Master the skills

Many counties require individuals to be licensed before they can practice locksmith work.  New York City requires individuals to get licensed before doing locksmith work.  Many individuals do locksmith work without a license or under the license of the company they work for.  In the past the licensing agency use to give individuals a locksmith test before issuing a license but now a days all they require is two licensed locksmiths to sign two affidavits in order to get a locksmith license.  The test in the past use to be where the applicant would be placed in a room in front of a desk and someone would come take apart a lock dump all the parts in front of the applicant and give them 5 minutes to put it together, if they were successful in doing it correctly they would be given the status of being a master locksmith.  In today's field there aren't many master locksmiths, just individual who learn how to install locks on door and then they call themselves locksmiths.  I feel that people who cant use everything around them to create solution for everyday lock problems they don't deserve to be called locksmiths.  Today I was able to help this old man repair his 70 year old lock which two other locksmiths refused to fix because it is too "old".  So this old man went to home depot and bought a mortise lock. When I arrived at his apartment he was holding this lock that would in no way fit in the space of the old one.  He asked me if I could fix the old one.  I looked at the lock and I looked at the old man and then I asked him to show me the problem.  From the first try I knew what the problem was so I told him that I could fix it and I could replace it.  I gave him two prices for fixing it the cost is $185 and replacing it would be $350.  The particular lock that was in his door was a Norwalk wide face extended face plate probably made in the 50's. The problem was the internal thumb turn disc inside the lock. The disc hole where the thumb turn goes into was worn out hence not allowing the thumb turn to throw the bolt in and out so if someone dead bolted the mortise lock from the outside the person inside would be locked in.  So I took the lock out removed the plates and installed the new disc and reinstalled the lock.  Another satisfied customer.


Mortise lock



tools I use for rekeys



Gif the shop