While traveling in Russia I have noticed a lot of strange looking (to me, being a yank) locks and security mechanisms installed on apartments and businesses. My own apartment door is some prison-style contraption with two double-sided locks, one 10 pins and one 9, and the latter is only operable from the outside (to keep thieves from coming in by a window and leaving by the door with your valuables.) I think 'security locks' in the US are a big fricking joke, and the best one in my possession is the ignition lock on my bimmer (four sets of tumblers, diagonally symmetric, lock will just spin if the wrong key is used... and there's a transponder.)
Lever tumbler locks seem to be very common, and never having seen these before I went out and found some Russian-made locks. I ended up bringing home a mortise lock and a surface-mount lock.
Both are insane heavy locks with medieval-sized double bitted keys. They require four half-turns to open or close, and are supposedly pick-resistant and drill proof. See
http://www.locks.ru/win/product/technology.shtml (link in russian, but it's well-illustrated.) The weakest point seems to be the cam that prevents the bolts from moving if the tumblers are not positioned correctly, due to its size, but it's supposedly ultra-hardened and has that spinning ball.
Do locksmiths etc. in the USA generally have experience opening these contraptions? I would guess that these would offer a measure of security if installed at home, because these are not common, and if someone figured out how the lock worked they'd then have to pick it four times.
Comments?
