Guide
Woking Broken Key Guide: Getting a Snapped Key Out of a Lock Without Making It Worse
Call 01483 377197 if you are shut out or the door cannot be secured; if the door is safe for now, you can usually try the steps below first.
If your key snapped while it was turned, nothing will come out until the cylinder is back at vertical, so that is the first thing to sort. Whether you call it a broken key or a snapped one, the fix starts in the same place, and only the methods after that change.
They change by lock type. On a uPVC or composite door there may be a shortcut that skips extraction altogether; on a timber door or a window lock the fragment has to come out where it is. This guide takes you through the gate, the lock types, the methods that genuinely work and the ones that wreck a cylinder. If you get to the end and it is still stuck, Woking Locksmith can take it from there.
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- Price agreed before work starts
Check One Thing Before You Touch It
Look into the keyhole and work out whether the broken piece is sitting straight up and down or at an angle. Everything else depends on that.
- Straight (vertical): the pins can drop, and the fragment is free to slide out. Go on to the methods below.
- At an angle: the fragment is trapped, and it has to be brought back to vertical before any method can work.
The guidance from Acme Locksmith is clear on this: the cylinder must go back to vertical, with the key cuts pointing up, so the pins let go of the key, and nothing else works until it is straight. A lock tool manufacturer's own guide agrees that a key broken half way through a turn is often blocked, and that pulling on it alone will not help. If your problem is a key that will not turn rather than one that has snapped, see a key that will not turn rather than one that has snapped.
Why Nothing Comes Out While the Cylinder Is Turned
A key can only slide out of a lock at one point in its rotation, because that is the only position where the pins line up to let it pass. The pins drop into the cuts along the key's blade. With the cylinder at rest, they sit at a height that lets the key go by; turn it, and the body of the lock holds them in the wrong place, so the fragment is mechanically held captive.
- If a little of the fragment sticks out: a gentle turn back to vertical, using the fragment itself, is what frees it.
- If none of it sticks out: this is usually where the do-it-yourself route ends.
The good news is that plenty of snapped keys are already sitting at vertical, and that is the case most of the methods below assume.
Do Not Keep Turning It
The natural reaction when a key breaks is to keep working at whatever is left, and that is the habit that turns an extraction into a replacement. As 1-800-Unlocks explains, rotating a broken piece forces its jagged edge deeper into the cylinder and can wedge it against the pins inside, and if the piece breaks again, the bits become nearly impossible to get out without taking the lock apart.
Not yet: 1. Do not keep twisting what is left of the key. 2. Do not poke anything narrow into the keyhole to see how far in the fragment goes; that is how a reachable piece becomes a deep one.
The instruction is short on purpose: take the pressure off, leave it where it is, and read the rest of this page before anything else goes near the lock.
Work Out Which Lock You Have
What to do next depends on whether the key snapped in a euro cylinder, a mortice lock, or a night latch or window lock. The euro cylinder is the fortunate case, because the whole cylinder can usually come out of the door. For help telling them apart, see which type of lock you are looking at.
uPVC and Composite Doors: You May Not Need to Extract It
On many uPVC and composite doors, the whole cylinder comes out of the door on one screw, with the broken piece still inside it. The euro cylinder is held by a single long fixing screw through the faceplate on the door edge, so it can be removed as a unit and dealt with on a bench, or simply replaced.
That helps in two ways. The fiddly extraction stops being urgent, because the door is no longer waiting on it. And if the cylinder was due to be replaced anyway, the fragment inside it stops mattering at all.
- When this works: the cylinder can be turned back to vertical, so the cam clears and the cylinder slides out.
- When it does not: the cylinder is stuck at an angle, because the screw alone will not free it in that position.
The removal steps and the sizing are in the guide on changing a uPVC door lock.
Timber Doors, Night Latches and Window Locks
On these there is no quick way to lift the lock off the door, so the fragment has to come out where it is.
- Mortice lock. It is set into the thickness of a timber door and held by screws behind the faceplate, so taking it out is a job rather than a step. Extracting the fragment in place is the sensible first attempt. If the lock needs replacing afterwards, see replacing a lock on a wooden door.
