How to Get a Broken Key Out of a Lock Without Making It Worse

Stop turning, and look at where the key broke

The moment a key snaps, the instinct is to keep twisting the stub or to push the other half in and finish the turn. Both press the broken piece deeper, and a deeper piece is slower and harder to get out. Pocket the head of the key.

Then look closely at the face of the lock, with your phone's flashlight if the light is poor. Either a sliver of metal sticks out past the keyway, or the break sits flush with the surface or below it. That one detail decides whether this is a two-minute fix for you or a call for broken key extraction and lock repair.

Notice which way the keyway slot points, too. If it is not where it normally sits when you slide the key in, the lock stopped partway through its turn, and that matters for the next step.

If your toddler, your dog or a pan on a hot burner is on the other side of that door, call 911 first. A lock can be repaired later.

How to get a broken key out of a lock when a piece sticks out

If you can see and grip metal, you have a fair chance of pulling it out yourself. Work slowly, in this order.

If two or three gentle pulls do nothing, stop there. A piece that has not moved is being held by the pins, and pulling harder only chews up the edge you are gripping.

• Line the lock up with the position where the key went in. Most locks release a key in only that position; Kwikset notes that its SmartCode 955 keypad lever lets the key out only in the locked position, with the key upright.
• If the lock stopped partway and the stub will not swing back with light pressure, leave it for a technician rather than forcing it.
• Grip the flat sides of the piece with tweezers or fine needle-nose pliers, not the edge with the cuts.
• Pull straight toward you without twisting or rocking. Wiggling bends the piece against the pins and can snap it again, shorter this time.
• If your lock's maker lists a lubricant, a small puff in the keyway can help the piece slide. If you do not know which one your lock takes, leave the keyway dry.

Broken key in a door lock: the mistakes that make it worse

A snapped key on its own seldom ruins a lock. The rescue attempt is what usually does the damage, and these are the common ones.

If the key broke with the door locked and you are on the wrong side of it, that is a lockout as well as an extraction, and both are handled on one visit. Our house lockout page covers how a technician gets you in without damage.

• Superglue on a matchstick or a toothpick. Glue that runs past the stub can set the pins solid, and then the cylinder needs replacing instead of clearing.
• A drill. Drilling destroys the pins and the plug, and it is never a first step for a broken key.
• A screwdriver or a knife forced into the keyway to turn the lock. That bends the plug face and can leave the door stuck shut.
• The other half of the key pushed in behind the stub. It packs the piece deeper, past where tweezers or an extractor reach easily.
• Kitchen oil, cooking spray or whatever is in the garage. Lock makers specify what goes into their cylinders, and general-purpose oil is not on Schlage's list.

Graphite, liquid lube or nothing: what lock makers say

A lubricant can help a stuck piece slide out, but only the right one and only a little. Schlage's A-Series service manual has technicians blow a small amount of graphite into the keyway, and it warns that no other type of material belongs in the cylinder.

The company's newer guidance gives a little more room. Since April 2014 its factories have treated pinned cylinders with a liquid lube, and Schlage calls Fluid Film acceptable for use out in the field.

Jacksonville's humidity is a reason to go easy. Allegion cautions in its Schlage padlock care notes that overdoing flaked graphite pulls in moisture and leaves the cylinder gummy, which is the last thing a damp garage or beach shed needs.

If you cannot find what your lock's maker recommends, leave the keyway dry. A dry lock with a stub in it is a cleaner job for a technician than one flooded with the wrong product.

Why keys snap in the first place

A key that breaks has usually been working too hard for months. Finding the reason matters, because the next key will meet the same resistance.

• A worn key. Years of use round off the cuts until the key needs jiggling and extra twist to turn, and the blade tires.
• A door that drags the bolt. Kwikset's troubleshooting says that if you have to push, pull or lift a door to close it, the latch and strike are out of line and the deadbolt takes extra load, and the key ends up doing that work.
• A copy of a copy. Each generation picks up a little error, and a key that is slightly off needs more force every time.
• Using the key as a handle. Pulling a heavy door shut by the key bends the blade sideways, a little more each day.
• A gritty or gummed-up cylinder. Sand, dust and the wrong lubricant all make the pins harder to lift, so the key has to push past them.

