult, and it becomes even more difficult when we must describe something we don’t understand. People often call me asking about how much this or that service will cost and I respond asking details about what products I will be interacting with. A good example is whether somebody wants me to unlock their door. The cost depends on how difficult it is to unlock the lock or locks that are on the door. What can you tell me about the locks on your door? If it says Medeco it will likely be more difficult and costly than a lock that says Kwikset or Defiant.

More importantly these details allow me to give the customer an accurate cost breakdown. Contrast this with people who are unable to effectively describe their locks. When asked what kind of locks they want rekeyed, fixed, or replaced some people tell me that the lock is “just a standard lock”. There are many different types of standard locks! Deadbolts, doorknobs, levers, cam locks, etc. That is to say, there is no “standard lock”. We’re no better off finding out what your lock is at this point than when the conversation began!

God forbid the dark day comes when your building’s master key is compromised. Perhaps it was forgotten in a lock, carelessly left on a desk, or was in a stolen purse. However it was lost, somebody has it and they may mean to use it to commit some crime. Hopefully only petty theft, but possibly assault could occur and you might be held liable. But you already know that or you wouldn’t be reading this!

The obvious thing to do aside from getting the master key back from the criminal is to change the master key to a new key without changing any of the tenant keys. Easier said than done! It is possible to do easily in some circumstances, but it may make sense if the tenant keys can’t be changed to deactivate the master key for the building until a later date. Read on for details…

Let’s start off with the perfect scenario (if one forgets about the highly imperfect start to this scenario), where a building uses a master key system that was designed with one or two chambers held constant for tenant keys but the master key is different for that chamber. In this scenario all the locksmith has to do is cut a new key to be designated the master with a different depth that the previous one for that chamber, and change the pins for that chamber. The old master key won’t work for any lock that this is done for.

In my experience this is not likely for most buildings where different locksmiths have come in and rekeyed the locks to work with the master key but haven’t adhered to any system for the building. It is possible there never was a system, or the system was drawn up on a napkin forty years ago and immediately used to blow one’s nose and thrown away. This is one of the times when it becomes obvious why it is great to have and maintain a proper master key system. Following is a more technical explanation for why this is difficult if there was not a chamber held.

Successful masterkeying requires paying attention to many details. Different lock manufacturers have different specifications for what pins can be used in their locks. Some locks, like those manufactured by Sargent, are machined to such tight tolerances that you can use master pins only .020″ thick. These are thin little round pieces of brass that enable one more key to work for each one. Add two of these in a pin stack and you can have two more keys work in that lock cylinder. If you put that same .020″ pin in a Schlage or even worse Kwikset cylinder it will jam up. Not immediately for the Schlage but eventually it will. It will happen almost immediately for the Kwikset lock which typically have very loose tolerances.

In a master key system there are many more rules and limitations based on the angle of the cuts on the key and other boring things I will leave out because I’m not trying to write a book but suffice it to say that if you have a building with say twenty units and everybody’s lock is using the same pins on the first chamber, you can make a new master key work in that chamber but you can’t make the old master key stop working for that chamber because everybody else’s key has the same cut as the master key for that chamber.

Another problem that prevents easily changing the master key is if tenant keys are differing by depths of something other than a standard depth. Master key systems cannot work properly if there are keys that are cut too closely to the master key. Schlage master key systems are supposed to work in increments of .015″, for example, but a master pin can not be less than .030″. If you have a system that isn’t really a system but actually just a hodgepodge of keys that are compatible but not in a system it becomes somewhat difficult to change the master key because in the second chamber all of the tenant keys may be .030″ different from the original master key but all other possible cuts for the master key could be .015″ difference.

To make it even more complicated, if we are being responsible human beings we must consider whether or not the master key might work in these locks even after changing the pins by pulling it out slightly. I subcontracted for another locksmith who controlled the restricted keyway for a customer I was doing this very thing for, we were changing the master key without changing the tenant keys. The new master key that they chose had different depths but unfortunately if you pulled the old master key out a little bit in the locks keyed for the new master key it lifted the pins to the right height. This was partially because some doofus in the past filed some of the plugs which made the cylinders have looser tolerances.

