One of the advantages of having a locksmith supply your locks is that you can order however many keys you may want, along with the new lock at the point of ordering.(Although not always available when a lock is being replaced in an emergency situation.)  However, if you buy your new lock direct from the shop, it will only come with two/three keys. In my experience, most people want around four keys and that number goes up if there are more adults living at the property.

So buying your lock from the shop then entails a further visit to a key cutter. But a job I did yesterday reminded me of how annoying this can be. The customer in question had keys cut to the cost of £50.00 at a well known key cutting chain. She lived in a small village, so the round trip was over an hour. When the keys were cut, Mrs X compared the copies to the original and could see that the unbranded blanks were slightly different to the originals from which they were cut. Bear in mind that within the workings of a lock, just half a millimetre can be the difference between it working and not working – so if an untrained eye can spot the difference, a professional should know that this is not going to work. However when Mrs X challenged the key cutter, the response she got was: “Just try them.” At this point, most of us will accept the ‘professional’s’ word and go on our merry way. Guess what happened when Mrs X tried her new keys? – Not a single one worked! So Mrs X now has to take another one hour round trip to get her money back and find another key cutter who can actually do the job. Had Mrs X only had one key cut, the expense of the return trip would not have been worth the bother, but she still would have been out of pocket due to a wasted journey and a useless key. This is a situation I hear about lots and surprisingly, it is often the chain company key cutters who are the biggest culprits (although this could be just down to average numbers of keys cut).

How then, do we lower the risk of new cut keys not working? Of course, my best advice is to order direct from your locksmith who can have your lock supplied with keys that have been tested and working. The second option is to have a good think about how many keys you need when you buy the lock, and take it direct to your key cutter where you can try the keys in the lock before you take it all home if possible. Or, if your lock is already installed and you are just needing extra keys, make sure the key you take to the key cutters is an original and insist upon an original branded key blank to be used. Even if the key cutter uses an unbranded blank that works, the metals will be sub standard and this will either wear out the key sooner or potentially damage your lock, leading to more expense.

I personally do not cut keys but I know of a few who do, local to me, and while I do not have concrete evidence to say who is better (remember I get my locks supplied with the number of keys I need), when I do use them, I find them to be very good as compared to the branded chain key cutters whose names I hear often when complaints are being made.

I am always happy to recommend a key cutter (please ask via the contacts page), but as I am associated to none, can take no responsibility for the odd occasions when they might get it wrong.

Thanks for reading.