- Night latch. This rim lock sits on the inside face of many older front doors, and its cylinder is held by long screws from the inside, which can sometimes be reached.
- Window lock. The smallest and most delicate of the three, and the one where forcing does the most damage compared with what the part is worth.
All three have narrower keyways than a euro cylinder, so there is less room for a tool and more chance of making things worse. On window locks in particular, the handle assembly is often cheaper to replace than a failed attempt is to fix;.
| Lock type | Where you find it | What changes about the job |
|---|---|---|
| Euro cylinder | uPVC and composite doors, and many modern front doors | The cylinder can often be removed whole, fragment and all |
| Mortice lock | Set into the thickness of timber doors | The lock stays put, so the fragment comes out in place |
| Night latch or window lock | Inside face of older front doors; window handles | Narrow keyways, less room, more risk of damage |
Grip It If Any of the Key Is Showing
If any of the fragment stands out beyond the face of the lock, that is enough to grip, and needle-nose pliers or tweezers will do it. Acme Locksmith gives the same advice: grip what protrudes and pull it straight out.
- Make sure the cylinder is at vertical, and keep it there throughout.
- Grip the exposed end firmly and pull straight out along the line the key went in, not sideways, because sideways force is what breaks a fragment a second time.
- If it is holding on, a very small rocking motion in the same plane as the key (not across it) can help. Two firm attempts with no movement means stop rather than push harder.
Once it is out, keep both halves. A key cutter can often work from them. Note that this step is about gripping what already sticks out; nothing goes into the keyway here.
Hook It If the Key Broke Off Flush
When the key has broken off level with the face, the tool that genuinely works is a broken key extractor: a thin, hooked probe made for exactly this, and inexpensive to buy.
- Extractor. It slides along the keyway beside the fragment, the hook catches one of the cuts on the key, and the piece comes out with it.
- Improvised version. A fine-toothed blade from a jigsaw or coping saw works on the same principle, with the teeth facing so they bite on the way out. Acme Locksmith names the extractor as the best tool and the saw blade as the fallback.
A word of caution comes from a European lock tool manufacturer, which is worth repeating because the company sells these tools: extractors work well in experienced hands, they need a good feel, and if positioned badly they can jam, snap off or cause further damage.
Stop rule: two attempts, then stop. A broken blade or probe stuck in the keyway is a far worse problem than the one you started with. For an idea of what a locksmith charges for this, see what a locksmith charges for a job like this in Woking.
Try the Glue Stick Method, and Understand Its Limits
Hot glue from a glue gun stick is worth one try; superglue is never worth trying. The difference lies in how they set. Hot glue sets soft enough to peel off metal it should not have touched. Superglue does not, and it goes wherever it runs.
Why a Hot Glue Stick Sometimes Works
The idea is to build a temporary handle on the end of the fragment, and it succeeds often enough to justify one attempt but not often enough to count on. A small dab of hot glue on the end of a matchstick or something similar is touched to the exposed end of the fragment and left to set hard, which gives you something to pull. Acme Locksmith lists it among the methods that can work.
It needs three things to go right, which is why it often does not: 1. The fragment has to be within reach. 2. The glue has to bond to the fragment rather than to the face of the lock. 3. The pull has to be dead straight.
Two rules keep it safe. Only put glue on something that is touching the fragment, never into the keyhole itself. And if glue goes anywhere it should not, stop.
Why Superglue Ruins Cylinders
Superglue cannot tell the fragment from the lock, so it bonds to both. It is thin enough to run, which means it travels off the fragment and into the keyway, where it reaches the pins and springs. At that point the lock is no longer a lock with something stuck in it; it is a lock that needs replacing.
Three sources say the same thing. Acme Locksmith warns that superglue bonds to the lock as readily as to the key and can ruin the cylinder. 1-800-Unlocks notes that it makes professional extraction harder, and that glue in the pins can mean a whole new lock rather than a simple extraction. A lock tool manufacturer's guide adds that the glue can run into the keyway and stick pins, springs and moving parts together, damaging the cylinder itself.
