Safe Space Episode 2: Revolutionary Advancements & Hiding a Gun Safe

Thank you for joining us in our second episode of Safe Space, a semi-regular weekly video-podcast with the best world class delivery and installation experts. Since 1988, NW Safe has been selling and delivering safes in the greater Pacific Northwest. Our staff has more than 100 years of combined experience in the gun safe world as a multi-generational family-owned business.

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Episode 2 Transcript — Revolutionary Advancements in Gun Safe Manufacturing & More

1.Question: What do you think has been the most revolutionary advancement in gun safes?

Kael: Well, there really haven't been too many advancements over the years. Our industry, for whatever reason, tends to lag behind most. But using those exotic metals, such as AR500 and stainless steel.

With some of our really high security TRTL rated stuff, you're seeing multiple different alloys and aluminum to dissipate heat and make it really tough to cut into with torches

So yeah, when you think of revolutionary, it's gonna boil down to the materials being used to keep people out, and then the technology probably behind the lock. Those are gonna be the revolutionary advancements.

David Jr.: The biggest advancements have been around for a while. But again, you're kind of jumping from an industry that has done the same thing for hundreds of years. So like you're saying — the TRTL-rated safes that use an alloy fill — that is some of the biggest advancements that we've seen in the industry.

The BFX series is a double-walled, interlocking body, concrete-filled. Those are a couple of examples.

Kael: Some of the mechanism stuff, like the Legend from Fort Knox. That's just really cool, but it's actually old technology. But if you look at that and some of the internal framework mechanism stuff is pretty cool on some of the higher-end stuff.

David Jr.: Liberty's body, which you've actually even seen adopted by some other manufacturers. But Liberty, with that roll-formed, two-piece, robotically formed and welded body (was revolutionary).

Typically, most safes you see are three pieces. So essentially, the back, sidewall, and front — that's one piece. The top and bottom are another. They combine those three pieces together and weld them on a quality safe.

Something like a Fort Knox, you're gonna get it get 100% weld on the outside and one hundred percent weld on the inside.

Then you have a lot of manufacturers that will do 100% outside and then stitch weld on the inside. (Which means) about every three to four inches they are putting a couple of inches of weld down. The worst that you're going to see, and this is pretty common on Chinese import safes, is they're going to do a tack or spot weld.

So you still have a three-piece body, but instead of welding that seam completely, to save cost, they're going to just go in and about every 3 to 4 inches again, put a small little tack or spot weld down. That's great for driving the cost down of something, but it's going to negatively affect the security fire protection.

It affects security because, as you know, we've pulled apart safes by just hitting them with a small hammer in between the welds. And you take a small pry bar and just work that weld back and forth. And because it's not a good penetrating weld, it's just gonna break away.

Why it negatively affects fire protection is the same thing. You put something into a furnace, and that metal heats up and expands. It's just going to pull the safe apart. So even if the welds stay put, meaning they hold, you're basically gonna get this smile right.

It's gonna open up in between the welds. And it really doesn't matter how much insulation you put inside the safe, it's just gonna it's gonna cause the temperature to drastically rise.

With that being said, I've seen fire tests with a spot-welded safe, and the welds actually do break and pop apart. So you have a safe advertised to go 60 or 75 minutes, and it fails in 15 minutes, 10 minutes, or 20 minutes.

2. Question: Do safes create a target?

David Jr.: That's a really popular question. What we tell customers is generally that neighborhoods are very similar. So in my house or in my neighborhood, the houses all kind of look the same.

If someone is casing a neighborhood, they're going to go for a soft target. So, places that are not well lit. Places where someone can conceal themselves. So I think having a safe helps just set the tone of, ‘Hey, go to my neighbors. This is a hard target.’

Kael: That's what we've communicated for years. We look at safes as a deterrent. If someone's got a safe and someone doesn't have a safe, where are you gonna go to steal something?

Now, being devil's advocate, and I know people are thinking this when watching this, ‘Well, then somebody thinks that I have something that's worth something. So you know, they’re gonna attack this place.’

Well, if you buy the appropriate safe for the value you’re storing, that we've educated you on and we've determined is appropriate, you don't have to hide your safe.

Everybody wants to hide their safe. If you buy an inferior product that is not appropriate for the value, then yeah, you should hide your safe, because somebody's gonna get into it really quickly. With basic primitive tools of smash and grab, thieves are gonna be able to come in there in 10 or 15 minutes (or less) and get into that big box store, imported safe.

We always go back to buy the right safe for your needs. It doesn't matter if somebody knows you have a safe, because it's gonna do the job that it's intended to do.

Now we've seen customers who have been maybe a little too comfortable and overzealous with sharing what they keep in their safe and who they let into their home.

Then somebody could target you and either make you open your safe, like we've seen. Or come prepared with the tools to get into your safe because they know the value that's inside. So, does it create a target? It can.

If you buy the right safe, it doesn't matter.

David Jr.: That’s one of those questions that there are a lot of things that you can do — like don't advertise it.

Kael: We help people hide safes. We have safe covers and safe cloaks. And even just keeping the cardboard box that the safe came with. A lot of people practice the mentality of out of sight, out of mind.

And that's totally fine. To each their own. We use safes as pieces of furniture. But there's nothing wrong with wanting not to advertise you have a safe. That’s okay.

David Jr.: If you do hide it, make sure it's still convenient and you're gonna use it how it's intended. Because oftentimes people put a safe where it's just a pain to use, but it’s well hidden. And as a result, you don't use it like you should.

People pile stuff up and make a run to the safe, instead of just casually stopping by and getting what they need to put in there or out.