In photo 1, are two objects.
One you will easily recognize
as a screwdriver. Note plastic
handle. The other object is a pair
of cuticle clippers. Note the clippers have no plastic handle, thus
allowing the clippers as a whole
to be a very good and efficient
conductor of electricity. I point
these two difference out because
when I was much younger and
needed to snug down a screw on
a wall socket cover plate, rather
than take the time to locate a
screwdriver with some insulation, I grabbed a pair of cuticle
clippers like the ones shown and
immediately received a shock
strong enough to cause me to
drop the clippers. I sure am glad
the voltage was low.
have live wires, such as a wall
socket. As the saying goes, use
the right tool for the right job.
The trusty hammer in photo 2,
should need no explanation with
the possible exception of always
check to be sure the head of the
hammer is affixed tightly to the
handle. Whether it be a claw
hammer such as that pictured,
a ball-peen hammer, sledge
hammer or what have you, if
the head flies off and goes sailing it can do some pretty good
damage to either yourself or an
innocent bystander.
My faithful and ever-present
Dremmel™ Tool is shown in
photo 4. This tool is used in
numerous situations, including
some not discovered by myself
yet, I’m sure. This tool makes
short work of padlocks and
chains, shortens screws when
all one has is long screws, cuts
new slots in screws where the
old slots have been reamed out,
and cuts openings in steel or
aluminum doors and stiles.
While there are some screw-
drivers which are bent with two
right angles without insulated
handles, those are only meant to
be used in close quarters and not
when playing around with live
wires or on anything which could
The tool in photo 3 is called a
number of different names, but
to me it is primarily a probe for
pressing in the mechanism to
release the outside knob of a lock
so I can re-key said lock. I also
use it to mark locations for drill
points for screws when installing
locks. This tool is quite sharp
though, and when using it to
remove some clips, I have caused
myself some injury.
This tool also operates at 3000
RPMs, which is quite fast and
can do a lot of damage to human, or animal skin if one is not
careful and the metal you were
cutting is also pretty hot. You
want to wait a bit before han-
dling whatever you cut off, or
that from which you cut it while
it cools off. You also should wear
safety goggles when using the
Dremmel™ because the tool
does kick up a lot of sparks.
3. Metal probe.
At the heart of every locksmith
business, machine-wise, is the
key duplicator similar to what is
shown in photo 5. The machine
shown is a manual duplicator and
while there is a guard over the top
of the cutter, for obvious reasons
the front edge of the cutting
wheel is exposed. How else, after
all, can we cut a duplicate key if
the cutting wheel can’t make contact with the key blank? It should
also be obvious to most that if this
cutting wheel can cut through
brass in easy fashion, it can also
cut through human flesh even
more quickly, as a co-worker of
mine once discovered. Keep your
hands behind the jaws while the
motor is running and turn off the
4. Dremmel tool.
