"miamicuse" wrote in message
...
I have a mortise door lock - no idea what brand and what model. It is
missing two pins and took it around to different locksmiths and no one
knows
how to fix it. Finally this locksmith told me if I left the mortise with
him:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...0906/lock1.JPG

This is what the lock with handles look like:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-...6/sideview.JPG

Now after a few days he called me back and said he found a replacement
mortise. He said it will be $250 just for that part.

Now I know there are expensive locks out there like Baldwin and they run
$200 or over, but that includes the handles and hardware. Can a mortise
be
actually $250 on a nameless lock? Can he be trying to rip me off? He
would
not tell me where he found it or what brand it is.

I used to do a bit of locksmithing back in my university days (25 years
ago); I've never been formally trained but I did repair, rekey or replace a
few hundred locks so I probably know a little bit about the subject.

I think the key point is that you seem to want to replace a single major
part of a lock, rather than the whole lock. That is almost guaranteed to be
difficult since you are probably going to end up trying to mix and match
parts from different locks, very possibly by different manufacturers. A
locksmith might conceivably have or find the main assembly from a mortise
lock of exactly the right year and model for a used lock of indeterminate
age. On the other hand, it is a lot more likely that the parts he will have
or be able to find will be for newer locks by different manufacturers. So
what are the odds of a mortise assembly from a different manufacturer to be
"close enough" to the one you want to replace? Not too good is my guess;
roughly the chances of a carb from a new GM car being "close enough" to
replace the carb of a 30 year old Honda.

You'd be a lot better off replacing the entire lock than trying to find
parts for it, unless it is a very common lock or a very new one. Then again,
I never had many occasions where I tried to look for parts for locks; the
locks we were using were in the $25 range and often worn out or abused so it
made more sense to replace them with new ones or use cannibalized parts from
other broken locks - it was a university residence so there were always some
spares around - than to make a lot of effort trying to find new parts for
the locks from locksmiths.

Still, if you feel like doing a bit more work, you might try determining the
brand of lock and contacting the manufacturer of the lock to see if they
have parts. Most locks I've seen have a manufacturer name stamped somewhere
on the lock or latch (or both). Look for names like Dexter, Best, Weiser,
Schlage, etc. If you can determine the manufacturer name and the company is
still in business, you might very well find a website with a customer
service number or email address; then you could contact them to see if parts
were still available for your lock. The first picture will be invaluable in
helping them identify the exact model.

You may also want to consider something other than a mortise lock; a
deadbolt, for instance, is probably more secure.

I think you're on the right track in consulting a professional locksmith. I
wouldn't want to buy a lock from some guy working in a hardware store or an
associate at a department sto they're not likely to know much at all
about locks.

Rhino