I am thinking of becoming a locksmith

[dorod]

Hello, so I am thinking of becoming a locksmith, I have been lock picking as a hobby for about a year now and am about to graduate college this coming June. I live in California and I have done some research on the matter and know I need to become licensed but I don't know if the best way of going about it is to go to a school for it or is there apprenticeship programs? I am a bit confused by what the next step would be and would like some advice.

thanks in advance

[2octops]

Get a job with a locksmith company in your area to see what they really do for a living every day.

I'll give you a hint. It's not picking locks.

[dorod]

I understand that it would not be picking locks the vast majority of the time. As for getting a job with a company a lot of time they already want experience and I don't usually see entry level positions, maybe its just in the area directly around me.

[Sinifar]

Saying you have experience at "picking locks" and want a job as a locksmith, is like saying you can change a tire and want a job as an auto mechanic.

First this is an extremely technical trade. You need a very high degree of mechanical skills to work in it. You need to know how to be a carpenter to install most locks, and have the tools to do so in less that a half a day, and make it look like it was there from the beginning of time. You need to be an electrician to work with the new and ever changing world of the newer electric locks every day. CODES are changing fast and are you up on the latest building code as enforced by the LAHJ? Do you have a copy of the latest NFPA 101, 72, and 76? How about NFPA 80? Don't know what those are? You are no where near ready to work today as a smith.

Next you really need to offer any employer some sign that you have the basic ideas of how this trade works. TAKE a locksmithing course. I highly recommend Foley Belsaw. It is not the most "advanced" but it does cover the basic bases which is what you need. Many of the lessons are read only not hands on, so your experience will be limited to what you have actually worked with with your own hands. I have worked with many Foley students over the years to give them the hands on part of the read only lessons. Maybe you can find an older smith in your area who would be willing to coach you thru many of those lessons. It is the only way to learn this trade.

The craft is turning more and more to electronic locks. How are your skills in that field? Do you know basic electricity and how to wire anything? Ever pull wires thru a building? Do you understand anything about the newest IP locks? Does "Z wave" mean anything to you? Access control today is a very tight market and only those who totally understand the thing are going to make it in this one. From E-plex to the latest I whatever driven locks this is the future for now. Although in time those will get hacked badly.

Not to rain on your parade, but giving you the facts of life as it was as to what it takes today to work in the world of Locksmithing, Access Control, and don't forget -- whatever you do, maybe subject to some tort lawyer's cross examination when things go wrong. So you need to be well grounded, and have the paper work to show your training and experience. Without it you are just raw meat waiting for somebody to come along and claim you know nothing, and are now subject to some heavy duty fines and penalties.

Finally, close to a half a century in the trade, and I am still learning almost every day about something new, and taking classes all the time to keep my skills levels up to date, and LEGALLY valid.

Enjoy your hobby, it is fun when there is nothing on the line to play with locks. When it is your livelihood you better know what the score is or you won't be making any more cash in this line.

Sinifar

[globallockytoo]

sinifar +1

[billdeserthills]

Saying you have experience at "picking locks" and want a job as a locksmith, is like saying you can change a tire and want a job as an auto mechanic.

First this is an extremely technical trade. You need a very high degree of mechanical skills to work in it. You need to know how to be a carpenter to install most locks, and have the tools to do so in less that a half a day, and make it look like it was there from the beginning of time. You need to be an electrician to work with the new and ever changing world of the newer electric locks every day. CODES are changing fast and are you up on the latest building code as enforced by the LAHJ? Do you have a copy of the latest NFPA 101, 72, and 76? How about NFPA 80? Don't know what those are? You are no where near ready to work today as a smith.

Next you really need to offer any employer some sign that you have the basic ideas of how this trade works. TAKE a locksmithing course. I highly recommend Foley Belsaw. It is not the most "advanced" but it does cover the basic bases which is what you need. Many of the lessons are read only not hands on, so your experience will be limited to what you have actually worked with with your own hands. I have worked with many Foley students over the years to give them the hands on part of the read only lessons. Maybe you can find an older smith in your area who would be willing to coach you thru many of those lessons. It is the only way to learn this trade.

