Locksmithing and Security

“Snib” is a more correct term for what is often known as the latch button on a latch lock.

A latch lock is the kind that can slam shut behind you, locking you out. Usually when you’ve decided to nip quickly out onto the doorstep in your dressing gown in order to get the milk delivery.

The snib is the little button that locks the latch bolt in the open position, and sometimes in the closed position as well. There are at least two reasons for checking that the snib isn’t loose.

Firstly if you have a dog (or cat?) that has the habit of jumping up and pawing at the locks, then Fido just might manage to activate a loose snib and lock you out.

This has now happened twice to one of my customers. They didn’t believe me the first time and wouldn’t let me change the lock. Now they are believers.

Secondly, if a snib has become loose and the lock is a “nightlatch” style lock on the “dangerous” side of the door (for a Yale 77, 84, 85, 88 or 89, for example, the “dangerous” side is the left as you look from the inside) then slamming the door could cause the snib to drop and lock you out — if down is the locking direction. (When mounted on the other side of the door a dropping snib is dropping towards the open and safe position.)

I almost forget why I started the last post. It was actually to talk about the necessary evil that is the letterslot.

The previous post began the story of my re-arranging the locks on my front door. The mortice lock I was adding had a thumbturn on the inside. When I go out during the night or early in the morning, leaving the rest of the family asleep, I’d like to lock the door behind me. But you shouldn’t do that with an ordinary mortice lock like a Chubb because of the fire risk. So my new mortice lock would have a key on the outside and a thumbturn on the inside. (Naturally we can do the same for your door.)

But a thumbturn near a letterslot brings an obvious risk. So I thought about letterboxes and slot cowls. Then I remembered a story from an inventors’ web site: the Homeguard Mailguard. This is a smart bag that’s fitted over the letterslot. It keeps your mail from gathering in a large pile on the floor — a dead giveaway if you’re on holiday, it keeps your mail away from the peanut-brained dog, it means you don’t have to bend down to collect your mail, it stops fishing for keys or thumbturns, and should anything incendiary arrive through the slot the bag’s material stifles the flames.

And, naturally, we can fit one for you as well.