Lockwood Locks change to “Kinetic Defence”

The Lockwood Brand is an Australian range of premium domestic and commercial locks which is well branded and very much an Australian icon. Lockwood locks are available in almost all hardware shops and sold by locksmiths throughout Australia. The domestic range of Lockwood locks are easily recognisable with their traditional red and white packaging which is one of the most well branded and trusted in Australia.

The internet and the freedom of information on lock picking and lock bumping is probably what persuaded the manufacturers of Lockwood products to change the design of their cylinders to the new anti bump and pick resistant cylinders. Lock Bumping especially made opening of the older Lockwood locks very easy. Lock Bumping works better on well constructed pin tumbler locks with tight tolerances such as Lockwood locks. Lock bumping requires little skill and all that is needed is an old key and a screw driver which is used to bump the key into the lock.

Kinetic Defence is the name Lockwood gave to its upgraded lock cylinders. The lock cylinders themselves have very little change in design. The old standard pins still work in the new Kinetic Defence locks. The change Lockwood made with their locks was to add a different set of Top Pins to the lock cylinder. The top pins look nothing new. They are shaped like Mushroom Pins or Spool Pins, which have been used for many years in pin tumbler locks. The difference with the Lockwood Top pins and other brands of locks is that Lockwood used their Spool pins in every pin chamber. Other manufacturers generally only used spool or mushroom pins in one or 2 chambers to make attempts at picking the locks a bit harder.

There are a couple of very good reasons why other lock manufactures did not use Spool or Mushroom pins in every chamber of the lock cylinder. One of the reasons is because the lock cylinder does not work as smooth when every pin chamber has these special top pins installed. A lock with Spool Pins in every chamber will bind as the key is inserted. The Lockwood Kinetic Defence lock cylinders are no exception. I have tried keys in quite a few of the Kinetic Defence lock cylinders and the keys bind if any sideways turning pressure is applied when the key is inserted. It can make the Lockwood cylinder feel like it is not as smooth as other locks.

So does Kinetic Defence work to make the Lockwood locks more bump and pick resistant? Well I guess you would have to ask a professional lock picker that question? With reference to 24 Hour Locksmiths article on Lockwood Locks, I would say that if most locksmiths are drilling the locks open instead of picking them then Lockwood has succeeded in making their locks more secure. Although the 24 Hour Brisbane Locksmiths article does say that Lockwood locks can be picked and 24 Hour Locksmiths Brisbane include picking of Lockwood locks as one of their services.

The thing with picking or bumping locks is that we just dont know weather our lock is hard to pick until someone tries to pick it. We have to put faith in the manufacturers of our locks and the locksmiths who install and recommend them. Maybe we should ask the locksmith the important question “Can my lock be picked” before having it installed. If the Lockwood Kinetic Defence lock can be picked I guess it is up to consumers to decide on weather it has the security they desire.