Metrolocks Blog
The Place to Be for Fun and Interesting Locksmith Articles
Have fun browsing through our selection of blog articles. We recommend the locksmith case studies, since they showcase the cool solutions we can implement for you.
Can you repair a broken key?
Can you repair a broken key? There are all kinds of questions people ask me frequently: "Can a thief copy my door keys?", "Is it legal to copy a fob?", "I’ve found a key lying around. What do I do!?" and "Can you make a key from a barrel, without a key?" Surprisingly,...
Why is our workshop full of cuttlefish?
Why is our workshop full of cuttlefish? Cuttlefish are fascinating creatures. We recently learned something special about them, when the University of Cambridge published an article explaining how they "eat less for lunch when they know there’ll be shrimp for dinner"....
What is an FB key?
What is an FB key? Ever wanted to know what's inside those big, yellow rock salt bins that you sometimes find in public places? Ever needed to get into a meter cupboard in the corridor of your apartment building? What about gaining access to a bin area in a large...
Getting keys cut at home?
Getting keys cut at home? Can you do key-cutting at home? This is a question we get asked on a regular basis. The short answer is: no way, José! However, there are other ways of getting keys cut without setting foot outside your home. Why not? The average price of a...
A burglar’s carrier bag: the trouble with cheap hotel-style safes
A burglar's carrier bag: the trouble with cheap hotel-style safes Having a safe at home is quite an attractive proposition. We all have valuables and important things we'd like to protect: jewellery, deeds to the house, a will, or just good old-fashioned fat stacks of...
A Day in the Life of a Locksmith
A Day in the Life of a Locksmith Locksmithing isn't really a nine-to-five like most jobs. Days can be very varied, and there's not really such a thing as a 'day in the life'. Still, here's our closest approximation, so you can see what our boys get up to all day....
All You Ever Wanted to Know About Safe Keys
Safe keys are tricky business. In a way, it’s reassuring that they are, because you wouldn’t want it to be too easy to get to your locked up valuables. But what good is reassurance if you’re struggling to get a spare key copied? If you’ve already lost one key, you’re...
Keys for a chastity belt, and other nonsense
As a rule, we don't tend to get many time-wasters, but now and again people show up who are either deliberately prank-calling us, or have simply come to the wrong place by mistake. I'm a forgiving sort of chap, and hold no grudges against pranksters (with the notable...
Common Locksmith Problems: “I can’t put my Chubb key in”
A turned curtain is when your key suddenly won't go into your Chubb-type lock. The curtain is the not-quite-closed tube that constitutes the key-hole. This is a piece of metal that defines what key can fit. If I take your key and copy it onto the wrong type of blank,...
Common Locksmith Problems: “The key is just spinning in the lock”
"My key is just spinning in the lock." This is a very common problem and, to understand why it happens, we need to discuss how cylinder locks work. The cylinder consists of a plug, which is pretty much the key hole, and then either a tailbar (if it's a Yale cylinder)...
Common Locksmith Problems: “My key snapped in the lock!”
Keys snap in locks for all kinds of reasons. You've put the wrong key in; your key or lock is old and brittle; the lock is broken, which makes the key stick inside; your key has a fulcrum in it due to a very deep cut; you've been heavy-handed. These are all possible...
Common Locksmith Problems: “My maglock isn’t working”
"My maglock isn't working anymore." I can't count how often I've heard that one. 99 times out of 100, it's for one reason only. First, what's a maglock? A lot of fancy offices and some communal entrance doors have electromagnets fitted instead of traditional key...
Common Locksmith Problems: Snib drop
Welcome to the first post in a series about common locksmith problems. Today, we're discussing the so-called snib drop. The snib button is the little button on the inside of most Yale locks, which allows you to hold open the latch, or to prevent the key from turning...
New blog series about common locksmith problems
Over the coming months we'll be releasing blog posts about common locksmith problems. These are all things that a locksmith has to deal with frequently, though our list is by no means exhaustive. The first post—about the so-called snib drop—will be...
It’s easy to guess your keypad code
The world around us is replete with keypad locks. They're a brilliant form of access control because they're easy to use and they don't require you to dish out endless amounts of keys to all the staff or users of the building. They do what they're supposed to quite...
Locksmith Case Study: When the lawyers don’t get their coffee
Problem: The facilities manager of a prestigious City law firm called us in the morning in a panic. It was the day that all eight coffee machines in the building were to be refilled, but the key to the machines had snapped! He couldn't bear the thought of what would...
Metrolocks is turning 30!