Assuming that your building is like many apartment buildings in Seattle you probably have a hodgepodge of keys not conforming to an actual system. The best I can do for you is measure the depths of all of your keys, make a matrix, and from that figure out the least invasive way to change the master key. It may be possible in a small building to choose a new master key without impacting anybody else. It may be required to change one tenant’s keys in order to keep the master key from working.

I know that this is probably an impenetrable mental puddle of barf to anybody but me or maybe another locksmith or at best a lock enthusiast but hopefully the takeaway is that master key systems depend on rules about how compatible keys are cut and if the tenant keys aren’t all created based on a sensible system like rolling constant, the chances of changing your master key in an existing system without changing at least a few tenant keys can be unlikely.

Got called out to fix a kicked-in door downtown. It was a wild night with Pres. Biden visiting town, an escaped zebra running around in the mountains and the base level anarchy that occurs in downtown Seattle on any given day. It was no surprise that a Belltown apartment building’s door got kicked in.

The strike plate and a chunk of wood were missing. I could screw it all back in but the zeitgeist dictates that somebody would only kick it in again. I decided to replace the busted out wood with a ninety degree piece of weldable steel (angle iron) and screw it in from the side and the back.

I hope that this will give future would-be door kickers a little more sport. For anybody trying to replicate, 3/4″ angle iron with 3″ screws countersunk from the side and 2″ screws from the back. This will distribute the force of a kick across a much wider area than the small t-strike that was there before.

You have to remove the wood where the steel will go first, then countersink for the screws, drill pilot holes and then sink the screws in. Then cut a hole for the latch. Only cut it big enough for the deadlatch latch to go in, not the button. I don’t have a picture of this but these people made a great picture illustrating this:

I don’t want to sound like a shill but let’s get this out of the way first: I think the “Jamb Protector” these folks make is probably the best security improvement most people can make if they already have a decent deadbolt and they install it properly. I have been installing these for years, before they were sold in the big box stores. They have kind of a shoddy marketing department but I’m a believer because I’ve seen their products stop breakins and I’ve fixed lots of frame damage after breakins with them. Now, on to the review.

I think most people will buy the “Door Armor Max” set. It comes with the venerable “jamb protector” pictured below which is essentially a 48″ long strike plate. It comes with screws that are longer than 3″. This will spread the force of an attempted breakin across a much wider area than even the best deadbolt strike and I would say that this is the most important piece of the set. This part alone is very good for fixing frame damage after a break-in, especially if the frame was split or even worse if parts of the frame are missing (see bottom of page).

The set also comes with some “Door Shields” that slide over the edge of the door. If you mortise these in they will be flush with the edge of the door. If your house is of new construction it may be better not to mortise them in. Many new houses have a quarter inch gap between the door and frame, you want to keep that gap as small as possible. Surface mount everything and all of a sudden the gap will be much smaller.

On that note, there is an important thing to remember with these long screws: if you overtighten them they will actually drag the doorframe over and if you aren’t careful it will pull your door out of alignment and maybe pull your doorframe away from the door edge far enough that it no longer latches! It could also cause your hinges to squeak annoyingly which is a symptom of their coming premature failure. This isn’t discussed in their documentation. I would advise you to get a 5/32″ drill at least 4″ long to drill pilot holes and also a self-centering drill bit. It will make it easier to get the screws flush (as they can be, more on this later) without throwing the doorframe out of alignment.

Moving on to maybe the most interesting part because it is also the least well designed: the “hinge shield”. The idea is good and Armor Concepts is correct that the hinges are a weak point for a lot of doors with only 1/2″ screws. Additionally I cannot say that I could make a better product. What I will point out are the flaws that I see in this product: if installed, they prevent the door from shutting easily because they block the hinge from closing and when the door is forced close bends the hinge and may cause premature failure of that hinge. This is exacerbated by the fact that the screwheads for this product are of a larger diameter than the taper of the holes in the “hinge shield” and so they don’t actually go flush no matter how much you tighten the screw.

