Blue Dog was formed by Liam Gribben, who emigrated to the United States from Scotland in 1978. After living in Maine with family for several months, he became a sales rep for Cole National, his first step into the key blank business. In 1982 Cole filed for bankruptcy and Liam began selling keys independently, becoming an Ilco distributor. He actually sold Blue Dog once to take on other work, then bought it back and continued the company until 2016 when he passed away unexpectedly.

Liam was known as a unique character by his customers, having an uncanny expertise in trivia and known to his friends as a remarkable ballroom dancer. While he loved to travel, he detested flying and always made sure he had a friend along on any trip that required an airplane. His customers always found a Trivial Pursuit card or two in every order.

At Framon we plan to keep the Blue Dog Keys story going, researching the hard to find, unique and rare keys that locksmiths need access to. As a key machine manufacturer we will continue to sell our machines and products through our network of locksmith distributors, while Blue Dog will sell directly to locksmiths as it has in the past. The focus of Blue Dog has always been as a secondary supplier to your normal locksmith distributor, specializing in small quantities (there is never a minimum order) of blanks and precut keys. Keep Blue Dog in mind the next time you are looking for a blank that you just can’t find…as Liam used to say, “Yeah, We Got That!”.