The craft is turning more and more to electronic locks. How are your skills in that field? Do you know basic electricity and how to wire anything? Ever pull wires thru a building? Do you understand anything about the newest IP locks? Does "Z wave" mean anything to you? Access control today is a very tight market and only those who totally understand the thing are going to make it in this one. From E-plex to the latest I whatever driven locks this is the future for now. Although in time those will get hacked badly.

Not to rain on your parade, but giving you the facts of life as it was as to what it takes today to work in the world of Locksmithing, Access Control, and don't forget -- whatever you do, maybe subject to some tort lawyer's cross examination when things go wrong. So you need to be well grounded, and have the paper work to show your training and experience. Without it you are just raw meat waiting for somebody to come along and claim you know nothing, and are now subject to some heavy duty fines and penalties.

Finally, close to a half a century in the trade, and I am still learning almost every day about something new, and taking classes all the time to keep my skills levels up to date, and LEGALLY valid.

Enjoy your hobby, it is fun when there is nothing on the line to play with locks. When it is your livelihood you better know what the score is or you won't be making any more cash in this line.

Sinifar

One of the great things about the field of Locksmithing is You can start as small as small can be and You can pick & choose which jobs you want to do. I have been a locksmith full time since 1990 in my own business and I don't have the slightest idea of what any of those NFPA books? are. When my clients request a push-button entry I show them Simplex and a low voltage kwikset-type powerbolt lock. I have payed an electrician in the past to hard-wire the things I was requested to install, which kept me from being sued and still allowed me to install electrical devices. But mainly what I do is work as a simple locksmith. I do a lot of rekeying and some unlocking of vehicles, homes and businesses. I don't make keys for vehicles with transponders and I don't want to.I impression lots of keys for horse trailers and travel trailers & manage to feed myself even though there are 6 or 7 places that cut keys all within 3-5 miles of my shop, and I get to feel like the master of my domain, which is worth a lot, to me. Nowadays a beginner can have an internet presence that is as large or larger than the highest experienced locksmith that has been around for 100 years. This is a great time to put your name out there, online and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to begin buying the tools that you will use to begin, the time factor is totally dependent upon Your wishes.

[Sinifar]

NFPA 101 - Life Safety Code - most of your local building codes have adopted this. It tells you what can and can't go on with locks and doors, how they swing and a whole lot more.

NFPA 70 - National electrical Code - this is adapted as the CODE for all electrical work. The electrical inspector knows it and your work won't pass unless your work conforms to it.

NFPA 72 National Fire Alarm Code -- this is adapted by the local authority having jurisdiction for fire alarms. IF you work with anything connected with life safety and in any way it connects to any type of fire alarm, you need to conform to it.

NFPA 80 - Fire door and windows. This spells out the half hour, one hour, two hour and four hour door and what you can do with them. INSTALL anything on a fire labeled door and it doesn't conform to the code, and you just bought the door. It covers a whole lot more, but what you need to know is --- don't drill holes in any fire labeled door unless you have been trained to do so and know where the holes can and more can not go, and how things need to be attached to the door, and what "smoke tight" means -- and -- worse how you just violated the label. Cough up 1500 bux for a new door, if you got a cheap one. You don't want to even know what a full smoke tight door / jamb labeled unit runs.

Hardware has to be FIRE RATED and have some kind of UL or Factory Mutual tag on it. Not every piece of hardware is rated for fire doors. Most residential locks are NOT. Look for either the "UL" or "F" on the latch. WATCH this one - an attached garage with a door leading to an occupied home needs a fire rated lock on it in case there is a fire in the garage. This is one reason why a fire in the garage spreads to the house. The two hour wall between the garage and house is okay, but the lock in the door is not, and you had not better be the one who installed the non fire rated lock.

As far as door closers, again they are rated. Panic hardware comes in several types and FIRE RATED panic hardware cannot be dogged open. ONLY fire rated hardware is allowed on any labeled door. If you install something which is not fire rated, you just had lunch. You eat it and then cough up the right hardware. Your treat!

Never drill holes in any labeled door, the label is on the hinge side. To install hardware which was not originally cut into the door, that is the door came prepped for the hardware, you must conform to where it goes, how the holes are drilled and what seals the holes for smoke tight conditions. Leaving any holes open, worse thru the door when changing say panic devices just voided the label. It also makes the whole installation illegal, and subject to being reworked by a certified fire door hardware installer. THAT certification you get thru a class or two, usually given by some AHC outfit.

