Recommendations for bartending and locksmithing classes?

[randomness]

(No, not simultaneous bartending and locksmithing, although I imagine that might be amusing.)

I've wanted to take both courses for quite a while but have never gotten around to it. I wonder if anyone on my flist has any recommendations.

Comments

[and-be-blue.livejournal.com]

I took bartending at the Authentic Bartending school in Manhattan...might be a bit out of your way, though. (; But I liked it.

[gravitrue.livejournal.com]

The canonical phr33k sources for locksmithing info are the MIT guide to locks, and the "Eddie the Wire" books from the sadly departed loompanics.

Many folks train via a mail-order course; I'm not sure there are any in-person courses left; I know there are not for cameras, except for staff training by manufacturers, and I think I remember hearing that the last watch repair training school closed down as well.

A mail-order course used to (and probably still does) include a key copying machine and one of those tiny demonstrator doors like they have in locksmith shops, plus a few other locks. Try to cover: medeco, best, ace (the circular keys used for alarm systems and vending machines), cars, filing cabinets, padlocks. You travel enough that you might also want info on ASSA Abloy and other lever locks (common in Europe, but here usually seen only in payphones and parking meters). I've no idea if you have interest in electronic stuff like hotel card key systems, alarm systems, and so on.

The other locks I see on a regular basis are Simplex (five buttons), and warded locks (the old-fashioned "skeleton key" kind, which hardly anyone uses but which are still in many of the doors around here), but these are easy enough to learn even if a course doesn't include them. A few hotels still have mechanical Ving locks, the cards with holes punched in them; most Vings are electronic these days, and there aren't even very many of those around. You should ask me about Ving stories, and about MRI magnets; a course is unlikely to cover either of those :)

I think some of the Frobs used to have a copy of a mail-order course kicking around, and if not, or if you want something newer, I'd expect you could find used copies on Ebay. The lock industry has shrunk and consolidated a lot in the past two decades; I don't think much has changed besides automobile locks.

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

If you can't pick a lock while drunk, then you're no barsmither!

[cityratbuddy.livejournal.com]

I've worked previously for a few years as a locksmith. There used to be a school in Emeryville that taught the trade. Maybe they're still there.

I never was interested in that school, and managed to learn by volunteering my time, practicing and eventually picking up jobs at locksmith stores. I wonder where in New England they'd teach such a thing? FWIW, last I heard, New Jersey was the only state with a locksmith's union.

[kjc.livejournal.com]

*laughs*

I've always wanted to take both courses too!