BEST

=BEST=

BEST is an American lock manufacturer that produces lock cylinders. BEST specializes in interchangeable core (  IC ) cylinders. BEST is a member of the DormaKaba group.

History
BEST Lock Company was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1920, after filing the patent for the first small format interchangeable core lock. The lock core was called a Universal Interchangeable Lock, because the same core could be put into a padlock, door lever (handle), knob, and other types of locks as they came into common use.

The term Small Format Interchangeable Core (SFIC) was coined by the Schlage Lock Company, to differentiate the IC made by BEST from Schlage's own lock which used normal sized keys and pins and was therefore called Schlage's Full Size Interchangeable Core FSIC lock cylinder. To this day, Schlage still refers to it's interchangeable core as FSIC. As other manufacturers started to make IC lock cylinders, the term Large Format Interchangeable Core (LFIC) became common.

Lock Listing

 * BEST 5E7
 * CORMAX

Patents

 * US1479214 (pdf), Frank E Best, "Padlock", granted 1924-1-1, assigned to Frank E Best Inc.
 * US1487307 (pdf), Frank E Best, "Lock", granted 1924-03-18, assigned to Frank E Best Inc.
 * US1615020A, Leslie K Loehr, Jr Ewald J Kind, "Key-bitting machine", granted 1927-01-18, assigned to Frank E Best Inc.