Customer Reviews

Locksmithing: From Apprentice to Master

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I'm co-owner of a locksmith shop, and am always on the lookout for good books for reference and to train new people. Usually TAB locksmith books are pretty decent, but "from Apprentice to Master" is weak. It doesn't have much to say its 300 plus pages. I don't see it as too technical at all.

The safe and vault work part is about three paragraphs long. The section on "General locksmith law" is in the right place, in chapter 7, because if you tried to follow the advice you'd be filing for chapter 7 (or chapter 13 bankruptcy). It says you should "draft every order, receipt, and agreement yourself." I'm not sure if that means not to trust your employees to do any writing, or if means to create all your own forms from scratch.

He also says to buy the fire codes from the National Fire Protection Association. Only a really large shop that does a lot of commercial or industrial work would want to spend that kind of money to buy those codes and keep them up to date with supplements. Most shops get along fine without them, because what they say about door hardware isn't all that complicated.

Maybe instead of urging people to buy more books, Rathjen should have put in a good chapter on fire codes. The title definitely should be changed, maybe to something like "A little about locksmithing".

.... Though the author has put in a great amount of
effort in the illustration aspect, somehow the jargon and tech talk
just lost me. Definitely not for the beginner.

This book is great for beginner locksmiths already associated with locksmithing terms and theory.. if you know nothing about locksmithing, hold off on this book til later.This book covers all the basic duties a locksmith can preform and in basic detail the how to`s of locksmithing

The title "Locksmithing From Apprentice to Master" implies that it is for a novice to someone more advanced. I find unexplained terminology that makes the book hard to follow.

I recommend this book to any apprentice or student locksmith. But the title is misleading: "Locksmithing from Apprentice to Master." There's nothing in it for a master locksmith.