Source for barrel keys?

[Jacob Morgan]

Does anyone know of a good source for barrel keys? I'd like to try my hand at impressioning them and there are a few pieces of furniture around the house that use barrel keys and the keys are missing. Gordon's copper tubing trick was neat, but one of the locks is on the desk drawer of one of my daughter's desks and I'd like to make her a proper key. I think I could zero in on two or three blanks from Ilco's catalog that gives the post diameter, depth, width, etc., see which one fits then save the others for future projects.

Foley Belsaw sells a bit and skeleton key assortment, but $75 for several of 5 different key blanks (and some of those are skeleton keys) is pricey for a hit-or-miss proposition. I usually go with mysecuritypro.com for key blanks, but they do not seem to have any barrel keys. A web search turned up R&H Wholesale Supply--it looks like they, and the other places that carry them, are wholesalers, not sure how much luck I would have in setting up an account not being a business and such (but I might try it if all else fails). There is a site, bluedogkeys.com, that seems to have a good number of unusual keys and barrel keys but they do not list prices.

Does anyone know of a good source of barrel keys, especially Ilco's, for a few at a time?

[jeffmoss26]

What part number(s) are you looking for?

[GWiens2001]

For some simple ones, you can get blanks from Ace Hardware. They are in the section where they have the specialty bolts and nuts. Ask them to help you find "furniture keys", which is how they have them labelled.

Frequently, have to take a bit and barrel key that is close and file the blade height, length, thickness, warding and even drill a hole for the post as needed.

Gordon

[Jacob Morgan]

What part number(s) are you looking for?

An Ilco 23B, 34B, and 27B.

[jeffmoss26]

PM sent

[Jacob Morgan]

Looked at the local hardware store and no luck, but Jeffmoss26 is helping me get some.

Was looking around tonight for something else and came across two potential sources for non-wholesale customers who need barrel keys and have no luck at the local hardware store: http://mbausa.com/keys/furniture-keys/?sort=featured&page=1 and http://www.kennedyhardware.com/large-antique-skeleton-and-barrel-bit-key-set.html MBA has other locksmithing related items.

[MacGnG1]

the long search for barrel key blanks that fit is only slightly offset by the coolness of an old barrel key lock

mrlock.com has a few on their site, but its really hard to find a stock blank that doesn't need modification.

good luck

[billdeserthills]

the long search for barrel key blanks that fit is only slightly offset by the coolness of an old barrel key lock

mrlock.com has a few on their site, but its really hard to find a stock blank that doesn't need modification.

good luck

In my area 95% of the time the National barrel key fits furniture for most old to antique applications