Berhampore Locks Ltd

05/09/2024

I have been working on a little project for a couple of years now. My business had a bit of a quiet spell a couple of months ago. This gave me time to get it finished.

The problem that I had and have solved was to do with French doors. Once upon a time all French doors had a 1/2 inch rebate. Since the introduction of seals on the rebates this has changed, largely at the discretion of the joiner. We now have rebates anywhere from 10-15mm. Lock manufacturers mostly just make the one size of rebate. New regulations to the shape of the rebate we now also have a 10 degree taper on some rebates. No traditional rebate kit works well on a tapered rebate.

My answer to this problem is a standardised interface between the lock and the many different types of doors. Introducing the rebated Lock Inlay Block. This unit replaces the old stile of rebate kit. It uses the strike plate that comes with the lock. At the moment I have 15 variants and I am making new models as I come across different types of rebates. My intention is to have available any posable variance within 4 hours and to stock most of the common one for emendate delivery.

Today is a big day for my invention, the Certificate of Registration for my design was approved by the NZIP office. The design number is 434119.

I have now installed 3 of these on real doors and have had fantastic comments about the product. The product is branded BL and compliments the BL 026 range of locks. I have also made this Block Inlay for the Union 2201 and will make it for other locks as needed.

23/11/2023

Well done WCC. You have successfully stopped traffic in Wellington south. Emergency locksmith only going 5kms but can't even get out of Berhampore.

04/04/2022

Really loving doing block inlay at the moment. This one was on a 1920's door. Originally the door was fitted with a mortice night latch at the top and mortice latch at the bottom. The mortice night latch must have failed in the 1960's and replaced with a normal night latch. You can see the cap inlay hiding where the mortice night latch was above my block inlay. I was a bit concerned that the cap inlay would pop out when I cut out for the block inlay but it worked out fine. The mortice latch that was in the door had failed and the owner of the house had looked all over town for a replacement. Unfortunately that size of latch is no longer available. The owner was a bit apprehensive about the process and had asked that it be done in cedar. The cedar I used was from an old window I replaced years ago. He was thrilled with the end result and I think with a bit of oil on it you will hardly see it.

31/08/2020

Finally remembered to take a photo of this new process I have come up with. I call it plastic block inlay. Its used to replace an old mortice lock with a standard cylindrical k**b or lever set. In the past I have used timber block inlay. This has been a great way to fill in mortice but very time consuming (1 to 2 hours). This install today took 40 minutes from start to finish. The issue was that the mortice latch was well past its use by date and the levers had lost all spring. The surface mounted levers had no timber to screw into and kept coming off. The owner had tried a number of times to find a solution with no permanent luck. I make the plastic Inlay in 3 sizes and two colors at this point. What you see is two 91X25mm Plastic Block Inlay units in white. I also do a 142X25mm and a 56X25mm unit and all 3 sizes come in the white or plastic wood color. Photos are the before and after shots.

04/05/2020

Found this card while cleaning up my shop over lockdown. I can't remember where it came from. Can't quite make out the artists name, looks like Lorraine Tarrant. Cool drawing though.

19/04/2020

26/03/2018

Love doing this stuff! Just finished a full restoration of this lock dating back to maybe 1890 something. It had no key and had a number of coats of paint in all sorts of colors. The hole the key goes into was all rusted and was way to big from years of work. The latch was sticking in the open position. The bolt was painted in the unlocked position. I hand made an escutcheon and silver soldered it on. Made and fitted new springs. High speed polished the brass k**bs then clear lacquered them. Matt black body, bolt and latch. Hand made a key from a 21-2g key blank. All set to be fitted next week.

12/03/2018

"It can't be done" they said.

Sounded like a challenge to me. The owners wanted a lock that worked, the heritage people didn't want anything changed the fire people wanted people to be able to get out of the building in a fire and the council want it to comply with a new build. None of these requests are unreasonable under normal circumstances but given the space and what the door is made of it was a bit of a challenge. The doors are made of old school steel. I was told they came from a building in Napier. The doors are welded in place, painted and glassed but one pain of glass got a crack during the install. The main door had the original mortise lock that the door was made for, key operated both sides. It had the original brass lever on the outside and a clear glass k**b on the inside. I said it wouldn't look good and it wouldn't happen in 5 minuets but I can make it work. I spent the best part of two days with a file on the door and modifying a Novas Mortise lock. Also fitted Legge levers and a LAL570 cylinder. Then most of today making it look OK and fitting a patio bolt. Oh and I did two fire doors in a different part of the building (so boring). It ticked all the boxes for everyone (council and fire check on Friday). Can't be done my ass!

18/01/2018

Yesterday I was called to fix a lock that a "locksmith" had drilled out. Odd request as you would think the locksmith would have replaced the lock he drilled out. I got to the job to find the door was broken and the lock was drilled bashed attached and... not working anymore.

The story goes see had locked herself out so she called the first locksmith on google. It was a paid add headed up "24/7 Locksmith In Wellington - 15 Min Response‎". Locksmith turned up and drilled the lock after that didn't work they forced the door open and charged the poor person $150 for the work. Then drove off.

Some investigations have lead me to a company "Meridan Locksmith Ltd" and a man called "Noam Cohen". Turns out this is not an uncommon thing up in Auckland. Here is a link to a Newshub story.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2017/07/rip-off-locksmiths-operating-in-auckland.html

How they work is Noam also known as Tony Smith arranges for a locksmith (John cowboy) immigrant on a visitors visa to get you in or do whatever you ask them to do, badly. They then rip you off as much as they can get away with. When the heat starts to come on the locksmith jumps on a plain and a replacement is found.

The advice I give you is. No ID no job. All locksmiths must be registered to some sort of authority. My company has a licence from the Private Security Personnel Licensing Authority (PSPLA) and I personally have a certificate of approval as a security adviser and a security consultant. Lots of other locksmith companies are members of associations like the "Master Locksmith Association of Australia". These associations are self monitored and have work fine for many years. No locksmith will be offended if you ask for ID he should be wearing it for everyone to see but if not he should have it with him. Check the ID if you have any suspicions ask a couple of questions. A fake will soon show true colors.

Here is the mess I now need to fix. Total cost will be about $1000 and it looks like the poor tenant is liable as they employed John (giggle giggle may not be his real name) to smash the door.

25/11/2017

Just hand made this cool key for an old Louie Va Ton suitcase catch.