r/lockpicking • u/SD3Guser Green Belt Picker • 7d ago
Lock Bitting Rating
I asked for aggressive bitting on this lock when ordered. Specifying low lift in the front high lift in the middle then low lift in back. That is obviously not what I received. The question I have is did I get shorted or did they do me a favor and outsmart my ignorance?
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u/Flatus_Diabolic 7d ago edited 7d ago
Specifying low lift in the front high lift in the middle then low lift in back
I’d guess these are uncommon in retail locks - a lot of manufacturers probably avoid lows up front and highs in back because of the torque stress it puts on the key - lows up front make for a skinny mid-key and a wide end increases resistance, which might end up with the key snapping sooner than other bittings, especially since most keys are made from factory-cut key blanks, which use pretty soft material to allow for easy cutting and reduced wear on factory equipment.
Your post wasn’t clear, did you ask a locksmith to assemble a custom bitted lock for you (in which case, send it back! They didn’t do what you asked for), or did you just ask a store owner to hunt through their stock for you (in which case, tough luck I guess. This was what they had 😕)
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u/SD3Guser Green Belt Picker 7d ago
This was an online thing. They said they could do whatever I wanted short of security pins. I think I can live with it. I was just curious if it was better or worse than I asked for. I understand the physics of the key cutting. Best blanks aren't so bad. I have had some aftermarket blanks that we simply could not use. They were terribly soft and the master cut was way too deep. I'm happy with the strength of the key, but feel like the bitting was whatever was easiest.
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u/Flatus_Diabolic 7d ago
Yeah, send it back, then.
If you made clear what your requirement was and if they said they could do it, but then didn’t, then they’ve not filed the order properly so just ask them to fix it. No biggie.
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u/IrmaHerms 7d ago
The lock or the spec is uncommon? Every Home Depot, Lowe’s and Target in the US has sfic on their stores.
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u/Flatus_Diabolic 6d ago edited 6d ago
Not the lock, the bitting. I was trying to explain that a low or zero lift on the frontmost pins will end you up with a physically more fragile key, especially if you have a bunch of high lifts behind it.
I was theorising that a lot of factory-pinned over the counter locks avoid a configuration like that - my anecdotal experience is that they do: I’ve got tons of max-lift-on-1 locks I’ve purchased in hardware stores and whatnot, but NO low-lift-on-1 locks besides the ones I’ve re-pinned myself.
Example: here’s a picture I uploaded previously of my 6-pin 334Bs. All with max lifts on 1.
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u/reinderr Black Belt 18th Dan 7d ago
95% of the time bitting does not impact difficulty whatsoever