Keyway Templates.

[stratmando]

Does anyone make keyway templates, Made of stainless(aluminum would wear, or need to be thicker), 8 1/2 X 11 inches, with 3 hole punched for a notebook, would be several pages, but portable.
I have hundreds of old keys and want to organize and identify.

[Evan]

Does anyone make keyway templates, Made of stainless(aluminum would wear, or need to be thicker), 8 1/2 X 11 inches, with 3 hole punched for a notebook, would be several pages, but portable.
I have hundreds of old keys and want to organize and identify.

Key Blank ID book published by Ilco or one of the other big manufacturers...

No one uses metal templates with keyway profiles cut into them for key identification...

~~ Evan

[stratmando]

Thanks,
I see some stores have a thing for fitting keys to determine key.
I think if someone built these, they would be sold?
Some key ways are close, and compaing in a book or on screen can be difficult due to scale.
I bet 100 keyway could be laser cut into a Page of stainless. I would buy it.

[Squelchtone]

There is no substitute for experience of going to the peg board and grabbing several blanks and knowing one of them will match the customer's key. That metal plate idea is interesting but doesn't seem like it would be cheap to make.

If you want to figure out what blank something is, get one of those little hand held tools that has a stack of small metal places stacked together and held in place by set screws, you insert a key into the middle, tighten the set screws so the metal plates form around the customer key, remove customer key and you have a keyway now that you can try to insert blanks into. I can't find it now, but I think Klom makes it.


Squelchtone

[stratmando]

I have been messing with locks and keys since I was a Kid, and With what I got from an Old Locksmith Friend of mine 20 years ago, he was retired and knew him for many years, and for doing work for kim, He gave me his Key Machines and Hundreds and Hundreds of Keys, and tools.
Antique Trunk and Luggage Keys, Car Keys, Excelsiors, Taylor
The Cheney Keys I have a photo and can match the profile, and by moving back and forth from the screen, I can get them to match scale, pretty cool.
I also have a key that is about a 6 pin tumbler key, it is in the center of a Tubular Key(good security). I will send a photo of that and some other unusual Keys I have.

[maintenanceguy]

The key duplicator machines with the plastic "try-out" keyways are designed remove the need for skilled employees. Any kid who can flip burgers can randomly try keys in the holes.

The problem is (1) there are only a hundred or so holes. This means it's not possible to duplicate a key that's not "on the list". And (2) just because my key fits in the cutters keyway does not mean the corresponding key will fit in my lock at home. All keys would fit in 1/2" round hole. That doesn't mean a 1/2" diameter round key will fit in my lock.

There is a trick to recognizing blanks and comparing them to your key inventory.

Instead of trying to recognize the entire key profile, just pick one slot to start. And instead of looking at the end of the key, look where the slot ends, at the key head. It's pretty easy to see the shape of the end of the slot, where the cutter stopped making that slot at the factory. The slot might have a square end, a rounded end, a pointed end, or an end that points to one side. Whatever the end looks like, scan your key rack for all keys with an identical slot in the identical position. Then do this with the second slot and you can pretty quickly narrow your selection down to the right key.

I bet I can do this faster than the kid with the "try out" keyways.

[stratmando]

Fair at matching them up, How old does the ILCO (for example) go back in years, all(most blanks).
Is their such a thing as Antique Blank Directory?
Their are some old ones I cant find in the directory.