Today, I was impressed!!!

[Lazy-Ferret]

We live in a world, where things just do not impress us any more, we have seen it all...

But today... I saw something that I was sure was a wind up, at my expense, and then discovered that these two men could really do it...

I have converted one of Jiggly's keys to a flip one, so needed to get the blank cut. I went to our local key cutting place. The man, whose first language was definitely not English, looked over the keys several times and just said he could not do them. I pressed hi further, but could not understand the problem, he told me I would be better taking them to an automotive key specialist up the road... He then gave me some very rough directions.

We looked it up on line, and found the place, so popped up there. This shop is on the outskirts of Orpington, and looks like it has been there for hundreds of years, no flashy window display, just a plate glass window, covered in Yale, Chubb and other key stickers. The door weighs a tonne, and as you open it a little bell on a spring above the door makes a tinkling sound. Just visible behind a counter covered in goodness knows what, in all sorts of boxes, is a head, that looks up at me, and down a long corridor is another guy sat up on a tall swivel chair, with a pair of magnifying spectacles on, who lifts them up to his forehead, and also looks towards me. These two men are old, I mean so old, I would expect my great granddad to call them sir....

The one behind the counter greats me, and I show him the two keys, the one I want copied, and the new one, and ask if he can do it.

He looks at the original key, and turns it over and over in his hand, running his fingers up and down the edge. He says, is this the only one you have, to which I explain, we do have a second, but it is quite worn, so I had picked the better one to bring in. At this, he actually laughs, and scoff... if this is the good one, he can't start to imagine how the other one works....

He says, he can copy it, but to be honest, it's so bad, he would be far better cutting it from the orriganal code, to get rid of all the wear.

My heart sank, the idea of trying to find the orriganal key code filled me full of dread, as was wondering just how I would go about doing that.

He calls over his colleague, who is down the corridor, and while he is removing his magnifying gear, and abseiling down from the dizzy heights of his chair, before then negotiating the long walk up the corridor in a steady shuffle, bent over double, to join him, the first guy is twisting the key round in his hands, and then holding it up to the light. While holding it ups, he reads out a longish number. He then hands the key to his colleague, repeating the number from memory, and asks what he thinks. They have a little bit of a debate if the 2nd to last number is a 2 or 3..., then puts my new blank key into a machine, presses some buttons, and flips a cover down, then hands me back the old key. The machine springs into life, and you hear the graunching and grinding of a key being cut, He then flips the key over and does the other side.

While he is doing this, I am looking for the number on the old key, thinking how I had never noticed a number before, in fact the only writing I have ever seen is Valco (or something like that). I flip the key over, looking every where, but I can't find it anywhere.

He comes back with the new key, and then proceeds to show me how worn the old key was, and points out how the shoulders were worn into ramps. Apparently, they should be square, and then says that the shoulders cause problems on Nissan ignition barrels, as over time the keys go in further and further, and start to badly wear the lock, until one day it fails completely.

I ask him where the number is, and he says, the numbers are the edge of the key. I ask what he means, and he points to a hump on the edge of the key, and says, that's an 8, that's a 4, that's a 2...... He and this other guy could actually look at the cut of the key, and work out the number just by gauging the height of each of the humps and dips.

How impressive is that, I bet there are not many people who can do that....

I got the key home, tried it in the car, and it was perfect...

He also went on to show me, they have a machine there that actually reads the transponder chip, and tells them all the details, so they can do what ever they need with them.

[emjaybee]

Wowzers! If that's not a dieing art I don't know what is!



That's not just a learned trade that's a dedication to a vocation.

Sadly, not something you'll ever find in a future generation.



Very impressed though.

Might be an idea to post their details here. I bet there are others here that could use their services, maybe even by mail order.

We could perhaps get them added into the resources lists.

[solarman216]

Real professionals Clive, not many of them about now and not appreciated either, hope you gave him a drink, I had occasion a while ago to fit a new door for a shop, kept the same mortise lock so saw the key a week later they wanted me to meet them early 8am to do some jobs before they opened at 12 waited till 8.30 no show no answer on the phone so popped down to my mates shop who does keys and looked at the pre made keys on the hooks ten mins later key selected, back to job insert key opens door, Rick

[The Patrolman]

I bought a couple of Chemistry Lab and stores doors from the local school before it was demolished, I did not get the keys with the locks but thought I would replace them if needed.

When I finally fitted the large door to my garage I wanted a key, i popped into our local locksmith, window full of keys and stickers, I asked if i brought the lock down he could match me a key up. he asked why I did not have the key and told him the story of the origin of the doors.

He gave me a key from a board and said £2.70 please

I asked how he knew it was the correct key

"I Changed all the locks in the school 15 years ago" He Said

"What, all the keys in the school are the same!"

"Don't be daft, they are all different but your door was on the chemistry Lab and had a 7 lever lock not the standard 5."

[Banshee]

Awesome stories both of them, the guy who cuts my keys is awesome!!!! Same guy that got me a key for my roof bars that I'd lost

He has one arm Panic Keys, Birmingham

[jims-terrano]

Brilliant great when you find people you can trust like that, obvious where you'll be going next time you need keys.

I used to cut keys, used a rotating cutter like a bench grinder and also a hand cutter. Nissan keys are "X" profile blanks. There are 8 cuts across the blade with 4 different depths 4 being the deepest up to the first ridge. I used to be able to guess the cuts in a similar way to these guys.

When I left the trade the transponder keys were just coming in and had to be programmed with the new fangled consult machines. Terranos had been around a couple of years and the Almera had not long been out.

Never looked at mine but key numbers used to be on a white sticker in the glovebox. A four digit number prefixed with x, used to be hamd written in Japan so you can imagine the hand writing

[davenclaire]

Green street green lock smiths my local go to key guys and yes been their for years

[Lazy-Ferret]

Originally Posted by davenclaire

Green street green lock smiths my local go to key guys and yes been their for years

Spot on.... what great guys they are...

You can imagine trying to understand a guy whose English was bad, when he is saying "up the road to Green street Green, near Waitrose"