- What it costs you: a few minutes of extraction becomes a new cylinder at best, and on some locks more.
- What it takes away: the professional extraction option you still had before the glue went in. See when a lock is worth repairing and when it is not.
Know What Never to Try
Three things make this worse, and there is one thing we will not explain.
Superglue.
Covered above, and the most damaging of all.
Drilling.
It destroys the cylinder to fix a problem that seldom needed the cylinder destroyed, and it is a locksmith's last resort, not a householder's first move.
Anything narrow pushed in to gauge depth.
1-800-Unlocks warns that this drives the fragment further in, and that is how a recoverable piece stops being recoverable. Acme Locksmith's list of what not to do also includes jamming in objects that can snap off.
Some pages that rank for this search suggest working the lock itself with improvised bits of wire. We do not publish that, because it is a technique that works on a lock regardless of whose lock it is. None of that applies to extraction, which needs a fragment already in the lock and gives nobody access to anything.
Stop If the Fragment Has Gone Deeper
If the piece has moved further in, broken again, or disappeared from view, this has stopped being a job for pliers.
It can no longer be gripped
because nothing is left at the face.
The room an extractor needs may have gone
because the fragment has shifted.
The remaining options involve dismantling or replacing the lock
which is where our broken key removal service comes in.
A genuinely reassuring point: on a typical UK front door, the usual worst case is a new cylinder, not a new door and not a new multipoint mechanism, and on a uPVC door the cylinder is the inexpensive part. That is what normally happens, not a promise for every door. [CLIENT TO CONFIRM: whether euro cylinders are carried as van stock] For how the cylinder relates to the rest of the lock, see what is inside a uPVC lock and which part is which. If you do call, have ready what kind of lock it is, whether you can see the fragment, and whether it is sitting straight.
Have the Fragment Taken Out
Tell us what the lock is, whether you can see the fragment and whether it is sitting straight, and we can usually say on the call whether this is an extraction or a new cylinder. Have those three answers ready, plus whether the door is currently secure.
You are not charged a call-out fee at any time of day, and calls are answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, weekends and bank holidays included. The price is given on the call from what you describe, and if something at the door changes it, you are told before anything is done. [PROVIDER PACK: DBS check evidence for technicians] [PROVIDER PACK: public liability insurance details]
Describe the Lock and Get a Price: call 01483 377197
If the door will not secure and it is late, see a 24 hour emergency locksmith.
Broken Key Questions
My key snapped and the door is still locked. Can I get in?
Not with anything on this page. Extraction removes the fragment; it does not work the lock, and while the fragment is in the keyway a spare key will not go in either. If you are shut out, it is a locksmith call rather than a do-it-yourself job.
How much of the key needs to be showing for pliers to work?
Enough to grip properly, which in practice is a couple of millimetres standing proud of the lock face. Any less and pliers tend to slip or crush the end, which makes every later attempt harder.
Will the lock still work once the fragment is out?
Usually, provided nothing was forced. Keys tend to snap because the key was worn or the lock was stiff, so the lock often needs attention even after a clean extraction. Try the spare a few times and feel for grittiness or resistance.
Can a locksmith cut a new key from the two broken halves?
Often, if you have both pieces and they still fit together. The cutting machine reads the cuts, so a clean break across the blade is workable, while a missing tip usually is not. [CLIENT TO CONFIRM: whether keys can be cut from two halves of a broken key]
Why do keys snap in the first place?
Almost always a worn key meeting a stiff lock. The blade thins over years of use while the lock grows harder to turn, until the force needed is more than the metal will take. A key that has started to feel stiff is worth dealing with early.
Should I spray lubricant in before trying?
A little of the right product can help; the wrong one makes things worse. Use a dry lubricant made for locks rather than a general purpose oil, which attracts dirt and eventually clogs the keyway, and use it sparingly.
The key snapped in a window lock, not a door. Same job?
Same principle, tighter margins. Window keyways are smaller than a door cylinder's, so there is less space for a tool and more chance of damage that costs more than the part. Make one careful attempt with tweezers, and if that fails, leave it.