Metrolocks is turning 30! Yes, it's official: we've made it to 30 years old! Who'd've thought we'd ever get this far, what with the tumultuous 30 years we've had: the dotcom bubble, the 2008 credit crunch, the decline of printed directories, the rise of the internet,...
“Can you make a key from a barrel, without a key?”
"I've lost my key. Can you make a key just from the barrel?" We get this question quite a lot, and most people walk away disappointed. Still, the question is too broad for a simple yes/no answer. See, it depends on two things: (1) the barrel in question, and (2) the...
Locksmith Industry in Turmoil Over Door Handle Shortage
Locksmith Industry in Turmoil Over Door Handle Shortage Due to long-running industrial action in a Turkish door handle factory, there is now a dearth of new door handles in the UK. Shortages are exacerbated by panic-buying locksmiths and DIY-fanatics. A dispute...
Can a thief copy my door keys?
I went to the Stasi Museum in Leipzig back in 2017. It was fascinating beyond anything I could have imagined to learn what life must have been like in a police state run by the Stasi. The tour guide was saying how the Stasi enforcement officers would break into your...
Pad-eyes: the unbreakable lock?
It’s hard to imagine an unbreakable lock. Practically everything can be got into, given plenty of time, and assuming nobody cares about the noise of a drill for hours on end. But there’s a locking solution that is, in a sense, dangerously unbreakable. Pad-eyes aren’t...
How do we cut keys?
It wasn't always this way, but nowadays cutting keys is quite a high-tech affair. In the olden days, keys would have been cut by hand, with a file. (Cutting mortice keys with a file is still part of the Master Locksmith Association exam.) These days, a great many keys...
“I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” – Cutting keys for the tempest-tost
The poet Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) wrote one of America's most important poems in 1883. Her sonnet, The New Colossus, is inscribed on New York's impressive Statue of Liberty. It's a poem welcoming those in search of freedom to America, giving them the gift of...
Front door security: …but don’t forget the back door!
A German chap came into our office once and was looking for some back door security advice. He had just moved to London from Germany, and couldn’t understand British home security: “You all put so much effort into keeping your front doors secure,” he started, “but...
Front door security: keeping communal entrance doors safe
We’ve written all about front door security for individual flats or homes, but what applies there doesn’t necessarily apply to a communal entrance door on a block of flats. The needs of the two doors are quite different. A flat door only needs to let in those who have...
Front door security: all you ever wanted to know about paraphernalia
So far you’ve read all about different types of locks and cylinders you can have on your front door. But the story is far from finished! A secure front door needs more than just locks. Here we’ll go over a few additional door security items that you could install on...
Front door security: security keys and cylinders
A lot of our customers ask if there’s a way to stop people from copying their keys. The answer to that – obviously 😉 – is yes, YES, YES! The way to do this is using ‘security’ cylinders. It’s a bit of a stupid name, because all cylinders provide some degree of...
The Return of the Road Trip
The Return of the Road Trip The pattern recurs every summer: Britons are packing their cars ahead of their road-trip holiday, only to realise that their roofbox key is missing. With days to spare, they contact us via our key-cutting form, and manage to get a key in...
Front door security: anti-everything cylinders
For a few years now, there has been a new breed of cylinder on the market: the anti-everything cylinder. These are anti-pick, anti-snap, anti-bump and anti-drill cylinders that are extremely tricky to open. They’re the bane of a locksmith’s life, really, because if...
Front door security: why you need a deadlock
We’ve spoken a lot about Yale locks so far, especially about auto-deadlocking Yales. Why, if the Yale lock acts as a deadlock, do you need another deadlock underneath? Isn’t that overkill? No, of course it’s not! Don’t ever be fooled into thinking it is. A Yale lock,...
How to Take Pictures of Your Key
How to Take Pictures of Your Key In many cases, we need to have clear photos of your key before we can make copies. Here is a guide to show you how best to take photos of keys. Here is the long and the short of it. Lower down, you can also find some more specific...
Front door security: types of nightlatch
In our previous article we spoke about nightlatches, aka ‘top locks’ or ‘Yale locks’. The fundamental thing about them is that you can just pull the lock shut and the door will lock automatically. Still, there’s much more to it than that. There are a few different...
Cutting Keys for Yachts and Boats
Cutting Keys for Yachts and Boats As an island nation, we Brits enjoy a lot of recreational sailing. But it doesn't stop there: the UK is home to thousands of house boats that house people up and down our expansive canal system. As such, it's not all that uncommon for...
Front door security: lock combinations
A secure front door is not only great for your own peace of mind; it’ll also keep your insurance company from causing a fuss. They will often prescribe lock combinations for your door. In this article we’ll go over a couple of combinations and discuss pros and cons....
