Sixty-one years, three generations and a particular fondness for the hardware nobody else wants to touch. We will repair the original before we sell you a replacement.
Duvall started as one man with a key machine on Magazine Street, and it has stayed in the family ever since — the founder, then his daughter, and now her son. That continuity is not sentiment, it is the actual service: we have keying records going back decades, we remember which houses have doors that were never square, and when you call the number you called fifteen years ago, somebody who knows the history picks it up.
Everything a locksmith should, plus the old hardware most will not attempt.
A mortise lock that has run for a century rarely needs replacing. It needs taking apart, cleaning and a key cut properly for it.
Most locks that stick are not faulty. The frame has moved, the hinges have dropped, or the strike is a quarter inch out.
Unless the hardware is worn or you want an upgrade, a rekeyed lock is exactly as secure as a new one and costs a fraction.
We have talked more people out of work than into it. It is why the phone still rings after sixty-one years.
Rekeys after a move, lockouts, and the original hardware in an old house nobody else will touch.
Keys locked in, keys lost, worn keys that no longer turn and fobs that stopped responding.
Shops, restaurants and offices — staff changes, master keys and hardware in historic buildings.
Rekeys between tenants, with the old keys accounted for and new ones handed over properly.
In an old city most of the doors are older than the people behind them, and the honest thing to say about a lot of them is that they do not need new locks. They need somebody willing to spend forty minutes with the mechanism apart on a bench. That is slower and less profitable than fitting a replacement, which is exactly why fewer and fewer people do it, and exactly why we still do.
The same number since 1965. Tell us what has happened and roughly how old the door is.
At the lock, the frame and the hinges, because the fault is often not where people assume.
Including when the answer is a ten-dollar adjustment rather than the job you called about.
Repairing the original where we can, replacing only where repair genuinely will not hold.
Our house is from 1890 and every locksmith we called wanted to replace the original hardware with something from a big box store. Duvall took the mortise lock apart, cleaned it, made a key for it, and it works better now than the day we moved in.
Third time we have used them in fifteen years. The father did our first house, the son did the second, and the same easy manner both times. There is something reassuring about calling a number that has not changed hands.
Locked out on a Sunday with a toddler in the car. They were not officially open and came anyway, opened it without a scratch, and charged the normal rate rather than a Sunday one. I will not be calling anyone else.
Usually, yes. Most old mortise locks are mechanically simple and enormously well made — they need cleaning and a properly cut key far more often than they need replacing. Send a photograph and we will tell you before you spend anything.
Regularly. Where hardware genuinely has to be replaced we source period-appropriate parts rather than fitting something modern, which matters if your property has restrictions on visible changes.
Rekey, in almost every case. It costs less, takes less time, and unless the hardware is worn a rekeyed lock is exactly as secure as a brand new one.
Often not. Frames move, hinges drop and strikes end up out of line, particularly in this climate. We check the whole door before condemning the lock, and the fix is frequently far cheaper than expected.
For regulars, generally not. For a genuine emergency at three in the morning there is a call-out rate, and we will tell you what it is on the phone rather than at the door.
Yes — the founder's grandson runs it now, and the number has not changed since 1965. There is no head office and nobody sells your job on to a subcontractor.