Just looked at my books, revised the numbers, GAD it has been awhile since I pulled those off the shelf -- mostly I work from the classes and what I know works and the inspectors will let pass.

SO much to remember and know -- and worse conform with. Building inspectors and fire inspectors don't care about you, they care about CODE and how it is applied to the job. Either you know the code, and do you work in compliance with it, or you are history as far as a security contractor.

IN truth, unless I get a , today with all the years before the mast, normally I can do this without referring to my books. It is something you learn, get used to working with and just do it.

Sinifar

[billdeserthills]

Thing is the vast majority of my work is done for very wealthy folks who live in my surrounding area. The few times I have even had a chance to screw up a fire door, I was instructed by the fire chief as to just how he wanted the hardware mounted. I thought he made a bad pick, but I wound up putting push bars using only the top latches on a pair of steel doors. I simply followed his height requirements and took my time, using the included templates & everybody was happy. These days locksmiths are more & more specializing in a chosen area of smithing. I know I was called out by a pre-school last month, they had a couple of Detex alarm devices mounted to outside gates and wanted them repaired. I could see that whoever had mounted these alarms had chosen a non-water resistant model and then mounted them to outside gates and I figured that the only way I would touch this job was if they wanted to upgrade to much more expensive water resistant alarms, which they didn't seem interested in. Knowing (and this is an important one here) that Anything I worked on would be My responsibility for the immediate future (at the very least) I simply declined the job. Nobody seemed offended and I didn't charge anything. So I do think it is important to know Your comfort zone & Your limitations, as You don't wanna walk into a lawsuit. And I could just see one of these alarms getting wet in the rain, after I changed it's battery, allowing a little kid to exit the facility, without sounding an alarm. I could just as easily see my million $ liability policy getting quickly "chewed up" in court and my business possibly forfeit as well, so I simply did that which seemed most sensible and ran away. Sure this childrens daycare facility won't call me again, but I don't need to do business with Everyone. And as you can see it is not cost effective in some cases to do what the customer requests, anyhow--Not when my company will be left on the liability hook.

As I have written before, it is up to You to decide just what You feel comfortable working on. Most of the work I do is on mechanical lock systems that have been working the same way since pre-1970's, or are fairly easy for me to figure out.

Far as the Lockout business goes, there are very successful companies in my area who specialize in only doing auto, home & commercial lockouts and the price they advertise on their trucks is $35. My service call is higher than that!

[cledry]

There is room in this business for all sorts of locksmiths. For example we do no automotive at all; instead we refer these to an auto only locksmith and he throws us referrals and a few dollars. We do very little residential; why because we know that homeowners are after the lowest price usually and we can't compete with the guys who have no shop, no overhead, aren't bonded etc.

Instead our niche is commercial and specifically NSPS and access control companies. These guys pay us a set fee if we are there 5 minutes or an hour. They don't try to get a lower price. Commercial locks usually get more in profit per lock than any residential. A $250 per lock markup is very rare in the residential side but is common in the commercial side.

Downside is, a lot of paperwork, a lot of photos, a lot of insurance and a guarantee of a set response time and we must answer the phones 24/7.

Not for everyone, but as I said there are at least 3 distinct locksmith industries, and I am sure more and some overlap. I know guys that only do safes for example and they make a good living.

[billdeserthills]

Hello, so I am thinking of becoming a locksmith, I have been lock picking as a hobby for about a year now and am about to graduate college this coming June. I live in California and I have done some research on the matter and know I need to become licensed but I don't know if the best way of going about it is to go to a school for it or is there apprenticeship programs? I am a bit confused by what the next step would be and would like some advice.

thanks in advance

I get many calls every year by folks who want to learn locksmithing in an apprenticeship program & I have been turning them away, as I finally just got burned out on putting in the 6 to 12 months it takes for most apprentices to simply learn the key board, let alone the many other aspects of locksmithing. One thing about being a lockie is it is very hands on. By that I mean you are gonna have many "sink or swim" type experiences,
where you will be required to think fast on your feet. You will need to become an expert sometimes in making things work that you may not have any parts for, so part of the job is to adapt. There is another word for it, a self-starter. These things cannot generally be taught, but if you want to begin as an apprentice you will be very lucky indeed to find a company that is actually looking, to say nothing of getting paid a "living" wage. I was a bit of a goof-off the last 4 years before my Dad finally retired and I received $5 per hour for my efforts, which was less money than my girlfriend's Ever made. I suppose this was supposed to make me take more interest in doing a good job, but it really had the opposite effect. Anyhow I believe most locksmiths actually start by going to a trade-school, like Foley Belsaw and make their start from there. I know my Dad did, back in like 1968. At that time he was an auto mechanic and he wanted a job with some respect. Nowadays folks tend to respect the auto mechanic, but apparently back in the late 60's, anyone could fix a car.

