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What do I need to become a certified locksmith?

This is the old Locksmith business info area and will be broken down to fill in the new sections below.

What do I need to become a certified locksmith?

Postby omgxraycat » 22 Jun 2006 6:40

I read in a few threads that getting a certificate from foley-belsaw or penn-foster is near meaningless. What do I need to do in order to have enough knowledge and recognition to start working?

thanks for the help in advance :)
Jesse
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Postby Shrub » 22 Jun 2006 8:59

Having a certificate doenst mean that you have any knowledge or adequate knowledge,

Many do the FB and PF courses and learn a lot, i suggest if you want to learn you can read this entire site from start to finish (its possable a few of us have done it me included) and you will learn a vast amount, by that time and with the questions asked along the way you should be able to get in the advanced section and again read to further your knowledge,

As for skill? well that doesnt come over night and its somthing you have to work at, get as many practice locks as you can of as many differant types, sit there and pck them all, go back to easy ones and hard ones alike, dont stop until youve exchausted them all along the way re-pin and re-key them, make keys for them, snap keys i them, leave a few outside for weeks/months regulary spraying them with salty water,

You soon learn the ins and outs but nothing is fast and easy.
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Postby Raccoon » 22 Jun 2006 12:16

And then you'll want to buy books that cover the magic of fitting and hanging doors, and the myriad of locking hardware on the market. This forum will teach you how to pick and even bypass locks, but very little about locksmithing.
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Re: What do I need to become a certified locksmith?

Postby unlisted » 22 Jun 2006 15:17

omgxraycat wrote:I read in a few threads that getting a certificate from foley-belsaw or penn-foster is near meaningless. What do I need to do in order to have enough knowledge and recognition to start working?

thanks for the help in advance :)
Jesse



Where are you located?
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Postby omgxraycat » 24 Jun 2006 6:46

I live in Kansas City, Missouri
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Postby picksmith » 24 Jun 2006 14:43

The Associated Locksmiths of America (aloa.org) offers a certification program. You would take 12 tests to become a certified registered locksmith, 24 for certified profesional locksmith, and 31 for certified master locksmith.

Of course none of these are required to start working. Read everything locksmithing related you can get your hands on. The forums are a good start. Buy a bunch of different lock types and take them all apart until you could do it in the dark. Check your local laws to see if you need a locksmith license, if your going in on your own. Try to find local locksmith orginizations to belong to. Most offer periodic hands on training.
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Postby vjbeau » 2 Aug 2006 1:59

Get a locksmith to allow you to follow him or his guys around. Thats what teaches you soi much!! I'm doing in my free time and in the last 3 weeks I have learned so much it's unbelievable. I am re-keying Medeco, Multi.etc. I install cylinders, fix broken locks, and so on.

I have only had to pick a car lock one time in a torrential rain storm and that was done with a set of auto jigglers. Locksmithing is 95% servicing/installing locks than picking! If you can pick locks..it won't help you get a job. You must learn EVEryTHING first!!

Good Luck.

PS I am working for free. just for the knowledge and experience that my Foley-Belsaw course does not provide.
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Postby jimb » 2 Aug 2006 8:47

Some of the advantages of the fb course were not even evident to me until after I had taken the course, for instance:

1. There's a local locksmith supplier in my area and I would not even get my foot in the door without my card.

2. You can subscribe to a locksmith magazine as a student or graduate. You can't do that unless you are a locksmith.

3. With this subscription you have an ISSN number that allows you access into websites that you otherwise could not get in to. This is one site I would not have access to http://www.hlflake.com/ They are a wholesale distributor.

4. You might be able to learn it all here, but you will need access to the advance section to do so. Even if not extensive fb covers things that can't be discussed here in the public forums.

5. Even if you try to learn it all here you won't know what you need to learn as you might never think to search for it. A course should teach you at least the basics of the most common duties of a locksmith that you may not even realize you need to know.

You won't learn it all from these online courses, but it will get you on the right track. As an fb graduate with some experience as a locksmith I can tell you I'm not sure that I could pass The Associated Locksmiths of America certification program.

If you can follow a locksmith around, then that's great, do it and learn all you can. If you have little or no knowledge of locksmithing then a course like fb is well worth it, especially if you can get it for the $600 with the key machine.

Otherwise certification from one of the online schools may be worthless.
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