Photo Gallery: Door Hardware Basics
A cylinder lock is constructed with a cylinder that a locksmith can easily unscrew to facilitate rekeying. The first advantage is that the cylinder may be changed without altering the bolt work hardware. The second is that it is usually possible to obtain cylinders in different formats, providing different levels of security, which can all be used with the same type of key. Cylinder locks are vulnerable to “lock snapping” or “cylinder snapping.”
