The Anatomy of a Key

Locks are highly useful things that allow us to get in and out of our property at a whim without enabling anyone else to do so. This gives us the ability to selectively decide who gets entry to our property and who does not and of course this is highly useful.

However if you should struggle with the key because the key itself is broken or because the lock is damaged then suddenly they can seem not so much miraculous as incredibly frustrating. If this is the case then you will need a 24 hour locksmith to come and help you get past the lock and gain entry to your building. However understanding how your lock works can sometimes help you to get in yourself and even better might mean that you don't actually need the help of the 24 hour locksmith at all as you'll be able to avoid damaging it in the first place by understanding the workings.

Essentially then if you look at your key you will find that it can be divided into two or three parts. Most front doors these days use a cylinder lock and this is what a 24 hour locksmith will likely be working with. These keys then are made up of a handle – usually round – and a blade coming straight out of it with a serrated edge which provides the teeth that fit into the lock. On the other hand if you are working with a lever lock which you are more likely to be using if your lock is for an inside door such as a bathroom or bedroom, then the handle (which will likely be more ornate and probably have a hole in the middle) will be attached to a long neck which will have a squarer blade pointing down from it at a right angle with the teeth on the bottom. This means that a lever key is inserted further into the lock, but also that it has fewer teeth across a shorter edge meaning that there are fewer possible combinations overall. Some other locks such as small padlocks will also use a similar design to the cylinder key.

As well as the serrated edge, the blade of most keys will also often have grooves in it and be bent in certain ways to ensure that it can only fit into a lock that has the same grooves and curves. From here the teeth will then gently push the pins out of the way of the lock as the key slides in – lifting them up individually so that they don't point into the barrel and prevent it from moving. Once the pins are all lifted out of the way, it is then the torque of the key turning that forces the now-free barrel to turn and the lock to open. However if you do not have the correct key to hand then it is possible in many cases for a 24 hour locksmith to come and 'pick' the lock by gently moving each pin out of the way of the barrel.

While this is a basic introduction to the anatomy of a key, a locksmith will have a far better idea of how they work. Should you need a 24 hour locksmith DC or any other locksmith in DC, visit the links.