Active keyways

[Lelandwelds]

I just checked out the Ilco key blank chart for North America. Thats just domestic for one company.

OMG! Thats a huge number. Are they all really active? Is a locksmith really likely to cut these with even a tiny bit of regularity?

[mseifert]

I am not a locksmith and don't usually cut keys.. But I know if you walk into a local smithy shop they have a wall of different blanks.

[GWiens2001]

The wall of key blanks is still but a small fraction of the assortment of key blanks produced by ILCO for North American locks. No, very few locksmiths will cut more than a small fraction of the blanks in that catalog.

Also, no, not all the blanks in that catalog are active. Or at least I have not been able to get a few of them in there that I have tried to acquire.

Gordon

[Lelandwelds]

I gather ILCO is a player . But still, with the restricted keyways, other companies, and foreign, that is a huge number. It's like everybody wanted their own keyway. Is it a vanity thing like having your name on a new cartridge?

Everytime I turn around, I find the subject of locks to be bigger and more involved than I ever thought it could be.

And more interesting.

[billdeserthills]

Plus a lot of those keys in the catalog share the same profile. You can find SC-1 and KW-1 formats throughout the book
You can even buy many of them if you don't mind spending $1 or more for a key that a common sc-1 or kw-1
blank will fit into

[adi_picker]

Yep, I can second all of the above. Ilco AU will not supply most of the keys in that catalog, only a fraction.

adi_picker

[Silverado]

I do not think it is so much that everyone wants their own keyway in the same fashion as having your manufacture name emblazoned on every product. More so that, without unique keyways, every key would be compatible with every cylinder and only the pins would determine a difference from one to the other. If that were the case and all keys fit in all keyways many peoples' keys would open many, many others' locks as well.

[Lelandwelds]

I guess we are back to a variation of " locks keep honest people honest". My rough math: 16k to 150k pin combinations. About 12 to 18 major lock brands. I guess it is not that likely anyone's circle is likely to include any "accidental" lock openings.

I was just surprised how many keyways in that catalog.

I would worry how many keyed alike locksets Home Depot sold their neighbors.

[cledry]

I guess we are back to a variation of " locks keep honest people honest". My rough math: 16k to 150k pin combinations. About 12 to 18 major lock brands. I guess it is not that likely anyone's circle is likely to include any "accidental" lock openings.

I was just surprised how many keyways in that catalog.

I would worry how many keyed alike locksets Home Depot sold their neighbors.

People should be more concerned about getting their new house that is construction keyed changed and the master pins dumped out as soon as they move in. A set of 5 keys will open any lock in a new neighborhood that hasn't been rekeyed.

[GWiens2001]

I guess we are back to a variation of " locks keep honest people honest". My rough math: 16k to 150k pin combinations. About 12 to 18 major lock brands. I guess it is not that likely anyone's circle is likely to include any "accidental" lock openings.

I was just surprised how many keyways in that catalog.

I would worry how many keyed alike locksets Home Depot sold their neighbors.

People should be more concerned about getting their new house that is construction keyed changed and the master pins dumped out as soon as they move in. A set of 5 keys will open any lock in a new neighborhood that hasn't been rekeyed.

+1. The first thing I did was to buy more locks of a different brand, then dumped all pins and rekeyed to a key that did not match any key in the locks. Later, I made other changes.

Gordon

[billdeserthills]

I guess we are back to a variation of " locks keep honest people honest". My rough math: 16k to 150k pin combinations. About 12 to 18 major lock brands. I guess it is not that likely anyone's circle is likely to include any "accidental" lock openings.

I was just surprised how many keyways in that catalog.

I would worry how many keyed alike locksets Home Depot sold their neighbors.

People should be more concerned about getting their new house that is construction keyed changed and the master pins dumped out as soon as they move in. A set of 5 keys will open any lock in a new neighborhood that hasn't been rekeyed.

