Starting as a locksmith apprentice

[Varminter]

Good day to all of you!

I recently got an appreticeship at a locksmith firm where I live, I'm starting in a week
But now I wonder if there are any particular articles, books or papers I should read first. I already know how to pick locks and manage to pick most of those i try, it's more a question of how much time I use. I usually look through the new threads here to see if anything catches my interest to gain more knowledge, then I thought to myself; the guys at lockpicking101 might have a few pointers...
So I ask those of you who are locksmiths, what should I read up on?

[bobhdus]

You might consider getting some books on impressioning and probably an all time great one that I like is a book called "The Door Lock Encyclopedia". If your "forgetter" works like mine, I highly recommend this book. It has saved me several times from ruining a customers knobs when trying to figure out how to get the locks apart from the knobs. As an apprentice. you may be sweeping floors or focusing on key blanks, or they may throw you out in the field with a tech. You will soon figure out what you need to learn based on the needs of your employer. Good Luck!

[Varminter]

Hey again!

Now I've been working as a locksmith for about 10 months in Norway, and I have to say, I love it. Not everything was as fun as I thought at the start, like installing a surveillance system in a crane at a construction site. Sure enough, it was fun in the beginning but when they started to driving over exposed wires with wheel loaders, I had to climb up and down a 30 meter high crane to troubleshoot and figure out which cables were broken, up and down several times in very windy conditions. Dealing with perfectionist costumers, one called and complained about a (excuse me for not knowing what it's called in english) cover for a extra lock I installed in his door, so I had to go back there and adjust it one degree. Somewhat creepy costumers that act suspiciously and paranoid, not a lot of those luckily... And the cold in the winter sucks, minus 15 degrees is more than cold enough when handling metal parts!
On the other hand you have the nice costumers that offer you coffee while you work, that's the main reason I love to work at coffee shops, they always give me coffee without asking and that rare customers that actually manage to explain what kind of lock they have when they call for help when they are locked out. The best part of the job has to be safecracking, sadly they are few and far between. The sades part is when they call about a safe that will not open and make an appointment, then they call 15 minutes later and tell us they managed to open it by themselves.

And now for what I actually came to write about.
The company I work for is a Dorma supplier, we only deal with Dorma wares and on the odd occasion Trioving/assa abloy. So what I'm wondering is, what is your view on Dorma products?

[cledry]

I recommend avoiding the books and learning by example, then when you have a bit more experience hitting the books to advance. It may seem backward but in my experience 30+ years as a locksmith it works better this way. Books often give information that is outdated or of little practical use. As for picking locks, it is good you have this skill already, but don't expect your boss to want you to spend much more than 10 minutes opening a lock, most will say get the drill out if it isn't open yet. Bumping is looked down on in the lock picking community and some locksmiths don't like it, but if it gets the job done why not use it as a backup. I was unable to pick an old Yale lock, it had a restrictive keyway and just wouldn't yield, I made a bump key and after a bit it turned. Drilling wasn't an option in this case as the cylinder and lock could not be replaced. Another time we had to open and rekey @ 1000 trailers with Schlage lever locks. The locks were overhead and it was about 100 degrees outside in the shade, one of our guys was bumping over a lock every 20 to 30 seconds for hours at a time day in day out. Picking would have taken forever in these conditions even for a skilled picker.

[Varminter]

wow, that's a lot of locks to bump!
I didn't really get the time to order any books before I started, and when I started they sent me out with a tech from day one. So everything I've learned is through observing and trying for myself. Regarding bumping, I haven't noticed any kind of disapproval although we haven't needed it the time I've worked for the company. I have actually had use of my lockpicking several times for low-grade safes, locks mounted to glass (in stores for watches and jewelry) and lots of wafer locks that opened if you so much as looked at it angrily. Sadly I'm not nearly good enough at picking to pick a 6 pin trioving cylinder with all spool pins, as those are most common here, so when I get a door-opening assignment the drill comes out immediately.
If anyone else would like to share some experience or words of wisdom that would be great!

[cledry]

The trailers were being shipped to Chile. Unfortunately the customer in Chile defaulted on payment to our customer after only 200 had been delivered. We get quite a few jobs like this where we have to open many locks for days on end. A more recent one was where inspections of condominiums were being done and many units had to be opened because of absentee owners or empty units. We were opening 75-125 a day for I think 4 or 5 days. These were Kwikset and as such picked quite easily, even so the bump hammer came out on occasion.

[globallockytoo]

being in Norway, you should learn as much as possible about Abloy. Trioving are used elsewhere in the world too, but mostly on hotel room door locks. The secret with the Trioving is super light tension.