Telling blade size among various keys...

[Neo]

I signed up for FB-I and it's asking me to tell which keys have a larger blade size than the other one. Well the thing is, there isn't much of a difference. The only difference in size is the bow.

Is the blade the metal part including the part past the shoulder of the key?

If so, that would make a lot more sense to me.

[Neo]

I'm guessing there's no way to edit my post..

On another note.. The bow looks different. But they all somehow look identical tip to shoulder.

The tips do look different, but the length from the tip to the shoulder looks the same.

[Chrispy]

The blade is the part of the key that enters the keyway, it stops at the shoulder. Hence, the blade length does not include the shoulder.

Chrispy

[Ezer]

What are you on, lesson 2? Just match the same blanks up.

[Varjeal]

Blade lengths and widths are different amoung keyblanks...also, please decrease the height of your signature per forum rules. Thanks.

[Ezer]

Blade lengths and widths are different amoung keyblanks...

But if he's on lesson 2 the different blanks look nowhere close to each other. The bows are completely different. I still don't get why they ask you to differentiate the blanks by blade length when they have different bows. If they really wanted you to seperate by blade length, why not give people the same style blanks and just have some 5 pin and some 6?

[Buggs41]

Different manufacturers produce different bow designs. That is not relevant to what makes the key work the lock. Properly selecting the key to fit the lock is what that lesson is about.

[mupet]

What are the blanks

[Neo]

But if he's on lesson 2 the different blanks look nowhere close to each other. The bows are completely different. I still don't get why they ask you to differentiate the blanks by blade length when they have different bows. If they really wanted you to seperate by blade length, why not give people the same style blanks and just have some 5 pin and some 6?

The length from the tip of the blade to the shoulder looks very alike. The bows just look very different, that's all. Oh well, thanks for clearing that up for me. Tip to shoulder. Okie dokie.

[Ezer]

I'll try to clarify what I meant to say to start with one last time. If I still sound like an idiot, just ignore me.

I of course know that the same two bows, does not the same key make, but in this instance where you have 6 keys and are told that what you have are 3 pairs of 2 identical blanks. If of those 6 keys, there are 3 different bow styles and you are having trouble matching another identifying characteristic of said blanks such as length. You could logically assume that as long as in this particular situation the bows match that they are almost certainly the same blanks.

Just to state again so no one thinks otherwise, once you start cutting keys in a non-F-B lesson environment, and you are trying to match up an original with an identical blank from a key tower or other display with lots of different blanks, you can not merely look at the bows or any one other characteristic of a key to match them up. I also know that bows have nothing to do with whether the key will work in the lock. They are only sometimes helpful in narrowing down your choices of proper blanks.

You see now what happens when I try to be clear about almost every point in my posts?

[mupet]

there are 7 parts of a key that we use to identerfy them to the correct blank the bow or head is just one of them. The main part that has to match is the profile the rest dosent realy matter.

[Ezer]

there are 7 parts of a key that we use to identerfy them to the correct blank the bow or head is just one of them. The main part that has to match is the profile the rest dosent realy matter.

Thanks for trying to drive me crazy, but you're a little late.