Name That Key Blank!

At first glance, IdeniKey sounds like the premise for a locksmith party game: who can correctly identify literally thousands of unusual key blanks? While that could be a fun contest at a locksmith association meeting or trade show, the new IdeniKey key identification app from CLK Supplies takes the guesswork out of the process.

IdeniKey is the brainchild of CLK owner PJ Slauson, available through the Apple store and Google Play. Users submit photographs of unknown key blanks. IdeniKey shows the best matches and then they can order those key blanks from CLK Supplies, all through the app. (The app is currently free but a $24 annual subscription is envisioned in the future.)

IdeniKey officially launched in summer of 2024 but it’s been sort of a passion project of Slauson’s since childhood, growing up working in his father’s locksmith shop, helping customers and determining what key blanks were needed. “At a young age, it really got me fairly obsessed with key blanks; I would spend so many evenings just trying to memorize profiles and part numbers in the Ilco key blank book,” he notes.

Jumping to present times, as the owner of Post Falls, Idaho-based locksmith distributor CLK Supplies, customers frequently sent in photos of keys, and sometimes Slauson had to help his staff identify them. That gave him the idea to create the IdeniKey app.

“We literally just started from scratch and I've essentially had several team members work around the clock for a few years now, taking all of our own photos and categorizing and all of that,” he says.

The second part was developing the app itself. Advanced Artificial Intelligence analyzes the images and matches them with the extensive database, providing users with the key blank they need in seconds. The system is patent pending.

How it works:

Open the IdeniKey app and click on “Find a Key.”
Snap clear photos of both sides of the key using your phone's camera. Place the key vertically so that the head is at the top.
Using AI analysis, ideniKey provides you with up to five results starting with the key that matches your images the closest.

The always-growing database has thousands of key blanks, with new ones regularly added, typically in batches of about 100. All types of key blanks are included, except for high security.

Multiple Choice

Because often there is more than one correct answer, the app gives users up to the five best matches for their keys.

“What we've focused a lot on is what I think is probably the biggest problem that anyone who needs to identify a key blank has. A lot of keys that are made today
really don't have exact specifications. They're just mass imported from all over the world and there's no unique identifiers. The head shape is kind of different and they're really, really difficult to identify,” Slauson says.

Perhaps a customer brings in one of those keys and you don’t have the best match in stock, but you might have the next best blank – another key that will work well – on your key wall.

“That's my favorite part. I want to give everyone the best information I can in five results that will allow them to hopefully find an existing key that will work in their situation,” Slauson adds.

Of course, the app can identify KW1s, SC1s and other common blanks. More importantly, it also can identify keys that might have come from something purchased off the shelf at Home Depot or the hardware store.

To that end, Slauson sought out these unusual keys, with some help from his kids. “I'd say, ‘hey, let's go find every key and lock in this Home Depot or Ace Hardware, whatever it was.’ And I would just typically either buy all the stuff unless it was too big or too expensive. Then I would just bring keys in and test,” he says.

“In today's world, people are going to locksmiths for the keys that Home Depot and the Ace Hardware type stores don't have. They're almost in a lot of ways, like the last line of defense for that consumer to get the key they need,” he explains, positioning the locksmith company as the security expert and the place that has the keys and other products that retailers don’t offer.

Through this testing, he realized that a lot of these keys didn’t match up exactly with any standard Ilco or manufacturer specs, but there are several keys that will work in its place. After testing and verifying, he set up IdeniKey to show five results.

Mailbox key blank identified, match 1 of 5

A good example of that would be an LD2 and a 1620. Those keys are very similar toolbox-type keys, and in a lot of applications, both will work. So maybe a locksmith is not familiar with the 1620, but has the Larson Door LD2 in stock. He can use that second choice blank and cut the customer a duplicate key.

“I hope for a lot of people using the app, you know, that's kind of like an extra power that they have to be able to identify all of these weird keys in the world we live in today,” Slauson adds.

Always In Stock

If the key blank is found in IdeniKey, it is in stock at CLK Supplies, whose business, of course, is selling these key blanks and other supplies to locksmiths. The app does not identify old, rare, key blanks from out-of-business companies.

A real-life example: Slauson told the story that a friend of his recently purchased a new semi and needed another key. Since CLK only sells the blanks in packs of 10, he sent his friend to his father’s lockshop in town. About 45 minutes later, he shows back up at CLK and asks, ‘man, why are you pranking me? I went down there. They couldn't find the key. So they said sorry, and I left.’

Slauson knew the key blank, but a new employee at the lockshop did not recognize it. Still, Slauson decided to use IdeniKey, which was still in Beta testing at that time. He took and uploaded photos and the app quickly identified the correct key blank.

Slauson’s father, Pete Slauson, also had the Beta version on his phone and would have recognized the key blank, but he wasn’t in the shop when the customer came in. The customer went back to the shop and Pete Slauson was able to identify the correct key and do the job.

While IdeniKey is a definite time-saver for experienced locksmiths who would recognize most common key blanks and only have to research unusual ones, this can be a huge help for newer, less experienced locksmiths in the shop.

“Let's say it was probably a $7 key, but he had a newer staff member spend 20 minutes and not be able to find a fairly common semi key. The cost and frustration associated with that in today's world is something that small businesses can't absorb,” he says.

The IdeniKey Fan Club

Response has been better than expected. Slauson had initially hoped for 5,000 downloads in the first year. At this writing, seven months after its debut, there have been more than 15,000 downloads, with the majority being iPhone and IPad users.

The growth has been spurred entirely by social media and word of mouth. The CLK Supplies YouTube Channel, https://www.youtube.com/@clksupplies, has more than 20,000 subscribers, including a core group of locksmith beta testers. IdeniKey was the winner of the ALOA New Product Showcase and made its official debut at ALOA 2024, making it one of the busiest and most popular booths on the show floor.

What’s next? “With the technology we now have, the sky’s the limit,” Slauson says. “I think until we get over somewhere between 6000 to 8000 keys before we'll probably start doing anything else. So, you know, I think that that's going to take us another good year, or maybe two.”