New blog series about FRONT DOOR SECURITY
We have an IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT to make! We're making a blog series all about front door security, the different types of locks you can use, what solution is best for the job etc. We'll be releasing one post a month on the topic, for the next few months, starting...
The Trouble With Cutting Thousands of Keys
The Trouble With Cutting Thousands of Keys We discussed bulk key-cutting a couple of times before (here and here, to be precise), but it continues to be an exciting topic. Every bulk order we get presents its own challenges. To make key orders in bulk (bulk is...
Is it legal to copy a fob?
Is it legal to copy a fob? We get this question a lot. Many people assume that, because a fob is electronic and doesn't look like a key, copying a fob is somehow different to copying a key. But really, if you think about it, a fob is a key in every sense of the word....
Telephone denial-of-service (TDoS) attacks
A TDoS attack ain't nothin' pretty. Sadly, Metrolocks and other locksmith companies in the UK have been subjected to heavy TDoS abuse by an unknown source, presumably an aggressive competitor. What is TDoS? TDoS stands for telephony denial of service. Denial of...
We now do Paxton fobs!
The moment has finally arrived. We've tried for years, but finally we can clone Paxton fobs and cards! Paxton fobs generally run on a frequency of 125kHz which is the standard frequency for basics RFID fobs. The catch is that Paxton fobs are encrypted, which has...
Proud new members of INTERKEY
Metrolocks has just been accepted as a member of Interkey, a prestigious international key-cutting association. What is Interkey? Interkey is a Europe-wide key-cutting and security trade association for serious and qualified professionals. It has been around since...
What’s the deal with copying car keys?
You may have already read that we at Metrolocks can now copy car keys! It's big news for us, and we're proud to have mastered the process. But how exactly does it work? What's the procedure? Is it safe, is it legal? In this blog post, we'll answer all those questions....
Locksmith Case Study: Snifters stolen from the board room
Problem: The board-room of this oil exploration company had a little annexe, for a coffee machine, cups, plates, cutlery - and a relatively basic range of spirits. The board meetings tended to be sober affairs, most of the time. Alas, the slow, but...
AskPorter: “the AI manager & concierge for any space”
We recently attended a pre-Christmas party with one of our many lovely customers. A co-invitee was AskPorter. AskPorter is an ingenious AI-based concierge service that deals with all kinds of property-management issues digitally, thereby saving property management...
Locksmith Case Study: Bonanza: 7 identical lockouts in a day!
Problem: This one day in January turned into a peculiar day for Metrolocks: We fielded 7 cases of people accidentally leaving the key stuck on the inside of their main door when leaving.With many Banham locks and with uPVC doors, this then prevents the...
Locksmith Case Study: Cutting corners to lower the cost…
Problem: An elderly lady had lost a set of her keys and wanted the locks changed, in order to feel safe again. She had 2 locks on the front door and 3 rear doors. Her main problem was a financial one, she needed the locksmith call-out done on a budget....
Locksmith Case Study: Uninvited neighbours frolicking in the roof garden
Problem: This apartment block management company had recently been awarded the contract for a 50 unit modern block of flats. The block sported a very attractive roof garden, which turned out to be the envy of the neighbourhood. After a while tenants...
Locksmith Case Study: Where style and hoodies clash
Problem: This block was in a socio-demographically improving area. The block's management board decided to capitalise on that and to fit video intercom system, to replace their current clapped-out audio intercom. Occasional vandalism had been a problem in...
“You’re nicked!”: When the Fuzz interrupt your licit locksmithing
We were recently ordered on a repossession call-out by a bailiff. Repossessions only happen once the bailiff has obtained a High Court order to allow the job to take place. Since it's tough to evict people when they're in the building, a lot of repossessions (or...
Locksmith Case Study: Yeah, sure, these students were ‘studying’ at 2 a.m…
Problem: This London university runs its campus buildings on a very tight budget. In the event of a night-time lockout, for instance, a student, unable to enter his own room, would simply be given a different room for the night, and the maintenance staff...
Locksmith Case Study: Why also older people love our locksmiths
Problem: The staff at the day-care centre for the local elderly knew a lot of the trials and tribulations of the unassisted living of many of their clients. Their woes were many, tradesmen were one them. As the centre's clients were all locally based, the...
Locksmith Case Study: The tough men of the night: bailiffs
Problem: This bailiff firm had contracts with 3 London Boroughs to collect unpaid rates from commercial clients. Those locksmiths' call-outs usually happen at night. The bailiff had ongoing problems finding locksmiths who were able to turn up reliably, on...
