LOCKSMITH BLOG

Best Interchangeable Cores There are at least nine types of commercial lock cylinders:  (1) key-in-knob or -lever, (2) rim, (3) mortise, (4) profile, (5) oval, (6) tubular, (7) wafer, [...]

Safe Deposit Box Locks In this blog post I will discuss the four types of safe deposit box locks in use today. Before doing this however, I would like to briefly point out the two pre [...]

Don't Just Hire Any Hamilton Locksmith or Safe Technician In this blog post I will explain why home and business owners should not hire just any Hamilton locksmith or safe technician, [...]

Popular Hamilton Locksmith Scams Since opening Alpha Locksmith of Hamilton in 2012, a number of my customers have shared with me stories of how in the past they were scammed by a man [...]

The Dangers of Safe Cracking Despite what you may have seen in the movies or on television, most safes do not open or "crack" easily or quickly. Most safe work is difficult, time cons [...]

Mechanical Safe Lock Groups In my last blog post I outlined the similarities and differences between seven types of mechanical safe locks.  In this post I will outline the criteria us [...]

Mechanical Safe Locks In my last post I discussed five electronic safe locks in use today. In this post I will focus on mechanical safe locks. Over the years eight different types of [...]

Electronic Safe Locks Safe locks are divided into two categories: mechanical and electronic. Mechanical safe locks make use of wheels that must be correctly oriented by the use of a d [...]

Lockset Functions Lever- and knobsets come with at least one of the following functions: passage, entrance, privacy, storeroom, classroom, classroom intruder, communicating, and insti [...]

Lock Grades The American National Standards Institute (ANSI), an accrediting body, and the Builders Hardware/Manufacturers Association (BHMA), a standards developer, together develop [...]

Why Can't I Get My Key Copied? If you are having trouble getting your key copied at your preferred superstore or local hardware store it is probably because you have an I/C key, a loc [...]

False Ads by "Locksmiths" The vast majority of those locksmith companies that advertise their services online write misleading ads in the best cases, and false ones in the worst. Belo [...]

Why Won't My Safe Open Depending on the make, model, and type of lock used, there are a number of different reasons for why your safe won’t open. In most cases, but not all, the openi [...]

Lock Categories Broadly speaking there are five main lock categories: (1) mechanical key locks, (2) mechanical keyless locks, (3) electronic locks, (4) electro-mechanical locks, and ( [...]

Lock Services F.A.Q. I hear many of the same questions from my customers regarding lock services. It is not always possible to answer their questions in full while working on a lock t [...]

Lock Manipulation When locked out of your bedroom, office, or house you can either force your way back in, and thereby destroy the lock, door, and jamb; or you can call your trusted l [...]

Safes 101 Before purchasing a safe there are a few things that you need to keep in mind. Firstly, there are two main safe categories: (a) fire-resistant safes and (b) burglary-resista [...]

Door Hardware Many people make the mistake of thinking that a good lock is all that is needed in order to properly secure a door. Nothing could be further from the truth however; a go [...]