Locksmith 101 - How To Be A Locksmith

The locksmith trade can be learned by experimenting, self-taught courses, apprenticeships, from a family member in the business, from videos, or through distance courses. It takes a combination of these things to advance to the professional status.

If you choose to learn by experimenting, you could be setting yourself up for suspicion if anyone knows of your skills and something is stolen from an area you visited. A lawsuit or jail time could ensue if the wrong person with a vendetta against you were to incriminate you falsely. Becoming certified may be a step towards a legitimate and positive image of your craft and your character.

Should you desire to become an apprentice from an established locksmith, it is best to determine that this person is certified. Know also that there are many aspects of the business to learn and you may need more training than an apprenticeship from one person. If that person specializes in automotive locksmithing and you desire to learn military locksmithing, you'll have a start in the right direction but will need more information and experience.

If you've considered becoming certified through a school or distance course, make sure that the school is certified and that the place where you purchase your distance course is legitimate and accredited. If the school is a sham, even though you may learn everything you need to know, it may make your certificate a sham as well. Your investment should be placed in respectable establishments.

Learning which area of locksmithing you'd be happiest choosing may require some research and/or experimentation. Even if you choose an area and later decide to change your focus, the knowledge you've acquired could still come in handy in your career path.

Courses in becoming a locksmith can take nine months to two years to complete. There is much to be learned through additional experience besides the courses. You'll need to update your knowledge and skills as time goes on.

The beginning of your career will usually involve books, hardware, and a key making machine. There are many helpful forums on the internet to point you in the right direction and provide helpful hints as well. Knowing which equipment to start with is a must. If you have a limited budget to begin with, you'll want to get the most from your money. You can't put all your money into the books and skip the key blanks. You'll need both.

Locksmiths have to put several thousands of dollars into their tools and equipment investment. They may start out in the hundreds, but the cost will grow as the business grows. If a locksmith is interested in specializing in several areas, there are different tools for each area.

Aside from the normal tools of the trade, such as key blanks and a key making machine, a locksmith must break down the types of key blanks into different categories and buy other items to go along with these. Key blanks come as at least six different types of residential blanks (from $5 to over $50), ten brands of commercial key blanks, and automotive key blanks for domestic and foreign vehicles.

How is the locksmith to keep up with all the different keys? He/she must buy key tags, drawers, and key towers (tower only with no blanks, $500). These keys require key cutters. There are at least six different kinds of cutters. A manual duplicator costs $400-$600. A semi-automatic duplicator costs $655-$1600. An automatic duplicator costs $800-$1300. A tubular key duplicator costs $400-$1200. Code cutters cost $1900-$3100. Then there are your cutter wheels which cost in the range of $33-$340.

A locksmith must buy pins, pinning kits, picks, pick sets, tension wrenches, and many different locks. There are hospital locks, government locks, gate locks, electronic hardware, furniture locks, biometric fingerprint locks, and electromagnetic locks ($200-$700).

Every locksmith who has trained with a distance school will know about Kwikset locks and IICO key making machines. These are standard equipment for locksmiths-in-training. There are academies that teach courses on a course-by-course basis to further educate the craftsmen.

There are also transponder keys that require a code machine to code the key for the vehicles to work in the ignition. Newer model vehicles with added security methods use electromagnetic fields of energy that are sent to a computer in the car. (This is an example of technology and computers sneaking into yet another area of our lives.) Coding keys in this manner is a way to increase security for the automobile owner as well as reduce costs for the insurance companies.
There are older vehicles still in operation that require the simple use of the Slim Jim tool, so a locksmith must keep older tools around as well. Besides accommodating people who can't afford the newer, more sophisticated vehicles, there are collectors of antiques who won't want their cars damaged. So, the locksmith must know how to open the vehicles in a way that causes the least amount of forced entry. Even people who don't own expensive cars are proud of what they own and won't appreciate damage.

As is evident, there is much for a professional locksmith to learn. Much of it can be retained by repetition. There are many locks that use the same tools and methods to unlock. But for the loads of information that can't be retained, the locksmith must rely on paper tools. These exist in the manuals and written information that must be kept for reference purposes.