Perspectives on The Locksmith Industry
EDITOR:
I always enjoy your articles.You have the experience of both the old and new generations in this business. I too have been on both sides the road: from a locksmith, working out of a shop doing all facets of locksmithing to a total end user with high security Medeco gaming hardware; to Saflok access control installer at Revel Casino in Atlantic City, the second tallest building in New Jersey. I also have the perspective of being in a trade union as an institutional locksmith.
Locksmiths can capture the end user market by becoming perhaps unionized installers in big city’s venues, jobbing large install projects to installing small multi housing e-lock projects. There “IS” a market for experienced installers in USA and overseas. I would encourage the independent locksmith to consider signing on with a trade union to pick up on large jobs in Chicago, New York, North Jersey and Philadelphia anywhere in the Northeast corridor. It’s a good to think outside the box. I have certified lock mfg. installers like Saflok and Allegion.
I am a third generation locksmith. I started my apprenticeship in 1974 working at Bell Security in North Jersey for my Uncle Don Meyer. he has invented popular items used by Best lock working with Frank and Walter. My Uncle was tough on me and that was a good thing. I manufactured high security Illinois Duo and Medeco OEM vending cylinders at Northeast Lock in Clifton N.J., building gaming locks, vending, parking meter and elevator locks. Then I moved to a lock and safe shop in Atlantic City N.J. for TWO years before working as an in-house locksmith in the casino trade in Atlantic City for the past 35 years… I LOVE WHAT WE DO!
I look into weak areas in a building and into product lines that have disadvantages so that I can better educate property owners and most important, myself. Locksmithing is a progressive discipline. I worked with the Boyd family from Las Vegas to build at that time the second tallest building in the State, The Borgata in Atlantic City. They are very nice folks and appreciate someone putting their property first and taking a firm stance when needed.
We work under the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and allied trades umbrella here in Atlantic City. I started the locksmithing program at our New Jersey Training facility here and managed to personally write the skill blocks needed to serve our apprenticeship. I certified Ingersoll Rand installer’s there before Allegion. There is a vast array of specialties that I am finding were the tradition locksmith can weave into with an open mind.
I didn’t write this about me;I wrote this in appreciation for your deep thinking and encouraging letters to enlighten your readers into new unexplored arenas. I agree totally with your approach. I write these things not as a braggart at all but as a treatise of possible avenues we can explore, that you express in your writing. I want to thank you; you encourage me…
Chris Meyer
Lockshop Foreman
Atlantic City, NJ
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Correction
In the Schlage Moves To Mechanical High Security article (Jan. 2015, page 13), we incorrected stated that the Everest C123 keyway is backwards-compatible with the C keyway. This statement is incorrect. The Everest C123 keyway is not backwards-compatible.
