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Saturday, January 30, 2016

Locksmith generations

Today I had a discussion with one of our technician who admits to being the best locksmith in Queens.  We were both on a job together, something happened where my colleague was quick to boast about how he has fifteen year experience and all that, so I said that's good and continued to do the job.  Some days went by and he was sent over to install a door closer, lo and be hold he comes back tithe shop and said "I am not ask for to do this type of closer". So my boss sent me and I was able to install it.  A few times we have sent him to jobs where he was not able to repair some old style locks and once again I had to rescue him.  The point I am trying to make is that in the locksmith industry there are a lot of individuals who boast about installing locks for so many years and this and that but when it comes down to the details they seem not to know anything about locksmithing at all. There is many people who can install locks such as door knobs, deadbolts, and such but being a locksmith is much more involved. 
To be considered a master locksmith one must not only be able to rebuild, repair and install any type of lock but they also must be able to produce parts for locks that require rebuilding or repairing.  Now you must be thinking why should one spend all that time to either repair it rebuild when you can easily buy a cheap Chinese replica and install a brand new lock instead. While rebuilding a lock the other day I asked myself the same question and my answer to my question was that the lock that I am repairing will last ten times longer after my repair than the Chinese brand new lock.  I admit that our industrial out sourcing has made us into a community of consumers but I still believe in the American made product and I stand behind their quality and durability.  Today the most used American lock is the Medeco high security products made by Assa Abloy, I think Assa Abloy is the only remaining American company that is still here in the US. 
In today's market there are a lot of locksmith wannabees.  They have saturated the industry with cheap Chinese knock offs and in the midst of it all they over charge by 70%.  So I asked myself why don't we start to do the same, we can make so much money. Well it's not always about the money. In the end of it all I told my colleague not to call himself a locksmith and call himself a lock installer because that's all he is.

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