The names of Keyways and what they look like, Inside and out

[PachalT]

Hi my name is Travis and I am new to the forums. I saw the forum room name and sifted through my plethora of questions and settled on this one for now. Since I have started picking locks I have experienced quite a few different key ways and I don't know the names for them, what they look like on the inside, or even how they came to be. Why are some keyways more popular than others and are there any keyways that never quite made it into modern locks? My question is if anyone can recommend any sort of media that is factual and educational and full of good information to absorb. I'd ask for reading material but I am kind of hoping to pick while I watch.

[demux]

The popularity of various keyways is proportional to the locks that use them. These vary by location, so not knowing exactly where you are (by the way, if you want more location-specific advice you should fill out at least a general location value in your board profile) I couldn't say exactly what you might encounter. Where I am (US), you will tend to see a lot of the Schlage and Kwikset residential keyways (SC1 and KW1), Master padlock keyways (M1), etc. This is just because every big box and hardware store in the country carries locks with those keyways, so the market is flooded with them. There are other keyways out there, but they're not as common and you probably wouldn't see/have many of them unless you really got into this hobby and started collecting them (as most of us have). I'd encourage you to check out the various threads under the Member Lock Collections area if you want to see some really esoteric ones, some of the members here have very impressive lock collections. On the US commercial side, you'll see a lot of keyways from Schlage, Corbin Russwin, Sargent, Best, etc, but each of them makes several different keyways for their commercial offerings so there is not as much standardization there. What you'll see in that space will depend heavily on your specific location and what the local lock shops in that area carry/sell.

If you want a really good cross reference, I personally like the Ilco key blank catalog, it has sections for different types of locks (cylinder, auto, etc) and is fairly complete, at least for the more common keyways. You should check it out:

http://www.ilco.us/literature-support/3 ... ences.html

[Jacob Morgan]

When you look through the Ilco catalog you will see page after page of keys from old companies like Sargent and Corbin-Russwin. One reason for their being so many was that many of the keyways are related in a family tree of sort, and locksmiths, used to especially, took advantage of that when they made master key systems. For example, in a 5 story building with identical floor layouts, they could set up the bitting to master key one floor, then duplicate that on the other 4 floors by using a slightly different key blank for each floor. There could even be one master key on each floor, then a grand master key for the whole building.

Besides coming into being to support old master key systems, some lock manufacturers patent keyways to enhance security by making it harder to duplicate keys--blanks are only sold to authorized locksmiths. Then when those parents run out they take out new ones, and they leave a trail of key blank designs behind that aftermarket companies then sell.

There also simply used to be more lock companies out there before the big box era. For example Slaymaker and Eagle made padlocks, that used their own keys. And Ilco and others still make blanks for them even though those companies are gone.

Probably other reasons too for the proliferation of blanks over the years. There are programs and on-line tools that literally have thousands and thousands of entries. Some large locksmith shops have walls of keys.

[PachalT]

Thank you for the replies.

The ILCO site is really cool, As well as a lot of the locks people on this site have collected. People have invented some really bizzare keyways, some even seem as if the pins rest on the middle part of the key way (sorry, I am still not familiar with the terminology yet). Theres so much history on the lock and so many people that have contributed to the advancement of locks that I’m a bit overwhelmed. I know that learning the history of locks wont help me become more effecient at picking, I just find them facinating.