Keys fail the way metal always fails: a thousand small bends, then one ordinary turn too many. The blade is in the lock, the bow is in your hand, and the instinct to dig at it with tweezers usually drives the fragment deeper.
Eagle Locksmith Virginia Beach extracts broken keys from home, business and vehicle locks across the region with purpose-built extraction tools — and in most cases the lock itself survives untouched, ready for the fresh key we cut on the spot.
Before You Make It Worse
Stop turning, stop fishing. If any fragment is visible, leave it exactly as it sits — extractors work with the key's own teeth, and pushing the piece deeper or sideways removes our best grip. Call us, and keep the broken bow: its cut pattern helps us make your replacement.
- Don't insert the other half 'to push it through' — it won't, and it jams the fragment
- Don't glue anything to the fragment; glue in a cylinder is a replacement, not a repair
- Do keep both pieces — together they blueprint your new key
How Extraction Works
We work fine hooks and extractors along the key's blade, catching its teeth to walk the fragment out the way it went in. Ignitions, high-security cylinders and deeply snapped blades take more patience, but the goal never changes: fragment out, lock intact, no drilling unless the lock was already failing.
- House, office and storefront locks
- Car door and ignition cylinders
- Padlocks and mailbox locks
Why It Snapped — and the Fix
Keys usually break because the lock was already stiff and the key was doing the forcing. Once the fragment is out we'll tell you honestly whether the cylinder needs service, the key was a worn copy of a copy, or both — then cut a proper key and, if you want it, sort the lock in the same visit.
- Fresh keys cut from the original pattern
- Stiff cylinders serviced or replaced on the spot
- Spares made while we're there, so one key is never your only key