When I first got on the job a good friend of mine told me “get yourself a K Tool, put it in your pocket and use it as much as possible”, this was great advice because I quickly became very proficient and effective at through the lock forcible entry. Always having the K Tool in my coat pocket made me more willing to use it because it was on me and I did not have to make a trip back to the truck to get it or remember to bring it in the first place.
The one problem with the K Tool was that it is unable to pull all types of locking cylinders, the K Tool’s inability to pull raised mortise locks (raised guards), key-in-the-knob locks, and tubular deadbolts made it a tool that works only some of the time. With the advent of the A Tool, O Tool, and finally the Rex Tool the fire service had a lock pulling device that works all the time.
Now….. the one problem with the Rex Tool was that on very short staffed departments (much like my own department) there simply were not enough hands to carry the Rex Tool, this would leave the tool on the truck a lot of the time while the firefighter (or firefighters… if we were lucky) assigned forcible entry would typically carry the irons and a saw.
So one night I was trying to think of a better way to make sure that I always had a through the lock tool with me when we were running short on the truck, and then it hit me…. why don’t I just cross the K Tool and the Rex Tool! So I went to the fire hall and cut the handle off a standard Rex Tool and welded a bracket for the adz (Photo #1) of the halligan to fit into (much like the one on the K Tool).
After trying the tool for several months and pulling lots of cylinders (Photo #2), I started to think that I may be on to something. I went to the FDIC and took Captain Robert Morris’s forcible entry class and I was rotating through the different stations of the class when I noticed almost the exact same modification on a Rex Tool on the table, I asked Captain Morris about the tool and he told me that he had been using it for a couple of years….. CRAP HE BEAT ME TO IT!!
Captain Morris’s Rex Tool modification was slightly different from my own. Instead of making the bracket for the adz he welded a small piece of pipe onto the top of the tool as shown in Photo #1 (right). This would allow the user to put the pike of the halligan through the pipe and pry the cylinder out of the door (Photo #3).
The Morris Tool (as it is called in my neck of the woods) is a excellent addition to your forcible entry tool box and keeps the through the lock tools in the hands (or pockets) of the short staffed forcible entry team. I have had my Morris Tool in my coat pocket for a couple of years now and it has come in quite handy on many occasions.
A couple of additional photos below:
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Continuing the Discussion