Impressioning question

[weerwolf]

Hello

I've learned to impression on this very board. I've been doing it for a while now and starting to get good at it.
But there is something I've began to wonder.

When impressioning a key for a double sided wafer lock , do you look at both sides of the key for impressions , or should you concentrate on one side ?
I mean , if the key is cut on both sides , but the wafers in the lock are on one side. Do you look for marks on both sides of the key , or just on one side ?
When the wafers are on both sides of the cylinder , you have to look on both sides. I usually insert the key twice , and flip it over , so both sides have been impressed. I'm not sure if this is the best methode.

Also , if the wafers are on 1 side only , do you have to cut both sides ? I usually do it anyway , just to be sure. When I impression , its because I can't take the lock appart , so I don't know for sure if it has wafers on both sides. So I try to get impressions on both sides.

[jimb]

If it's a two sided key and the wafers are only on one side then that's the only side of the key you need to worry about while impressioning. The key will then work on the locks but you should copy your impressioned key to a new blank copying it to both sides of the new key. This type of key is called a convenience key.