Schlage cores/plugs or cylinders with H keyway

you DO KNOW, thats the master keyway? IIRR

--Shiva--

If I remember correctly the H keyway is the master keyway for C-E. You won't find an H keyway cylinder, only keys. I had a building that had C and E keyways in it and they wanted it master keyed w/o cylinder replacement. Therefore I chose the H key and rekeyed the entire highrise using that blank. I'm not guarranteeing that I'm correct, but this is what I recall.

Jack President Allied Lock & Security, Inc. Atlanta, GA

I did that to a school once.. one building a C, second building an E.. Superintendent got an H blank

--Shiva--

If I recall correctly H is a blank not a keyway. If you use a P keyway it will accept all blanks from C to K but I have never seen any multi broached plugs other than the P.

if everything IS on an H, get the 'tighest' keyway you can find for that blank-no matter what letter it is.. and use it, ASSUMING the entire system is on that blank.

ASSUMING you are having to add to the system..

I suggest pulling one of the lock cylinders and taking the tail piece off and seeing if there is a letter stamped on the END.. I ahve found for instance E plugs are stamped there..dont know about the rest..

--Shiva--

Ah, now that would be about as comical as walking into a Sargent distributor, and asking for LD keyway plugs?

Now, lets see if we can convince the poor guy that since it's a master section, that it's only available on special request.

Sounds like Newark, NY. Buildings have C, CE, and E keyways (for junior, middle and senior) and then H blank for the bigwigs.

Sounds like you guys are correct about the "h" being a master Keyway.

Stay away from the "L" keyway if you can. They are so dog gone easy to bend when cutting.

In this sort of situation, should not the change keys be on the C or E blanks as appropriate, with the H blank being reserved for masterkeys? The fewer keys cut on H or 'higher' (eg L ?) in circulation, the better it is for everybody.

Another thought. If at all possible, should not any exterior doors be keyed so that an ordinary C key combination (ie no 0, 1 or 2 cuts) will not fit either as a change key, masterkey or incidental masterkey (ie for at least one cut the lowest level used should be 2). This would greatly reduce the chance of a stray C key operating the lock.

personally.. (dealing with schools here, BTW) I DETEST the outside door to be master keyed.. if they fire a key holder, sans alarm, the all the locks got to be changed, whereas if its not mastered, then if they fire a key holder, you just redo the outside only --Shiva--

The exterior doors of a school with Schlage C or E or any "open keyway" should not even have Schlage cylinders installed in them at all...

Something higher security and much more difficult to duplicate should be used in exterior security locks... Maybe Primus at the very least...

After all, even if a keyholder is fired how is the administrator in charge of physical plant operations/security to be sure that the keys that were turned in are the only copies of said keys that the fired employee had in his/her possession ???

There is NO key control in a school with an open keyway being used and exterior access should be controlled somehow... The only way I see that being even slightly possible is by using patented and restricted security keyways that are not available to the general public at the local locksmith shop or hardware store... Out of the necessity of cost efficiency only those areas of the school where valuables are stored and exterior access points should have the patented, restricted, or security keyway cylinders...

Evan, ~~ formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...

And only one or possibly two exterior access points per separate building need to be keyed from the outside.

Actually here in the US and Massachusetts specifically, such decisions are up to the local Fire Official [either the Chief of the Department, or the local Fire Marshall] having jurisdiction... Having doors that can not be accessed from the outside in the event of an emergency means that public safety officials must damage or destroy public infrastructure in order to do their jobs...

Typically the exit doors from a single room will not have cylinders to operate them from the outside, but any stairwell or corridor access points will have keyed cylinders on the exterior so firefighters can open the door from the outside without having to chop it to bits or use a long crow bar that usually ends up bending the door and the frame in the process of making entry... Similar to the cost efficiency comment above, there is an overriding need for safety in a school building and care must be taken to balance the security needs with the possibilities of disaster that could occur, it is better for the safety of the children occupying the building if major exterior access points can be opened from the outside by authorized personnel...

Your suggestion of only one or two exterior access points per separate building needing to be keyed from the outside is not really applicable -- in this case all keyed entry doors should remain keyed from the outside -- it is just a matter of not issuing the keys that operate such doors to everyone in the school... Only one or two exterior doors should be used for "routine" entry by those who are authorized to be there early or late... And those who are allowed to use such doors have no need to have a key that opens up all of the exterior doors on the building...

You shouldn't be concerned about someone picking the locks to gain entry to the school, as that almost never happens in reality, either a set of keys goes missing and nobody does anything about it, or someone has obtained unauthorized duplications of someone's keys -- which is why I focused on the need for having patented, restricted, or security keyways that are not available to the general public through the local locksmith or hardware store in use on exterior doors on a school building...

Evan, ~~ formerly a maintenance man, now a college student...

I had a 19 outside door church once that called.. things were 'walking'..

convinced them to change the locks, and they ended up with 3 key openable outside doors with ASSA locks.. and 60 keys..

before, they 'knew' there was 150 people with outside door keys.. after they were changed, they got another 125 calls from irate people that their key no longer worked.. people that were NOT on the list of 150 original key holders..

--Shiva--