What We Do
The full trade, done by people who served an apprenticeship in it.
An Apprenticeship, Not A Weekend Course
Locksmithing used to be a trade you served time in, and in most places it has quietly stopped being one — a van, a key machine and a listing is now enough to call yourself one. Thorne has trained nine apprentices to certification since 1971, and the person who comes to your door served under somebody who served under the founder. That is why we can open safes rather than drill them, and read a fifty-year-old keying chart rather than start again.
Four Things Time Served Actually Changes
Safes Get Opened, Not Drilled
Manipulation is a skill that takes years. Drilling takes an afternoon to learn and costs you a new safe.
Master Systems Get Designed
A keying chart is a piece of engineering. Done badly it cross-keys doors nobody intended, and nobody notices for years.
Old Hardware Gets Repaired
Century-old mortise locks are simple and superbly made. Knowing that saves customers a great deal of money.
The Records Survive
We can cut to a chart we wrote in 1983. That only works if somebody kept it, and kept the business going.
Homes, Businesses And Institutions
Homeowners
Rekeys after a move, lockouts, upgrades and the old hardware in an old house.
Businesses
Master key systems, staff changes, storefront hardware and doors under constant use.
Institutions
Buildings with decades of keying history that somebody needs to be able to read.
Drivers
Keys locked in, keys lost entirely, worn keys and fobs that stopped responding.
We Keep The Charts
When Thorne designs a master key system we write the chart, and we keep it — not for a year, but permanently. It means that in 2041 somebody can call about a door in a building we keyed in 1983 and we can cut for it without re-surveying the whole estate. Almost nothing else in this trade compounds like that, and it is only possible because the business has stayed in one set of hands and one filing system.
Call, Assess, Quote, Do
You Call
Tell us what has happened. If it is an emergency we come; if it is a system we book a proper look.
We Assess Properly
Including whether the honest answer is a repair rather than the replacement you called about.
We Quote In Writing
With the options, so you are choosing rather than approving the only thing offered.
We Do It And Record It
Work completed, chart written, and the record kept for as long as the building stands.
What The Capital Region Says
We had a master key system installed by Thorne in the eighties and it still runs the building. They came out, read the original chart, and cut the keys we needed from records older than most of our staff.
Two people told us our antique safe would have to be drilled. Thorne opened it in about forty minutes without a mark on it. There is a difference between somebody who fits locks and somebody who understands them.
My father used Thorne, and now I do. The young man who rekeyed our house was trained by the man who did my father's. That kind of continuity has almost disappeared from the trades.
Common Questions
What does master locksmith actually mean?
A certification earned through examination and time served, rather than a license to trade. New York licenses locksmiths; certification is a separate and higher bar, and it is the reason we can manipulate a safe rather than drill it.
Can you really open a safe without drilling?
Most of the time, yes, and it is always what we try first. It takes longer and it is the difference between a serviceable safe and an expensive paperweight with a hole in it.
Do you still have our old keying chart?
If we wrote it, almost certainly. We have cut to charts from the seventies. Give us the building and roughly when the system went in and we will look.
Is a master key system worth it for a small business?
Often, and often smaller than people expect — three levels across a dozen doors is a modest job that saves years of key juggling. We will tell you honestly if you do not need one.
Should I rekey or replace after moving in?
Rekey, nearly always. Unless the hardware is worn or you want an upgrade, a rekeyed lock is exactly as secure as a new one and a fraction of the cost.
How fast can you come out?
Emergencies, straight away on the always-on line. Planned work is usually within a couple of days, and we would rather give you a real date than an optimistic one.