OldddffAASSTT the Spin Master Extraordinaire and American Lock Slayer
Posts: 4412
Joined: Thu Mar 31, 2011 9:16 am
Location: Michigan
Re: Doens't seem like a good idea to me ...
Pick-Fu wrote:She was not happy to say the least, so I custom pinned all her locks with better bidding (bitting?) and some good security pins....
Bidding... is for ebay. Bitting is for keys Xeo, after laughing some, had to clarify this for me too when I first came around.
Not that it matters much... we know what you're saying. Just thought you might genuinely be asking/wondering.
As mentioned, most thieves will be of the 'smash & grab' type... but NEVER underestimate the power of greed.
You'd be surprised the lengths people are willing to go for a free payday (or, there's always the possibility they
have far more sinister plans than theft!). I have no doubt that some people (albeit few) would indeed take the
time to learn something like this. So it may be a small risk, but why create a risk?! So not a good idea, no.
Many keys, especially the more popular brands like Schlage and Kwikset, can be readily decoded by sight.
At one time I had a pretty keen eye for it. I had actually accumulated a bunch of these two brands, placed
them all on two large key rings, then used them kinda like flashcards to hone my eye.
Funny story from a few years back; There's a good friend of mine who I'd see on a weekly bases at a meeting
I attend. Every week he'd sit down next to me and flop his keys up on the table. Out of the small mess of keys
there was little doubt as to which one was to his house. The bitting happened to be fairly easy to remember.
So when he called me up one day wondering if I could make a couple copies of his house keys I said sure.
Next time we met I handed him two keys to his home... you can imagine the questions that followed. lol
It was a bit of a risk pre-cutting the keys. But judging by the wear I had seen on his key, I assumed the lock and
pins were just as old and just as worn. I compensated by leaving the first few cuts just a 'touch' high. It worked
out fine and they ended up working smoothly. It was worth the risk just to see the look on his face. lol
On a unrelated note - I rekey all the locks in my house once a year. Not because I'm that paranoid, but because
I usually service them every year. If I've tore them down that far in order to clean & lube, it's not that much more
effort to throw in some different pins. Also, I'm not the only one with a key. There's a few people I give keys to so
they have access to my home. The more keys I have out in the world - the less 'key control' I have. I know where
MY key is... but who's to say that one of those OTHER keys haven't been compromised?
Lastly, Schlage usually prints the the bitting on the bow of the key! Yes, that's a direct code. Those ARE the cuts.
*shakes his head*, lol. No need to even decode it by sight. It's right there! If you're really concerned by this you
can always bring a couple of the cuts down a step or two so it no longer matches what's stamped on the bow.