Metrolocks now does car keys!
After acquiring a tonne of specialist equipment, and after a day of intense training, we can now cut car keys! That's right: we can make spare copies of most types of car key. It's generally quite quick with us: the average time taken is about ten minutes from start...
Locksmith Case Study: Having a hard hat’s not so hard
Problem: Building sites are full of emergency work for locksmiths companies. This particular building site in Bow in East London was no exception. Due to one of their site supervisors being inattentive, the management had 6 different tool chests to force...
Locksmith Case Study: Wow, building managers can be a demanding lot!
Problem: This particular lady was employed to manage a large London office block. Office blocks can engender enormous amounts of locksmith work. Her requirements in 2014 so far were indeed multi-facetted: 1) Masterkey suites, extend old ones, supply and...
Changing Key Registration
If you're here, you're probably trying to change the registration details of your Metrolocks EVVA key. Once the key is registered, only the registered person(s) can authorise the cutting of new keys. This allows you to control the amount of keys that get made. Click...
Why is my intercom not working?
If you're reading this, the chances are you're having trouble with your intercom system.This article will give you an explanation of what intercom systems are meant to be able to do. It's not hugely complicated: any intercom needs to be able to do at least four...
Locksmith Case Study: Buying keys: not just a few, but THOUSANDS!
Problem: A chain of supermarkets was looking to establish mobility scooter clubs at its outlets. Disabled repeat shoppers would no longer have to queue at a service desk to ask for a scooter key, they would simply be given a key each, to permanently keep....
Locksmith Case Study: Doomsday has arrived: the masterkey is nowhere to be found!
Problem: The unthinkable had happened: The masterkey was nowhere to be found. It wasn't in that much use anyway: most residents' doors were open most of the time, but the masterkey gave easy access to some secure cabinets and to a storage room for...
Locksmith Case Study: A care home becomes hard to run when the tenants are on the run!
Problem: As is common in care homes, this particular one had a problem with some of their mainly bedbound residents suddenly walking out of the main door. A front door in a care home needs to allow for easy egress in case of an emergency, but residents...
Locksmith Case Study: Not all visits by strangers are unwelcome. Take carers, for example…
Problem: Home carers need easy access to their clients' homes, simply because the clients can't always open the door to let their carer in. There are many solutions, at times the client's doors are simply open, neighbours act as keyholders, keys are put...
Copying Gate Remotes/Gate Fobs
Copying a gate fob – or gate remote – doesn't have to be as difficult as many people think. In fact, the vast majority of gate remotes can be copied relatively easily. There are two steps, normally, to getting a new gate remote, which we will guide you...
Locksmith Case Study: Minting it at a fair, with a treasure hunt and the help of thousands of keys…
Problem: A manufacturer of consumer goods wanted to entice consumers to visit their stand at a large fair. The plan was to mail a key to a large list of consumers, with a promotional message about a treasure chest this key might open at the fair. Among the...
Locksmith Case Study: An intercom system, made adaptable as a chameleon
Problem: This property manager ran a huge multi-storied former warehouse, let to numerous and ever changing tenants. The problem was the access via the intercom system. The current traditional multi-button intercom panel kept on breaking down through the...
Locksmith Case Study: Lining the pockets of a successful estate agent…
Problem: This estate agency was close to a large number of new high rise apartment blocks. More and more previously owner-occupied flats turned into rentals. As a result, the estate agency found itself becoming increasingly involved in rental property...
Locksmith Case Study: #Lastminutehugeproblem: Losing the keys just before the property exchange…
Problem: For this client of Metrolocks, the hand-over of the keys on a beautiful flat was a mere 2 hours away. Suddenly, the agent noticed, that the keys weren't where they were supposed to be. A lengthy - and fruitless - search ensued. Solution: In the...
Locksmith Case Study: The curious case of the missing office supplies
Problem: An accountants’ office manager noticed an inexplicably quick depletion of some of their office supplies. These were kept in a separate room, which was never locked. Solution: Metrolocks installed a medium duty digital mechanical latchlock. Only a...
Locksmith Case Study: A pool is good for swimming, but much less so for locks
Problem: A gym found that the moisture in the air near the changing rooms repeatedly wreaked havoc onto their existing heavy duty mechanical digital latchlock: it had to be replaced nearly every year. Solution: Metrolocks installed a moisture resistant...
“I’ve found a key lying around. What do I do!?”
What to do when you find keys lying on the street It's not uncommon to see keys just lying around in the street, and there are many conscientious people out there who would love to return those keys to their rightful owners. Anyone could find those keys and break in,...
