The knob flops loose on its spindle and never springs back to level. When you turn it the latch pulls in, but you have to push the knob back yourself, and lately the latch has started staying inside the door instead of catching.
Keys are the part of the job people expect to be impossible, and they rarely are. A bit key, the skeleton key style used on older doors, is cut and filed on the bench to the wards and levers of your particular case, so a lost key can be replaced from the lock itself. A round cylinder on a later mortise lock is rekeyed like any modern cylinder, or exchanged for a new cylinder of matching thread and cam if it is worn out. Either way the service ends with keys in your hand that turn the original lock, and a spare made while the case is on the bench.
Sound familiar?Toronto
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Toronto
Scene 1
Older mortise locks come in two families, and the check sorts out which one is on the door. A keyhole shaped like a small keyhole silhouette takes a bit key, the skeleton key style, and the case works on wards and levers that the key's bit must match. A round face on the door with a slot for a flat key is a pin-tumbler cylinder threaded into the case. The distinction matters for everything that follows: how a lost key is replaced, whether the lock can be rekeyed, and what to do if the mechanism is worn out. It also settles whether a spare can be filed on the bench or cut on a key machine.
Scene 2
Removal is done in a set order so nothing is forced. The knob set screws are backed off and the knobs and spindle drawn out, then the escutcheons are lifted away, their screw positions photographed for reassembly. On a cylinder lock, the small set screw in the faceplate is released and the cylinder is unthreaded from the case. The faceplate screws come out, and the case is eased from its pocket with a gentle rock, never a pry bar, because the wood at the edge of an old door is thin. Everything that comes off is bagged and labelled, and the pocket is looked at while it is empty.
Scene 3
You are handed keys made to the restored lock, counted into your hand, and each one is tried in the door before the locksmith drives away. For a bit-key lock that means keys filed to your case; copying one needs the right blanks and equipment, which most hardware counters do not stock, so the locksmith keeps the record needed to make more. For a cylinder lock it means keys cut to the new combination, with any old keys now useless. Keep one spare somewhere other than the door, ideally with a neighbour or in a lockbox, and treat bit keys gently: they bend in a pocket and a bent key is how most of these locks become stiff again.
What shapes the quoteBloordale Gardens Lock & Key Co.
FeesSame any hour
A single entry lock that needs cleaning, springs and a strike adjustment is generally done in one visit of an hour or two. Filing a bit key adds bench time, and a set of interior latches is longer simply because there are more of them. A case that needs a part fabricated, or a replacement case that has to be ordered to size, may mean a second visit; the locksmith says so at the assessment.
Usually yes to the first, and to the second once the locksmith checks the locks. Interior mortise latches with privacy turn buttons are lighter versions of the entry lock and respond to the same clean and re-spring. Interior locks in a house were sometimes supplied to one bit key, and where the key sections, warding and levers actually match, the locksmith can restore that arrangement so a single key opens several bedroom and bathroom doors. It is a practical thing to have when a child locks a bathroom from inside.
Two causes cover most cases. Either paint has built up on the faceplate, the bolt or the strike so the bolt drags across it, or the door has dropped so the bolt is entering the strike pocket at an angle and rubbing its edge. Occasionally a bent deadbolt lever inside the case adds friction. Cleaning the paint back, adjusting the strike and checking the lever all happen as part of the service.
TorontoOntario
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Bloordale Gardens, Eringate, Etobicoke, Glen Agar, Islington, Princess Margaret, Thorncrest Village, West Deane Park
Every square is one home in a hundred.
On-site assessment
The knob flops loose on its spindle and never springs back to level.
(289) 804-4797, open 24/7.
On-site assessment preferred · (289) 804-4797, open 24/7
