Commercial Rekeying: how the work is done

Changing the locks answers today's question; key control keeps it answered. During a commercial rekey the new keys are stamped with a serial code rather than the business name or address, so a dropped key tells its finder nothing. Each key is logged against the person who receives it, and the old keys are collected and cut up on the spot. For premises that want copies kept out of hardware stores, the cylinders can be set up on a restricted keyway, with blanks released only against a signed authorization. What you end up with is a set of locks whose keys you can account for years later.

Reading the keys that already exist

Before deciding anything new, it helps to understand the old. Gather every key the business can find, including the ones with faded tape labels, and the locksmith reads them against the cylinders on the walk. Some will turn out to be duplicates of each other, some will belong to hardware that was replaced years ago, and some may operate doors nobody expected them to. Hardware-store copies stand out by their blanks and by the way they wear. This reading shows how far the key count has drifted and whether an old master still exists, and it lets the new plan retire everything found in the drawer rather than only the keys anyone remembered.

Storefront and mortise cylinders

Aluminum storefront doors carry a threaded mortise cylinder held by a small set screw in the door edge. The locksmith loosens the screw, spins the cylinder out, repins it, and threads it back to the same depth so the cam engages the deadbolt or hook bolt behind it and nothing else. Mortise locks in older office doors work on the same principle with a heavier lock body. On both, the depth and cam type matter as much as the pinning: a cylinder a turn too far in or a cam of the wrong shape will feel right in the hand but fail to throw the bolt, so each is cycled open and closed.

How copies get made from now on

If the business moved to a restricted keyway, the way keys are copied has changed for good. Hardware stores and kiosks do not stock the blanks, which makes running off a spare on a lunch break far harder to arrange. New keys are ordered from the locksmith by one of the people named on the authorization letter, who signs for them, and the register grows by exactly that many. On a standard keyway, the same discipline is kept by habit: the manager orders keys, the register records them and a key that turns up unlisted prompts a question. Either way the count on paper and the count in the world stay the same, which is what key control means.