Locksmith Case Study: Too many keys spoil the broth, over time
Problem: The management of a large block of flats felt that over the years their key-security was compromised by numerous tenants not returning their keys when they moved out. The cost of changing all main entrance and back door locks every few years was...
Locksmith Case Study: Waiters don’t like waiting
Problem: A busy pub kitchen had a simple fob-reader installed, to avoid guests erring into the kitchen. Having to hold a fob up against the reader proved impractical for staff carrying dirty dishes back into the kitchen. Solution: Metrolocks installed a...
“Oh no! I’ve lost my cabinet key!”: What to do when you have lost your furniture key
Keys can be a messy business, especially if they're for things we don't use so often. I've never lost my house key, but I've certainly misplaced the key to that filing cabinet I never need to lock. "Doesn't matter," I tell myself, "I won't ever need to lock it."...
We Love Keys, the place to go for replacement ABUS keys
We’re proud to announce the launch of a new website, welovekeys.co.uk. We Love Keys is the best and fastest way to get replacement ABUS keys, with low prices and short lead times. Why should I care? ABUS replacement keys have for years been notoriously difficult to...
Locksmith Case Study: Loss of power: not only bad for dictators, hospitals hate it, too
Problem: A hospital needed a vital area secured by means of a keypad. Even though power-cuts are an infrequent occurrence, the management was very keen to avoid any problems resulting from electricity supply issues. Solution: Metrolocks installed a...
Lock & Key Parties: How locksmiths fall in love?
The idea behind a lock and key party is simple: it's a silly icebreaker for singles looking to meet new people. A bunch of people meet, where all the men have a padlock and all the women have a key. They each wander round the room having a quick chat with...
Locksmith Case Study: This super-model doesn’t like grubby locksmithing stuff
Problem: A swanky model agency lost their bouncer and was left with a rimless armour-plate glass door and no easy way to add locks to it. In addition, the area leading from the door to the receptionist could not be cluttered up by a cable-run for any...
Why we love out-of-hours calls (and you should, too!)
I recently had to find a locksmith for a friend outside of London. It was around 10.00pm and I didn't know anybody in her area, so I went online to look. Immediately I found ten locksmith websites who claimed to be 24/7 operators and began calling them. Call 1: Ring,...
When the fireman came by… (feat. kick-ass photos!)
A fireman is as cool as Jack Bauer or Indiana Jones: they rush into burning buildings and rescue people; they use raw force to smash open doors; they wear a cool uniform and drive in a big red truck. A locksmith has a van, doesn't wear a fancy helmet, and is a million...
Mental Health Assessments: Working with the Police and the Council
A locksmith does all kinds of exciting work, and his repertoire is not limited to bog-standard slam-shuts. We're regularly called out by London Borough councils who need assistance on what are known as mental health assessments. Social workers at the council sometimes...
Authorising Security Keys
If you're here, you've probably been asked to supply a letter of authorisation for a security key. Security keys tend to be restricted in a number of different ways, and therefore usually require some sort of end-user authorisation to get made. In most cases, a simple...
What Fobs Can We Copy?
Our nationwide fob copying service is fast, efficient and affordable. If you need a fob copied, you’re in the right place! To read more about the service, including how it works and how much it costs, click here. Below you can find a list of all the fobs we know we...
How to Send Keys in the Post
At Metrolocks, we offer a mail-order fob copying service and an online key cutting service. Both of these things occasionally require customers to post us their keys or fobs, but problems occasionally arise... This article is designed as a guide to posting us your...
Smart Locks: What are they and why do I need them?
I once met a locksmith who, when he applied for an apprenticeship in the early 80s, was told, “Don’t bother, mate; everything’s going to be electronic by the mid-90s.” Well, that didn’t really happen, did it? But smart locks – locks that you can control from your...
Why Locksmiths Aren’t Rich
Locksmiths are all thieves who charge unholy amounts purely because they know they can, right? Wrong. Being a locksmith these days isn't easy. Life in the 1990s was much simpler, in pre-internet days: an ad in a local parish newsletter provided many locksmiths with...
Locksmiths on the London Underground
The London Underground is famous for all kinds of reasons. It was the world's first underground railway network; its tunnels extend staggering distances; the distinctive topographical Tube map... Read all about these things in The Guardian here. One thing that is...
Metrolocks Episode IV: A New Hope, A New Website
Way back when, Metrolocks was one of the first locksmith companies to embrace the internet. We had one of the first email addresses, locksmith@axford.com, and one of the first locksmith websites. While the world was still experiencing the inconveniences of dial-up,...
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