What Happens When Your 100 Year Old Lock Breaks?

By Ryan Kaullen, Field Services Manager at Kenton Brothers

Kenton Brothers has been in business since 1897. Through our 127 year history, we’ve seen just about every type of lock imaginable. But in 2024, we rarely see locks that are 100+ years old. Most of those have become obsolete, the companies who once made them are out of business, and most were just thrown away over the years.

Recently a customer of Kenton Brothers brought into our commercial locksmith service counter a lock from the early 1900’s that had a piece broken. The customer bringing in the lock knew it was a longshot that it could be fixed. But it was a piece of history and was in a historical building, so they were going to do everything they could to try and fix it. The piece that was broken is vital to the lock because without it the bolt would free float… not allowing the lock to properly engage and lock.

The section circled below is the part that was broken.

Vern is our senior front counter commercial locksmith has been a locksmith all his life. His father was a locksmith before him, so he is always up for a challenge. After looking over the lock, he came up with a plan that required him to take a very small bit to drill completely through the piece and then install a small roll pin to attach it back to the lock body. This was an extremely difficult task because of the size of the part that was broken. If the drill bit did not go straight through, the piece wouldn’t be repairable.

After re-attaching the broken piece to the lock body, it was tested over 100 times to make sure the repair would hold up. And it did!

Repairs on 100+ year old locks don’t always turn out like this. But we like solving problems for our customers. Being innovative is one of our core values, and in this case it allowed us to help keep a part of history intact.

Do you need help with commercial locksmith services at your business? We can help!