[2octops]

The Foley Belsaw course lacks a lot, but it does cover the very basics.

When looking at applications, I do focus a little more on people that have COMPLETED a well known course such as Foley Belsaw for a very specific reason. It shows that they are serious enough about wanting to get into the industry that they have spent a considerable sum of money and time to actually follow through and complete the program. That alone is a sign that they are serious about their desire.

[Seroxis]

One of the great things about the field of Locksmithing is You can start as small as small can be and You can pick & choose which jobs you want to do. I have been a locksmith full time since 1990 in my own business and I don't have the slightest idea of what any of those NFPA books? are. When my clients request a push-button entry I show them Simplex and a low voltage kwikset-type powerbolt lock. I have payed an electrician in the past to hard-wire the things I was requested to install, which kept me from being sued and still allowed me to install electrical devices. But mainly what I do is work as a simple locksmith. I do a lot of rekeying and some unlocking of vehicles, homes and businesses. I don't make keys for vehicles with transponders and I don't want to.I impression lots of keys for horse trailers and travel trailers & manage to feed myself even though there are 6 or 7 places that cut keys all within 3-5 miles of my shop, and I get to feel like the master of my domain, which is worth a lot, to me. Nowadays a beginner can have an internet presence that is as large or larger than the highest experienced locksmith that has been around for 100 years. This is a great time to put your name out there, online and it doesn't have to cost a lot of money to begin buying the tools that you will use to begin, the time factor is totally dependent upon Your wishes.

I've got to agree with this. I don't know much about the field, but from what I did read it explains, locksmithing can be something you do part time, full time, whatever. Take a job if you want to, don't take it if you don't want to. dorod was just asking for help getting licensed, and if he is going to finish college soon, chances are he already had a career in mind. Maybe this was something on the side. Although, Sinifar's post is a good reality check for anyone who picked a couple locks and thinks they can quit their job to start a business. I'm sure being licensed, and even just having a basic work such as helping people get in who lost their keys, or key making, repinning, etc.. the basics. There are still people who want that done, and extra cash is never a bad thing.

[Just_4_Fun]

Keep this as a hobby.
Cameras and access control can make you some money if you own the company, but as an employee with a family you will just keep up with the bills.
Get a government job, keep trying till you do. Try harder.

Everybody picks, everybody can turn a screw driver or drill a hole, and old retired men give their services away for no service call and $10 or just glad to help.

There's no money in basic locksmithing, just hassel.
You will not be respected as a knowledged tradesperson as people will think of you as a glorified handyman, or some "kid" who breakin to places all the time like you're some sort of full time after-hours criminal.
If you do go open something for someone, you will be reminded the kid down the street could do that for cheaper, but was busy I guess.
Or they have a friend at the competitors company that would have come down to do it for free, yet your there.

This site (others like it) and YT has wiped out the gravey work, so hard-core specialize or don't bother.
Lock picking is day one stuff... what else you got?

[MBI]

This site (others like it) and YT has wiped out the gravey work, so hard-core specialize or don't bother.
Lock picking is day one stuff... what else you got?

I doubt we'll ever hear what else the original poster has in his toolbox since this thread is over a year old and he hasn't logged in since then either. However, hopefully your input will be of some use to someone else.

[billdeserthills]

Actually pretty much all I still do as a locksmith is basic work & I make a good living at it. If you don't want to be referred
to as a 'glorified handyman' then do a professional job. People do make mistakes you know, your customer should be advised
if you have 'bitten off more than you can chew' and messed up something. In my shop I don't do transponder keys or electric
locks, other than low voltage stuff. If that makes me a basic locksmith, then so be it. Doesn't matter what anyone calls it, so
long as it feeds me and pays my rent & clothing.