Trying to gather more information, Foley Belsaw

[Pandawdy]

I know there are plenty of threads here already dealing with Foley Belsaw.

I'm currently enrolled in their locksmithing course, and their mail order courses have been a fascination of mine for a long time. About 15 years give or take a few years.

What I'm really after is more information about the company, and their history, especially concerning the various courses that they offer and have offered over the years.

I have noticed that they have scaled back their course offerings in the past couple years. They used to have many courses including electrical, heating and air and computer repair. I think they even taught computer programming at one point.

[Eyes_Only]

I've been suspecting that they've scaled back too. Back more than 10 years ago I got their locksmith supply catalog and I swear it was much thicker and they carried more tools than in the catalogs they have now.

[Pandawdy]

I've been suspecting that they've scaled back too. Back more than 10 years ago I got their locksmith supply catalog and I swear it was much thicker and they carried more tools than in the catalogs they have now.

I confirmed it. Emailed them and they have in fact cut a lot of their courses.

It's too bad. Their courses were not the best but were convenient for working people.

[Eyes_Only]

I confirmed it. Emailed them and they have in fact cut a lot of their courses.

It's too bad. Their courses were not the best but were convenient for working people.

And I guess that's where Lockpicking101 and YouTube helps pick up that slack.

[Pandawdy]

I guess YouTube and this website could be partially to blame for Foley Belsaw's decline.

Basically everything that Foley Belsaw teaches can be had for free, and it can be taught better due to video, and anyone can buy the tools.

Before the internet, what Foley Belsaw sold was very valuable information. It's just not the same these days.

It's pretty cool to imagine that people could do a course like what Foley Belsaw offers, and then go on to make a real profitable career from it.

[Jeremym0411]

I just recently finished the foley belsaw course. Overall the course is good, a little outdated but good information to know. The only complaint i have is that some of the lessons dont come with a lock of some sort to see and take apart. For example the ace tubular lock lesson did not come with a lock. But one thing Foley belsaw did for me was get me a full time locksmith job!!! My boss told me since i was willing to invest my own money in course then he know i was really interested in locksmithing. So thats how i got the job. If anyone has any questions please feel free to pm me.

Thanks,
Jeremy

[Eyes_Only]

Another LP101/FB success story!!! Foley-Belsaw should sponser us.

Let us know how your new career goes.

[Pandawdy]

I just recently finished the foley belsaw course. Overall the course is good, a little outdated but good information to know. The only complaint i have is that some of the lessons dont come with a lock of some sort to see and take apart. For example the ace tubular lock lesson did not come with a lock. But one thing Foley belsaw did for me was get me a full time locksmith job!!! My boss told me since i was willing to invest my own money in course then he know i was really interested in locksmithing. So thats how i got the job. If anyone has any questions please feel free to pm me.

Thanks,
Jeremy

That's great news that you got a full time locksmithing job. What is the pay like? I assume this is your first locksmithing job?

I agree that they should supply more locks to work on.

I snagged a copy of the FB course off Ebay recently from the 70's. After reading through the lessons, it looks like they supplied locks for every type of lock you learned about. And not only that, you would send locks back to them for review, or cut keys that would be sent back for testing. It's still the same information, just required more work.

In one of my lessons I was supposed to hand cut a key. Instead of sending the key back, I was instructed to trace an outline of the key on the answer card with a pencil. Lame. The outline looked a lot better than the key.

[Jeremym0411]

My pay is starting out at 15 an hour. I would highly suggest get the book LSS by mark tobias you can get it off amazon.com or security.org. Lss stands for locks safes and security. The dowm side is the book is 200 dollars. But that covers everyrhing and in my opion the last book you will need. Hope this helps.