I work for a realtor and would like to become more useful around the office and in the field. There are a few skills I have seen others do and would like to learn how to do them, but am not quite sure on what how to ask - I lack the terminology in many cases.
First, the obvious, picking door knobs and deadbolts. There actually isn't much of a need for me to do this, but it is related - and I (not knowing much about it) view it as kind of an interesting mechanical puzzle. I'm not sure if anybody else thinks of it in the same way, picking locks not to open the door, but just to be able to pick the locks, but I digress.
On many of the houses we deal with we have to have the locks changed - gaining access from the people moving out. I've watched a guy rekey a lock by popping out the cylinder and putting what looked like brass pins back inside, pulling them out of a case that organized each pin by a different digit. Then, to make the key, he had what looked like a fancy hole punch where he would press down a lever and a chunk of the key blank would be knocked out.
What are these tools and skills called? The guy was knocking out spare keys for the locks at the rate of one every 60 seconds or so, seemingly even faster than what the machines at the local hardware store can do. Why don't more people duplicate keys like this? If I am given one key can I make a duplicate on site with one of these punch thingies?
Could somebody please tell me which skills I am talking about and where I can get more information on these skills?
Thank you