Does this seem fishy?

[classicdeluxe]

I recently went to a local locksmith shop and was met with a bit of shock. I was given a lock without a key a few days earlier. I had picked it open and was excited to get a blank so I could make my own key. It had a curve at the top of the keyway so I assumed that it was a Yale Y1 key type. However, I was not sure and did not want to risk spending a lot of money(mostly shipping costs) having one shipped to me, so I decided to go to the locksmith shop to see if they could verify. I handed them the lock, which was picked to control and told them I wasn't entirely sure about what type of key it was. They immediately grabbed a key out of a box and tested it and they said that this is the key. I asked them how much the blank would cost and they informed me that they were not allowed to sell blank keys for "legal reasons" and for the fear that "people can make bump keys." They then offered to make the key for me for $10(reasonable price). The part that was really fishy to me is that they quoted "legal reasons" even though it is not illegal to sell blank keys. I can understand that certain types of keyblanks such as medeco are controlled, but the yale y1 keyblank is not. I really think it was a gimmick to get me to pay them to make the key. I simply left, went up the road to a hardware store, verified that the key was a Yale Y1, and bought the blank without questions. I suppose my question here is, do you think this is fishy? I mean, if you were/are a locksmith, would you refuse to sell a blank key to a hobbyist?

[Squelchtone]

I had a locksmith shop who knew I was a lock hound and after stopping by their shop I actually needed an old Yale blank from the 1920's and they sold me one but would not sell me the 2 or 3 I wanted and they suddenly acted very suspicious of me even though I showed them the lock I was hand filing a key for. I think small time locksmiths have some sort of immense fear of losing any sort of business, and they recommended I go to the local supply house to buy the blank in bulk if I wanted more than 1.

I have heard the bump key excuse before at another locksmith shop as well. I can think another reason is me buying an SC1 blank as an example and hand filing a copy of a key that says Do Not Duplicate on it, the locksmith's mind may be thinking along those lines as well. Some locksmiths protect the public trust, some are protecting their pocket.

Another time, I walked into a shop and talked the talk and asked to buy some very specific parts for a particular lock, and perhaps I was wearing a factory Medeco t-shirt which was peeking out my jacket and the guy sent me away saying 'the owner isnt here right now' and I think he was genuinely concerned that I was sniffing around their shop to check out the competition as if I was a new local locksmith hoping to start up my own shop or mobile business in that area. I can understand that to be a legit concern, you never want to train your own replacement.

Glad the local hardware store helped you out!
Squelchtone

[UnlockingBoredom]

I have went to 3 of the local locksmith shops in my area when looking for keys... I got the lame excuse about not being able to sell blanks to the public but nothing about bump keys. If I want keys now I go into the local ACE hardware to get them, the old guy there sees me coming and goes right to the key racks with a big smile on his face and asks what Im looking for now.

If they dont have what im looking for I ask the locksmith that I do impressioning for to get me some and he gets right on it.

I think Squelchtone is right about them not wanting to help out a possible competitor or some one looking to break into something..

[nick08037]

I think you will get many good answers to your question here, most will all be correct in the usual sense.

I am not in the locksmith business but will take a chance and offer my opinion on the matter. I would say that locksmiths like other specialized service businesses are there to service their customers' needs and earn a living for their work.

Locksmiths may have many legitimate reasons for not servicing the various requests of the lock-sport community but often it just does not offer a useful business purpose to provide service.

Unfortunately the needs of the lock-sport community are generally not part of the business model of the auto, residential, and commercial locksmith. It is easy to say that they are turning away customers but in reality lock hobbyists are not their customers. Their product offering and pricing structure as a service provider does not generally support servicing the needs of the hobbyist.

[cledry]

Come to me, you can buy any blank except restricted, no problem. I sell them almost for the cost of a cut key but I don't see a problem. You can make a bump key out of any cut key too.

[jeffmoss26]

Never had an issue buying blanks from my local locksmiths. The one guy has old stock that none of my distributors can find

[GWiens2001]

A shop that I used to frequent was bought out by a California person. He made it a policy that no blanks can be sold. He, being from California, says that the laws there prohibit sale of blanks, and he is keeping the rules the same for his shop here.

Have got around it by asking for a code-cut key for a zero-bitted lock.

Most of the time, there is a shop I much prefer.

Gordon

[tomasfuk]

Have got around it by asking for a code-cut key for a zero-bitted lock.

Nice story!

I have no problems buying blanks for non-restricted keyways, for a price from one half to full price of cut key. Another story was when I wanted blanks for one restricted keyway (I decided to make a few modified cylinders with it). I like that keyway which is really difficult to pick.

In the first step I ordered a cylinder with keys from the manufacturer, with 0-0-0-0-0 bitting. The answer was "we don't sell cylinders with customer defined coding, only if you have such yet, with the security card".
As I intended to make the first cut deep, I asked for a cylinder with pin 1 <6 and pins 2..5 as small as possible then. The answer was - we will look for something like this. After that they sent a cylinder with a set of keys and two additional sets of keys (with another bitting) including 3 security cards.
I was not satisfied as each of the bitting had another deep cut which did not satisfy my needs. I asked them once more and added a long long list of bittings which would do. Let they choose which bitting they did not sell yet.
After that they sent 3 new sets of keys, and one of them was what I needed! Now I can go to any authorised locksmith, buy those almost-blanks and cut what I want.
And that all they gave to me for the price of one cylinder with keys
(But I purchased many spare parts too, they gained their money in fact.)

[MatrixBlackRock]

I asked them how much the blank would cost and they informed me that they were not allowed to sell blank keys for "legal reasons" and for the fear that "people can make bump keys."

That's just odd, maybe I lack the morals to be a locksmith, but if I was one and you can into my shop and wanted to buy a blank key that could be bought in bulk, I would sell you all you wanted to buy, at the same price as a cut key.

It is an item out the door, money in the till and unlike a cut key, no returns.

Wayne

[Raymond]

And I always laugh to myself when people bring in a key cut to 0 1 1 1 2 or something equally shallow and it is their original key.

[FarmerFreak]

We will sell blanks to people we know.

Here's the issue. First you need to know that all of our keys are stamped with our company name before getting hung on the board. The problem is the scammers, not other locksmiths or the general public.

You see scammers have no issues telling people that they are with our company even though they clearly are not. And it only takes one of their pissed off customers that just got ripped off, coming into our shop, and holding up a key stamped with our name in it to see the problem.

Telling the difference from a real locksmith and a scammer is easy. Plus other locksmiths know where to order blanks and don't want them with our name stamped in it. But how can you tell the difference between an average person and a scammer??

So they may not have anything against you. They may have an entirely different reason than what you were thinking.

Edit: I'm not sure why anyone would want to sell keys to squelchtone!

[tomasfuk]

And I always laugh to myself when people bring in a key cut to 0 1 1 1 2 or something equally shallow and it is their original key.

Once in a shop I found a double cylinder, certified in the highest security level available, coded 50021. As it was a perfect source of almost-blanks, it had to be mine!