Business question

[siivanti]

I've been pondering on what else one could do with the skill and knowledge of locks and lockpicking. It seemes like only being a thief(not an option) or going into the locksmithing business were the only options, but i started pondering further. I know some people make there money selling lockpick and locksmith supplies. Has anybody considered designing there own tools or locks and submitting them to larger companies? I really enjoy picking and i'd love to know i could go somewhere with it =P thanks for reading!

[UWSDWF]

FD, PD, EMS, and a whole buch of three letter agencies (four in Canada) use lockpicking a fair bit

[globallockytoo]

As a business, you could also consider Forensic Locksmithing.

This is becoming more and more sought after by companies especially insurance companies and Police forces in helping to solve crimes.

[Shrub]

Yes people do make picks and submit them, i think lockneebie did it a while ago, the thing is you will struggle to reinvent the wheel with hand picks but if youve got a good mind and can pick high security locks with home made own design tools easier than commercial ones its those that will be seen as potential,

[Bud Wiser]

I plan on using what I learn here and the locksmith course I am taking with Foley to further enhance my security consulting practice which I use to do full time, which I now do on the side. My full time work now is Internet marketing and you can bet your sweet google this is marketable in at least a few ways. Natrually I can't give away all my ideas

I think you could make more money doing your own marketing rather then submitting designs to others. Just find a local machine shop in your area and discuss what they could do for you. Don't pick the largest shops, pick the smaller shops. If a punch can be made for each pick you can produce your own and sell them yourself.

The only problem I see with submitting designs to others is how do you know they will reject them, and then later use them with out giving you credit, or they could say nice idea, but we already have some thing like that in the works! Just doesn't seem like a good approach. If you have a really good idea, you need to execute it yourself first, and then may be offer the design to some one else.

[CaptB]

Other flip of the coin is if you are designing something you need to make sure its not already in the market place. Otherwise you could end up with a law suit over rights. Does anyone here patent anything they have designed?