Interesting facts about locksmiths & locksmiths in London
July 29, 2025
The weird and wonderful world of locksmiths, just a few facts
First lock found
First models of wooden keys and locks originate from Ancient Egypt, where they managed to take advantage of gravity and the technique of falling pins to control the movement of the security bolt. The bolt could be freed from locked position by inserting a large and cumbersome wooden key into the lock, and manually lifting it upwards, displacing the pins that were held down by gravity. The best they could do was add fake holes to confuse would be trespassers. Roman age introduced many improvements upon original Egyptian designs due to their superior blacksmithing skills, but the expensive nature of the locks, their inability to sustain large external forces and easy picking made them all but useless in terms of security and turned into a way of flaunting wealth, influence and nobility. Small keys made from metals (iron, bronze, silver, gold) were often viewed as one of the most effective ways of publicly showing your wealth.
First high security lock in London
The first known high security lock to have been designed and used was the Bramah Lock. This was designed and created by Joseph Bramah in London after a receiving a patent for it in 1784. In the same year he started the Bramah Locks company at 124 Piccadilly, London.
After he invented his lock and until 1851 in fact was the only time in history where there existed a lock that gave people complete confidence in security. In 1851 Alfred Charles Hobb became the first man to pick both the Chubb Detector lock (Jeremiah Chubb developed a four-lever lock that when picked or opened with the wrong key would stop working until a special key was used to reset it) and the Bramah lock. The chub detector lock was picked in 25 minutes, the Bramah lock however took him 52 hours over the course of 14 days.
Thus ended the short but wonderful period where people could have the feeling of "Perfect Security"
Modern locks
Linus Yale Jr. (April 4, 1821 – December 25, 1868) was an American mechanical engineer, manufacturer, and co-founder of the Yale lock manufacturing company. He is best known for his inventions of locks, especially the cylinder lock. His basic lock design is still widely distributed today, and constitute a majority of personal locks and safes." Yale locks " became the generic term in the United Kingdom for pin tumbler household locks and keys and pin tumbler locks are the most common locks, many various types based on the same original idea from Linus Yale Jr.
Gaining the skills to become a locksmith
As we say each time we are asked, "how long did it take you to become a locksmith" - The actual training will vary from 5 days to 6 months depending on previous experience with joinery/ carpentry or locks, or if you are someone with good dexterity/electronic/mechanical skills. However you never stop learning.
It can take up to around 3-4 years to become a fully competent locksmith . There are constantly new locks arriving on the market, there are constantly new situations or locations that will require a lock that are so rare even after 5 years there hasn't been a job like. In situations like this, experience is key, the more experience a locksmith gains, the better he will become, provided he was any good to begin with of course.
The only awkward situation for a locksmith.
Whether you have been locked out because you left the keys inside, whether we have to open the door to a house where someone has passed away inside, where we have to break in as there are suspected burglars indoors, even when we have to break in and you have "locked myself out" in the nude, rushing after the shower, we will keep a straight face. We realise life is full of surprises we can never expect and not much can make a locksmith feel awkward. There is one situation where a locksmith will feel awkward though, only one, where the customer has booked more than one locksmith and we all arrive at the same time. This is incredibly awkward and we have been in situations before where all the locksmiths involved packed up and left. Keep in mind, in the dead of night, these locksmiths have had to leave their families to help you and you couldn't call to cancel, or to let us know you found someone else?
Awkward...
Combination of skills required
Mechanic, carpenter, security expert, joiner and engineer. A locksmith should have the combined knowledge of all these skills. This professional should know how to get the hang of different locks, and he must be familiar with the mechanism of action as well. He also has to be excellent at analyzing the security of locks and how to repair and re-key them when required. Other critical areas where a locksmith should demonstrate his skills include duplicating keys, repairing or replacing deadbolts, general carpenty skills to repair frames/ replace doors and installing different types of locks and, all these aspects clearly suggest that a locksmith should be an all-rounder.
Different types of locksmiths
There are 5 main categories of locksmiths, two of which are very similar however the rest can sometimes be worlds apart.
Residential locksmith
Commercial locksmith
Auto locksmiths
Emergency Locksmiths
Electrical locksmiths
Residential and commercial locksmiths are very similar however commercial locksmiths will tend to work on larger doors and heavier locking systems. They will most likely be familiar with welding for gates of commercial properties as well. Residential locksmiths will work on wooden doors in a home at a very fast rate due to it being a major part of the job and tending towards joinery and carpentry. Auto locksmiths as the name suggests work on Auto locks, these are mainly locks on cars and this is due to them using a different locking system to residential locks and require different tools. They also include transponders which is another element not involved in residential and commercial locks on buildings. Electrical locksmiths will usually get an NVQ and be able to install camera home systems, complex alarm systems and intercoms. All the above must have a good eye for security, sot the weaknesses and be able to solve them all in the same breath.
Locksmith prices genuinely do vary
As with any other business that supplies services, charges do vary. It could be the difference between a weekend charge and a weekday charge, or the difference between a daytime charge and a 3AM charge. If the gentleman/ lady stacking the shelves gets paid more for after hours it would make sense that if someone is leaving their family, to help you be with yours at an awkward time, his time would be worth more.
Even holiday charges, bank holiday charges, these are all times that the locksmith is sacrificing valuable time to help you gain access and rejoin the fun (or sleep if it's 3AM).
That being said, the locksmiths should always attempt to be as clear as possible before starting the job on what the costs may be, a rough estimate is always possible and if you call an experienced locksmith company they will be able to quote once you provide an image at a 90% accuracy rate (or at least we can)
To contact a reliable local locksmith based in London call now on 020-3151-0351
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