Sound familiar?Featherstone
- The call
- After a wet summer the entry door sits lower in its frame. The lock works perfectly when the door is open, but with it shut you have to lift the handle and shoulder the door to get the deadbolt to throw.
The old skeleton key still fits the keyhole, but it now needs a jiggle, a lean on the door and a little luck before the bolt moves. Last week it took three tries.
In plain words
The trim on the door face is the other half of the lock. The knobs ride on a square spindle that passes through the hub of the case, held by small set screws, and the escutcheons cover the spindle and keyholes. Slack in a knob, a knob that pulls off in your hand, or a thumb-turn that spins without moving the bolt usually traces to a worn spindle, a stripped set screw or a hub whose square has rounded. The service replaces spindle and screws, matches a hub or lever from stock or makes one, and fits everything so there is no free play before the latch starts to move.
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Featherstone
How the visit goes
Scene 1
Who owns the door
The first check has nothing to do with the lock. The locksmith confirms that the person asking for the work owns the home or lawfully lives in it, since a serviced lock and a freshly cut key are, in the end, a way into someone's house. Photo identification and something tying you to the address usually settles it in a moment. On a rental, the landlord and the tenant are expected to agree on lock changes and share keys, so the locksmith asks who should hold the new bit keys or cylinder keys and notes it. This small formality protects the household as much as anyone, and it is done before a screwdriver comes out.
Scene 2
Putting the door edge right
Before the case goes back, the pocket and screw holes get whatever attention the check turned up. Stripped holes are drilled out, plugged with glued hardwood dowel and re-drilled so the faceplate screws bite. A pocket that has loosened is packed with a thin hardwood shim glued to one wall so the case sits tight. A split at the edge is glued and clamped. None of this changes the door's appearance; it simply gives the rebuilt lock something solid to sit in, which matters because a case that shifts in its pocket will bind the spindle and undo the bench work in a few months.
Scene 3
Keys that fit the lock, and a spare
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.
In the van
- Hub followers and lever packs
- Reproduction mortise case
- Mortise cylinder and cam
- Latch and hub springs
- Light lock oil
What shapes the quoteJarvis Lock & Key Specialists
- Bit key or cylinder lock
- A bit-key case has keys filed by hand on the bench, while a cylinder lock is rekeyed or fitted with a new cylinder on a key machine. The two take different time and materials, and the quote follows.
- How many keys you want
- Bit keys are made individually by hand and cylinder keys are cut per copy, so the count you ask for is a line of its own. Decide who in the household needs one before the visit.
- Number of locks in the visit
- One entry lock is the simplest case. A whole floor of interior latches, or the front and back doors together, is a longer visit, and each case is quoted on its own so the total is easy to follow.
FeesSame any hour
Asked and answered
Which parts usually need replacing?
Springs, first and foremost: the latch spring, the hub spring that returns the knob, and the small springs on the deadbolt levers. After that, the spindle and knob set screws, a hub whose square has worn round, a worn deadbolt lever or follower, and on later locks the cylinder set screw or the cylinder itself. Bolts, cases and trim are almost always kept, cleaned and refitted rather than replaced.
Can you make a key for a lock that has none?
Yes. A bit key is cut to the lock rather than copied from another key: the locksmith chooses a blank of the right size and files the bit until it clears the wards and lifts the levers inside your case, testing as they go. A pin-tumbler cylinder on a later lock is decoded or rekeyed and keys cut to it. Bring any loose keys that came with the house, since one may be close enough to serve as a starting pattern.
Can the work be done with the lock left in the door?
Rarely, and it is not the better route. Almost everything that fails is inside the case, and the case only opens once it is out of the pocket, which takes a few minutes and leaves no mark. Working through the keyhole with an unapproved or over-applied spray tends to wash out what little lubricant should stay and gums the levers later. Removing the case, cleaning it properly and refitting it is the repair that lasts.
Change or Rekey Locks
- Deadbolt InstallationThe front door has a handsome lever and a keyed knob, and that is all.
- Lock Replacement & UpgradeEvery morning the front door key needs the same little dance: push in, lift, wiggle, turn.
- Smart Lock InstallationThe rental turns over every few months and each time you drive across town to swap keys, then wonder whether copies were made.
- Gate & Building Entry LocksA neighbour mentions, in passing, that the key from three tenants ago still lets him into the building's front door.
- Mailbox Lock ReplacementThe little brass key for your curbside mailbox was on the same ring as the one you lost at the gym last week.
Featherstoneinformation
Haldimand-NorfolkOntario
Vintage Mortise Lock Service · Haldimand County, Hagersville, Jarvis, Nanticoke, Fisherville, Selkirk, White Oaks Village, Woodlawn Park
- Town
- Featherstone, Haldimand-Norfolk
- In business
- 29 years
- Hours
- Open 24/7
- Nights, weekends and holidays, same fees
- Phone
- (365) 651-9607
- Visits
- On-site assessment preferred. Request a visit or call.
2021 census: what it means at the door
Every square is one home in a hundred.
- 57 in 100 homes · older homes
- 84 in 100 homes · mostly houses
- About 57% of homes in Haldimand County were built in 1980 or earlier, according to the 2021 Census.Older housing means older frames. Wood that has settled for years leaves strikes slightly out of line, so a bolt drags or needs a lift of the handle. A locksmith expects this and brings the shims, longer screws and strike plates to correct it.
- Single-detached houses make up about 84% of homes in Haldimand County (2021 Census).Where homes are mostly detached, patio and sliding doors deserve attention alongside the hinged ones. Auxiliary locks, pin locks and better latches for sliders are routine additions that a locksmith brings on the same visit as the front door work.
On-site assessment
Request a visit.
The old skeleton key still fits the keyhole, but it now needs a jiggle, a lean on the door and a little luck before the bolt moves.
(365) 651-9607, open 24/7.