Welcome!
In late spring of last year, we started work on a project that we hoped would revolutionize both locksmith education and the locksmith industry. We noticed that, on a whole, locksmith education was outdated and the locksmith community was woefully undeserved with educational resources. That’s not a slight to educators, associations, and groups that do host classes; they’re doing a tremendous job. But compared to other trades, such as electricians or even pipe fitters, locksmith education doesn’t stack up well with our peers. We felt we could help.
Our initial project morphed into many others, including this website. Considering the changes in the locksmith industry in the last six months (the demise of The National Locksmith and the hiatus of Foley Belsaw), we decided to shift our plans and projects to begin serving the industry as soon as possible. Locksmith Reference (LockReference.com) is the first of many soon-to-be deployed efforts to assist locksmiths in their day-to-day activities, businesses, and/or shops. Here is a quick run-down of our website:
News
The home page will feature multiple blog posts each week covering news, information, and editorials related to all aspects of the industry. This information will be archived in our News section.
Library
We have constructed a Library that is dedicated to the various niches of locksmithing. Information related to access control, locks, cylinders and dozens of other topics and items can be found in this section. At launch, we included a list of multiple manufacturers for a given item. If, for example, you wanted to know who offers modules for access control systems or door pulls, you simply navigate to the appropriate section and that information is there. Also included are links the manufacturer’s website as well as links to manufacturer’s literature, such as installation instructions and manuals. There is a resources tab that includes content we have created related to the specific topic as well as offsite links to other’s work. In the coming weeks we will be adding more content to each page as well as automotive, safe and vault, and life safety sections to the library.
Tools
The Tools page features tools that locksmiths can use to help with jobs or tasks. Among the tools included at launch is a collection of the most popular key bitting specifications in use today. There is also a pinning worksheets tool that contains pinning and decoding worksheets for various pinning systems, such as SFIC, Corbin Russwin LFIC, and Sargent 6300 LFIC. We will soon be launching an “Exit Device Identification Tool” which will allow locksmiths to determine the model of an exit device with a flow chart of photographs. We will also soon have various “Field Guides” for various lock types to help identify the manufacturer and specific model of door hardware.
Events
We have an Events page that contains a frequently updated list of upcoming classes, conventions, and meet-ups related to the locksmith trade. Rather than navigating multiple websites searching for events in your area or around the country, we’ve included a central list that can be sorted by date and searched by keywords. Each event contains basic information along with a link to the host’s web page dedicated to the event.
More To Come!
What you see now is just the beginning; we’re in the process of adding content daily. We’ve created over 5 GB of content over the last year and what you see represents less than 1% of what we’ve done. We can’t reveal too much but, suffice to say, we think you’re going to find it incredibly useful to you and your business/shop once we launch it. Our goal is to become the source for locksmith information and education.
But we are just one part. We made this a free and open website for all locksmiths to benefit. This is a service to the industry and each other, not to our wallet. We want your help. If you have any content that you created, such as tutorials or instructions or even pictures, we’d love to put it up for the entire industry to benefit from. We are easy to get in touch with, simply reach out to us via our Contact page.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our website and learning about what we’re doing. We have a lot in store for locksmiths and the locksmith industry in 2018. Stay tuned!
