This is how you might save your broken key

Have you ever experienced this? Your key gets stuck in the lock. You apply a little bit of pressure and wriggle the key back and forth a bit, only to break it off and be left with half a key in your hand and half a key in the lock. What should you do next? You could call a locksmith, but those are often quite expensive and not always necessary. You could also follow our tips and remove the broken key from the lock yourself!

Locksmith

A locksmith isn’t our best friend per se. Of course, they can fix the problem at hand within a couple of minutes, but they also charge a lot of money. Especially at night, in the weekend or during holidays, they might charge you up to a few hundred euros. And, of course, your key decided to break at the most inconvenient of times.

Luckily, we’ve got a bunch of tips that’ll save you a high bill. Click on the next page and see the ingenious trick to remove the broken key easily!

Broken key

Can you spot a piece of the key sticking out of the lock? Use a bit of oil or WD-40 to grease the lock with. WD-40 is the best option because you can use the long, thin spout to spray as close to the key as possible. Carefully spray the oil into the lock, in between the key and the cilinder. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the oil. Next, use a pair of pliers to pull out the broken key.

Too deep

Has the key broken inside the lock and are you unable to reach it? Don’t despair, because you can still easily fix it with a couple of tools. For example, you could use a strong magnet to pull out the remnant of the key. Of course, not everybody owns a strong magnet and the key might be too stuck for this trick to work. You can also use a pair of tweezers or a straightened out paperclip. If all of this isn’t working, you might consider putting a little bit of glue on the other half of the key and then pushing it back into the lock, straight onto the stuck piece of key. Once the glue has dried, you can pull out the key in its entirety.

Not having any success with these methods?

Saw blade

This method is sure to work. You will need a small saw blade from a jigsaw, like the one in the picture below. If you can, go for a metal saw blade. The blade needs to be very thin with very fine teeth. Use a pair of pliers to cut the saw blade, so the end also has teeth and isn’t smooth. Make sure there’s a large tooth at the end of the blade.

How does it work

Push the saw blade into the lock with the teeth facing your way. That way, you’ve got something like a little angling rod you can use to angle out the key. Move the saw blade up and down to try and pry out the key. It might take you a few tries, but the broken key will jump right out of the lock.

Fixed it

Did you manage to get the key out of the lock? Great! All you need to do now is pick up a spare key at the neighbour’s or whatever family member or friend has one. Don’t have a spare key? Then the local locksmith will be able to copy the key, but only if the key broke into two clean parts. If that won’t work, there’s nothing left to do but replace the lock…