Salt air at the Beaches, old mortise locks in Springfield and Riverside

Locks east of the Intracoastal have a harder life. Salt air and blowing sand reach the keyways in Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach, and a cylinder that gets a little stiffer each month is a broken key waiting to happen.

Even lock makers plan around the coast. Schlage says it does not offer a marine-grade finish and steers buyers in seaside areas toward its chrome and matte black finishes.

Closer to downtown, the housing is older. The National Register lists Springfield's historic district with significant years from 1882 to 1930, and many original doors there and in Riverside and Avondale still carry mortise locks, the box-shaped lock fitted inside the door's edge.

On a door that old, the key is often a worn copy and the cylinder decades old. Mention a mortise lock when you call, because a cracked original cylinder can take longer to match.

Broken key extraction: what the technician does

A locksmith's extractors are thin, hardened blades with a tiny hook or barb at the tip. One slides into the keyway beside the stub, catches the cuts or the edge, and draws the piece forward without pushing it.

First the technician makes sure the cylinder is back where the key went in, since a piece caught partway through a turn is pinned in place. If the stub will not come forward from the front, the cylinder can be taken off the door and cleared from behind.

Then comes the real check. The technician looks at the keyway, runs a good key through the lock, and tells you whether it is fine, needs a repair, or is worn enough that a new cylinder is the better spend. Drilling is not part of a normal extraction.

After it is out: a new key, a rekey or a new lock

The broken key has to be replaced, and how depends on what is left of it. If both halves are intact and fit together cleanly, a copy can often be cut from them; if a piece is bent or missing, the new key can often be cut from the lock instead.

If you have a working spare, bring it to our counter at 8727 Old Kings Rd S on the Southside for key duplication while you wait. Bring the original rather than the newest copy.

A lock rekey makes sense when the key that broke was one of an unknown number of copies, or when the cylinder is already apart for the extraction. The pins change, the old keys stop turning, and new keys are cut to match.

When the cylinder is worn, cracked or was damaged on the way out, repairing it comes first and replacing the lock second. A key that broke because the lock fought it will break the next one too, unless the cause is fixed.

A key broken in a business door at opening or closing time

On a storefront, a snapped key is a business problem before it is a lock problem. In the morning it means staff on the sidewalk and customers turned away; at closing it can mean a storefront that cannot be secured overnight.

Do not leave a business door unlocked and walk away because the key will not turn. Keep someone on site, call, and mention up front that it is a commercial door, because a shop that cannot open or close moves up the list.

If the cylinder was damaged, it can usually be swapped during that visit, so the door locks before anyone goes home. The commercial locksmith page covers rekeys and master keys, worth a look if the key that broke belonged to someone who has since left.

Padlocks, mailboxes and apartment doors

A key snapped in an inexpensive padlock is usually a reason to buy a new padlock. A good one guarding a gate, a shed or a trailer is worth extracting, and the dispatcher helps you decide which it is.

Mailboxes depend on who owns the box. For boxes the Postal Service maintains, it sends you to your local Post Office; every other mailbox, locks included, is the responsibility of the building's owner or manager.

So for a cluster box at an apartment or condo, ask the office who maintains it before anyone touches the lock. Apartment entry doors belong to the landlord too, and the office may authorize the extraction or send its own maintenance staff.

Key broke off in the car ignition or a car door

A key that snaps in a car is a separate job with its own rule: do not try to start the car with the stub, and keep pliers and glue away from the ignition. Our guide to a key stuck in the ignition walks through what to check first.

Our technicians pull broken keys from ignitions and car door locks at the car, and repair or replace a damaged cylinder; the ignition repair page covers that service. The electrical ignition switch behind the cylinder is a mechanic's job, and we tell you when that is the real fault.

What to tell us when you call

A two-minute description means the van shows up with the extractors and parts your lock needs. Keep both pieces of the key, and have this in mind:

• The kind of lock: deadbolt, knob, lever, handleset, mortise lock, padlock, mailbox or storefront door.
• The brand, such as Kwikset or Schlage, if you can read it on the lock.
• Whether any of the key sticks out, and whether the lock stopped partway through its turn.
• Whether the door is locked or unlocked, and whether you are inside or out.
• Whether you have a working spare, plus the address and any gate code.