Submitted by All City Lock and Key
When it comes to locks, Les Nalls has seen it all – submarine doors, chastity belts, castle doors shipped from England, and obscure boxes designed in medieval China. Odds are, he could solve any problem you have without even breathing hard. As a master locksmith, he brings an increasingly rare set of skills, experience, and knowledge to All City Lock and Key. “If something needs to be done, we can open it,” he says.
Nalls is trained in what is rapidly becoming the lost art of ‘impressioning,’ the ability to create a brand new key using just a file, a blank key, and the original lock. He credits his mentor Hank Spencer for the skill, calling him ‘the world’s greatest impressioner.’
“There was nothing I couldn’t do in my youth,” he says. “Hank taught me how to know the spaces and depths and what’s supposed to happen in order to cut the key by hand.”
That ability means he can help people without damaging their property. “If there’s a baby locked in a car, it’s a great thing to be able to pop it open really quick,” he says. “Most people will destroy the lock. If I go to a business and the keys don’t work, I can open the lock without harming anything.”
After discovering an interest in locksmithing during high school, Nalls went directly to train with Bell Communications in telephony. The company broke up shortly thereafter, but he had gained a solid background in electronics which comes in handy when dealing with modern computerized cars. In the years that followed, he worked for a variety of companies and started his own, Locksmith Les, before joining All City. Along the way he’s had plenty of memorable experiences.
Take for instance that submarine door, located not on the ocean floor but at a college professor’s home in the Arizona desert. “He had a safe room underground that you could get to from above,” says Nalls. “It had an escape hatch that went up to the submarine door.” The problem was, kids kept getting into the room to use if for parties – and locking it from the inside.
Nalls took the submarine door off and mounted a push button lock which enabled the owner to get in from the outside and roust the trespassers. “He was really happy,” chuckles Nalls. “The kids, not so much.”
Then there was the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, not an obvious spot for a locksmith. “When they were building the bridge, they put a catwalk underneath so you could walk out to where the first pillars are,” Nalls explains. “They had these push buttons lock on them, and homeless people kept going out there and stealing their stuff. I ended up taking the locks apart and filling them with lithium, which made them strong enough to keep people out.” As a byproduct, he ended up getting to walk all the way underneath the bridge as it was being built and learning “all kinds of cool stuff” about the bridge from the man in charge of security.
Aside from locksmithing, Nalls other passion in motorcycles. He is the founder of the Spanaway chapter of A.B.A.T.E., A Brotherhood Against Totalitarian Enactments, an organization that promotes freedom of the roads and fair motorcycle legislation. Every year, the group hosts a toy drive in Olympia that attracts nearly 1,000 bikers from all over the region. “We usually raise between $80,000 and $90,000,” says Les. “We give away thousands of pounds of toys every year.” This is the event’s 38th year.
All City owner MJ Rennaker appreciates that level of community involvement, as well as other aspects that Nalls brings to the business. “When he came in, there was no organization in the shop,” she says. “He knew what to do. Within two weeks, inventory was in place, the flow was better and our production went up.”
Beyond that, she says, he took on the role of mentoring less experienced techs. “He’s a great manager because he recognizes right away where they are skilled and where they’re weak,” she explains. “He encourages them and makes sure they have the opportunity to be trained, and then he kicks them out of the nest.” Nalls’ leadership means that she can rest easy as a business owner, knowing the company is in good hands. “I can go on vacation and know 100 percent that everything is running beautifully. He trusts me and I trust him,” she says. “He’s been exactly what we needed.”
To contact All City Lock and Key, visit their website or call 360-352-1919.
