34 Keynotes June 2024 aloa.org 123424 224424 113423 124423 124313 124324 213323 213424 223313 223324 223423 224323 If I’m lucky, it will be one of the first four keys on the list, and I’ll only need one key blank. If it’s halfway down the list, I might need three blanks or four. Ah, but what if you don’t have rings of tryout keys? What good does this do for you? The same technique works for worn keys, broken keys and badly cut keys. Example 2: 1997 Ford Taurus With a Broken Key Decoding the first half of the key, we find the first three cuts are definitely 1245. That’s where the key is broken: at the 5 cut in the fourth position. After that, it gets tricky, because the key is so badly worn. The last four cuts look like 4553. Let’s put all that into our search and see if it’s valid. 12454553 doesn’t match any codes for a 1997 Ford Taurus. Let’s try it anyway and see what happens. We cut 12454553 onto a key blank and test it in the lock, and it turns. How did that happen? The program tells us this isn’t the correct key. But we can infer that it’s close to the correct key, and it turns because the lock itself is worn. So, what can we do? Let’s treat this like it’s a tryout key with depths 1 2 4 5 3½ 4½ 4½ 2½. Go back to the program and search 1245BYYX. There’s only one matching code: 12453442. We cut this key, and it turns in all the locks. Example 3: 1998 Ford F-150 With a Lost Key Where do we start? In this case, we can pull one of the door locks. It has six tumblers, matching the first six cuts on the key. Inserting an H75 key blank, we can see each tumbler from the back of the lock. We’ll find the cuts one at a time, starting with the last tumbler, which is the sixth position on the key. We find that the sixth cut is a 3, fifth is a 4, fourth is a 3, third is a 4 … and then it gets a little fuzzy, because the first and second tumblers are worn, and it’s hard to see them clearly from the back of the lock. We’re pretty sure the second cut is either 2 or 3, and the first is either 1 or 2. Remember, we have no information at all about the seventh and eighth cuts. So, we go to the code pro- gram and search for AX4343??. There are four matches. 12434313 12434322 12434335 13434312 This is wonderful news. We know the first cut is definitely a 1. We still aren’t sure about the second cut. But we just learned a lot about the last two cuts, even though those tumblers aren’t in the door lock! Let’s say we cut 12434313 and it turns in the door, but not in the ignition. What’s next? Take that same key blank and cut the last two cuts down to 35. It turns in the door, but not in the ignition. Next, we’ll need a fresh H75 key blank, which we cut to 12434322. It turns in the door and the ignition, with a little bit of wiggling. We try it 10 times and it works six out of 10. Now what? Look at the list again. There’s one key we haven’t tried yet: 13434312. Look how similar it is to the key we have in our hand, 12434322. It’s off by just one depth, in only two places. It’s possible that our test key only turned because it was very similar to the correct key. Let’s grab another blank and try that last key too. 13434312 turns smoothly in all the locks. Now we have the correct key. What do we learn from this? When you’re dealing with a worn lock, don’t stop progressing when you reach the first test key that turns. Try them all. You may find several that turn the lock, and then you’ll need to decide which one turns the smoothest. What if this had been a 2002 Ford F-150 equipped with a transponder key? We would have done the same thing using plain H75 key blanks until we got the one that turns smoothly. Then we would transfer those cuts onto a tran- sponder blank and program it to the vehicle. But that’s another subject. If you remember that worn locks are vulnerable to key interchange, you may find a wide variety of situations where this can help you narrow down the pos- sibilities for finding the correct key. Ralph Forrest-Ball, CML, was a math teacher for 12 years before becoming a full-time locksmith. He joined ALOA in 1997 and earned the CML credential in 2009. From 2009 to 2019, he was the owner of Emerald City Locksmith in Eugene, OR, the winner of ALOA’s Best Shop contest in 2011. He received the D’Adamo ACE Award in 2022. Ralph currently lives in Corvallis, Oregon. There are still many millions of older cars on the road that are vulnerable to key interchange.