Out here in Arizona one key can often work all the houses in an entire subdivision.
Years ago when I was having a slow day, while rekeying a client's house in a big subdivision,
I went ahead and made a master key from the pins in one of his locks. Then I went up & down
the block, knocking on doors, asking permission to try 'my' master key in homes--It fit everybody's
locks, everyone who had not rekeyed their homes, that is...

I wound up riling up all the neighbors in the community & they all swore they'd make that evil builder pay to change their
locks & I never heard from any of them again. I also didn't wind up drumming up any extra business that day, either

Far as the home centers selling 'keyed alike' locks, they are only keyed alike in groups of 4--Nothing like you're thinking

[Jacob Morgan]

Regarding the OP, it is probably something like the Pareto rule--20% of the blanks by part number are 80% of the ones sold each day. Could even be 5% of blanks are 95% of sales, but someone with a locksmith shop would be able to say for sure.

If you do a web search, Ilco put out a list of the top 100 selling blanks several years ago. Also, some vendors sell top 50 (or 100, or whatever) sets of residential or commercial keys, you could get one of those lists to get an idea of what the more common blanks are. Of course it varies by region, and even within neighborhoods.

One reason for the proliferation of blanks is that some blanks fit into a hierarchy of key ways to prevent cross-keying in large masterkey projects. So even if two change keys were cut the same, they would only work on their own locks because they could only be inserted into their keyways, yet one masterkey could go into both locks. Corbin-Russwin, Best, Sargent, and Schlage (and others?) did a lot of that. So instead of one key blank there are a dozen or more instead.

[cledry]

Locksmiths stock a lot of key blanks because we are often a last resort. People take their odd key to Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart and they either cannot make the key or make a key that doesn't work. Now all of the above apart from Walmart will then point the customer to our shop. Sometimes the customer will go to the hardware store with slightly better chances of a good key, again we get referrals from many local hardware stores. I had a customer come in yesterday, she had been to 5 places trying to get a double-sided key for a medical podium. I've been doing this for about 35 years and had never seen this particular brand. I did a search of the code 001, nothing. I did a quick GOOGLE search, nothing. So I had a quick look at various blanks with the correct profile and on the third educated guess I determined a Kawasaki X105 worked perfectly if I shortened it, I also took .002" off each side to match the customer's key.

As she left she turned and said, "I learned something today; I never knew locksmith shops cut keys". This wasn't a young woman, she was in her 40s or 50s!

[billdeserthills]

Locksmiths stock a lot of key blanks because we are often a last resort. People take their odd key to Home Depot, Lowes or Walmart and they either cannot make the key or make a key that doesn't work. Now all of the above apart from Walmart will then point the customer to our shop. Sometimes the customer will go to the hardware store with slightly better chances of a good key, again we get referrals from many local hardware stores. I had a customer come in yesterday, she had been to 5 places trying to get a double-sided key for a medical podium. I've been doing this for about 35 years and had never seen this particular brand. I did a search of the code 001, nothing. I did a quick GOOGLE search, nothing. So I had a quick look at various blanks with the correct profile and on the third educated guess I determined a Kawasaki X105 worked perfectly if I shortened it, I also took .002" off each side to match the customer's key.

As she left she turned and said, "I learned something today; I never knew locksmith shops cut keys". This wasn't a young woman, she was in her 40s or 50s!

I like to charge extra for that

Customers will be telling me, "Oh I been to Lowes, Home Depot, True Value, Ace and Wal mart trying to get that key made"
I'm always just thinking, 'keep talking, while I add that all up'....
My other fav, "Oh I never knew you were here", when my shop has been here for over 20 years...

[Ralph_Goodman]

As she left she turned and said, "I learned something today; I never knew locksmith shops cut keys". This wasn't a young woman, she was in her 40s or 50s!

Amazing. Did you happen to ask her what she thought a locksmith did?

Sometimes I get people who really have no idea what a locksmith does. They have never called one or gone to a shop. Everyone seems to know that a locksmith exists as a profession, but some people really seem not to understand why they exist.

Fascinating.