Ritchie Locksmith Services, LLC

10/18/2026

This week has flown by after being in Salem, Virginia, visiting ASSA Abloy- Medeco for certification training on their line of M3, M4, Cliq, and XT locks. I have to admit, If your wanting a high-quality and secure lock, you need to go with Medeco. This facility manufacturers all their lock and keys in‐house.
From quality control materials being received for milling, water and lubricants being recycled, scrap milling being cleaned and dried to be sent to a foundry for reprocessing, cores being milled, keys cut and stamped, special orders being filled, chrome plating and much more. I was fortunate and amazed to witness such a process in person.
The training was excellent and meticulous; nothing like the Kiwkset and Schlage residental locks I'm used to servicing. Quality and High Security is the name of the game at Medeco.
Here is a link to a YouTube video to give you a better idea where and what I was able to see.

Roanoke County Economic Development brings you inside Medeco Securi...

09/25/2026

Had three calls yesterday afternoon. The first call was for a 2017 Jeep Grand Cherokee with a Prox smart key. The dog chewed up the remote and must have cracked the board.
I wasn't sure if I would be able to do this one with all the changes with Autel and NASTF, but the programming went perfect and used his original emergency key to cut the ones in each fob.
The second call was for a 2015 Chevy Impala flip key fob. The original fob was missing the lock and unlock buttons, and he had to remove the door cylinder cover just to lock and unlock the car door.
I use an xHorse key imaging tool to get a good code reading of the high security key and then send the image to the CNC cutter that's will cut each side of the key. I check the key in the door lock and ignition and then program the chip to the car. The whole process takes about 30 to 45 mins. The customer was very happy and learned that the open circle would start the car; a feature he didn't know he had.
The final call came in at 8:30 pm. with the customers' keys locked in her vehicle. Luckily, she was only a few minutes away and was a simple job and I was back home by 9pm.
It's a pleasure and joy to see my customers smile and grateful that I was able to provide a solution to their problem.

09/18/2026

Last week, I was finishing up several rekey items at Gibson Mills, and a tenant stopped me about a door issue. Let me just put this as nice as I can, Please! Do Not take the screws out of the manual latchbolts on the side on the door.
Having to remove the door to fish the latch back up in the cavity, check the latch height, and reset the door isn't as fun as one would think.

09/13/2026

You've heard the old adage " it's a small world." Well, living in the same area most of your life and a parent or relatives that owned and operated a small business in the same area, you're bound to meet a customer they did a job for at some point. Maybe they shared common affiliations with a local VFW, Shrine or Church. Today, was one of those days. Good to hear that your father was known and respected in the community. I want to thank my Dad for all he did to teach me be a good person and treat people the way I wanted to be treated. I can only hope he's looking down at me and feeling proud I've changed and matured over the last several years since I began this journey in locksmithing.

09/07/2026

At least I'm in the AC with a movie running in the background while working on this Labor Day Monday. I'm trying to play catch-up on a project today, pinning up door k***s for a local church. My arthritis has slowed me down, but I'm knocking it out one door k**b at a time.
Have a great day, everyone!

09/01/2026

Good Morning and Hello September. It's been a busy summer and I'm still trying to catch up on several project I currently have taken on this year, along with answering calls for lockouts and automobile keys. Want to Thank all my followers and customers for choosing Ritchie Locksmith Services and spreading the word. Thank you All and have a Blessed Day!

08/22/2026

About two months ago, I started using Cloaked to help with all the spam calls, emails and messages on my phone. Well, as much as I enjoyed the software catching spam calls, I had a lot of potential customers that either hung up or left messages describing their frustration with an AI answering service.
I'm not an advocate for AI, but I am curious about and trying to understand how it works, along with finding it as a tool to help with my small business.
In a nutshell, I've halted my use of Cloaked for the time being until I find a way to w**d out the spam from actual calls from customers.

08/13/2026

Ran into a issue with a 2014 Chevt Silverado. Customer called about making a key and found out the one key they had was lost. I removed the steering wheel cover, removed the ignition cylinder, used the blind code to cut the HU100 key. Key works great on the door, but not the ignition switch. What do you think has heppened?

08/06/2026

Mortise Lock Servicing today. It's been a great week of learning at Allegion RSO Charoltte.

08/05/2026

Day two of Locksmith Training in Charlotte.