It is therefore my recommendation to not use the hinge shield and instead replace the screws in your hinges with 3.5″ deck screws. It may be that Armor Concepts has done some comparisons between doorframes that have inexpensive hinges with long screws and their product with there being some benefit to doors with their product but as somebody who fights doors with bad hinges or improperly hung doors once a week, I cannot bring myself to condone a product that purposefully spreads a hinge.

Speaking of spreading a hinge I didn’t see this in their documentation when I installed one of these sets earlier this week but here’s a tip: if your door is springing open after installing the hinge shield and it is hard to shut the solution is either to mortise your hinges in at an angle so there is space for the hinge shield when the door is shut (hard) or you have to bend your hinge (easy). The easiest way to do that is to take your trusty 5/32″ drill bit from earlier and stick it between the two parts of the hinge right next to the swivel point and shut the door CAREFULLY so you don’t pinch your fingers and also so you don’t overly bend your hinge. It should be done incrementally until there is an acceptable amount of force to shut your door. If you overdo it, the door might sag and drag on the threshold and then you will have to replace your hinge or hire a handyman to fix it. You have to do this on all hinges on the door too if you want the door to remain level. I hope that I communicated how to do this properly but it is probably confusing.

More tips on installing these sets: if you want to properly set up the strike for the latch you will need to cut off the lip of your latch because you can’t install the jamb shield over a lip strike properly. My solution is to cut the lip off the strike and reinstall. That way it will properly position the door against the weatherstripping and set your deadbolt up to work correctly. If you can see daylight through the edge of your door or feel a breeze consider doing this. There is no good way to use the jamb shield on its own to position doors properly for the deadbolt to work smoothly unless you add a ton of weatherstripping in my experience. One elegant way to do it is to have a strike underneath the jamb shield.

If I were to recommend improvements to the manufacturer I would say that the number one improvement would be to make sure that the screw heads are the same size as the countersink in the hinge shield. Second I would say they should include a lipless adjustable strike that will work underneath the jamb shield, especially important in this age of electronic deadbolts. Other than that there isn’t much to be improved! Hats off to Armor Concepts not only for a well-designed product but also for making bank selling it through Lowe’s. I remember maybe five years ago before Lowe’s carried it calling their business number and some guy in his car answered. They probably have a secretary now.

Update: as expected I confirmed that this is hogwash, landlords are not required to use a restricted keyway for rentals. There is nothing in the Washington State RCW’s that mention this requirement. Here is The Residential Landlord Tenant Act.

Today somebody called me asking about restricted keyways for his rental unit. I warned him that I’ve been told that it is not legal to restrict your tenant’s ability to copy keys to their personal unit, though in multi-unit buildings it is perfectly okay and even suggested to use restricted keys for common entry.

To this he appeared to get huffy and told me that laws going through the legislature will require landlords to use restricted keys for all rentals because of the danger that their keys might be used to open other doors and the landlord who originally issued the key could be found liable for damages.

I didn’t laugh out loud at him when he said this, he hung up too quickly. Look for an update to this article in the next few days because I have to make certain by calling the tenants’ rights union where they have free legal advice about such matters. Even without speaking to a lawyer about this I am pretty certain that this is complete and utter hogwash. No doubt this man found a locksmith happy to sell him some expensive Medeco locks and keys for $300 a pop but there is no way that King County or any other legal entity is requiring landlords to use restricted keys.

The most interesting facet of this is that there may be some forum of landlords urging each other to buy high security locks for their tenants. Just because I tend to see the uglier side of landlord-tenant relations where the tenant is a complete basketcase I tend to side with landlords that protections for tenants are too great in Washington State but it’s good for tenants who aren’t total dirtbags to not be abused by landlords who are, and for them it’s good to know that there are resources available for free! They are very knowledgeable and willing to give advice and if they aren’t certain they ask their lawyers and get back to me.

Update: I tried to call the Seattle Tenant Union a few times. I don’t recommend it unless you have a lot of time to waste. I was on hold for no less than three hours waiting to speak to somebody. I dutifully carried my phone around on speaker output while I did about four jobs. It may be that there wasn’t anybody even answering the phone for The Tenant Union that day. I’m sure they do good work but if you know a lawyer just ask them instead.