What Are Liberty Safes Made Of?

What Are Liberty Safes Made Of?

At Liberty Safe, your security and satisfaction is our priority. That’s why our safes are carefully assembled with only the highest quality steel, hinges, locks, paint, fire insulation, carpeting, and interior components.

We start with high-quality American steel. The bodies and doors of our safes are formed from coiled 14, 12, 11, 10, or 7-gauge carbon steel, depending on the model of the safe, with a pickled and oiled protective coating to help prevent rust until the safe is painted. Unlike our competitors, our exclusive manufacturing process results in no seams on the front or sides of our safes’ tops – resulting in a stronger box that’s more resistant to prying and impacts.

Our safes are finished with a durable powder-coat paint that’s permanently applied onto the metal surfaces. We offer three kinds of paint finishes to suit your tastes: textured, marble, and gloss. No matter which finish you choose, your Liberty Safe is sure to be a beautiful addition to your home’s interior for decades to come. (See more details about the painting process in the section below.)

These safes aren’t just decorative, though – Liberty Safes have proven fire insulation installed on all six interior surfaces, including the floor and door. With multiple interlocking layers of fireboard, a Liberty Safe is a top choice to help your prized belongings survive the devastation of a home or apartment fire.

Watch These Liberty Safe Fire Survival Stories

After the fireboard goes in, our safes head to final assembly. There, they receive their fabric interior and innovative, user-configurable shelving system (read more details on our customizable interior configurations below). We choose high-quality, stain-resistant fabric and heat glue it to sheets of wood to create a durable, long-lasting, and luxurious-feeling interior for your safe.

Finally, Liberty safes receive their final security feature: quality locks and hardened, military-style locking bars. We install UL-listed, EMP-resistant electronic or mechanical locks along with locking bars that range from 3/16 inch thick steel up to ½ inch thick! And don’t forget, all of our steel is American-made. We won’t settle for anything less than the best – and you shouldn’t either. That’s why you can trust your Liberty Safe. Let’s go over some features in more detail.

Liberty’s safe door hinges - internal and external: What’s the best choice for you?

Liberty’s internal hinges are ball-bearing operated and are located on the inside of the safe, attached to the interior safe body. Liberty also builds the National Security safe line using external hinges. These are also ball-bearing operated and are attached to the external safe body.

Benefits of internal hinges (all Liberty Safe branded models)

Internal gun safe hinge
  • Fully welded internal hinges prevent a thief from tampering, cutting, or torching off the gun safe’s hinges.
  • Internal hinges provide extra resistance against prying or bending of the door.
  • Smooth sliding ball-bearing hinges combined with the location of the hinges act as an automatic door stop to protect your home’s walls from damage. Try it out!

Benefits of external hinges (all National Security branded models)

External gun safe hinge
  • Fully welded external safe hinges still utilize active bolts on all four sides of the inside of the door to prevent removal of the door, even if the hinges are tampered with.
  • National Security safes are UL-listed for security, as well as the internal-hinged Liberty Safes.
  • External hinges allow a wider door swing, thus providing more access to the inside of the interior and valuables. Check the proposed location of your safe to determine whether you can benefit from the wider door swing of an external hinge model.
  • National Security safes feature external, ball-bearing-mounted door hinges with decorative hinge caps for a beautiful, traditional aesthetic.

In short, if you favor a nostalgic, classic look and/or you have room for a safe door that opens as wide as possible, go with the external hinges. If you prefer a more modern, streamlined look and/or your safe’s location doesn’t allow a full 180-degree swing of the door, the internal hinge designs might be better for you.

Liberty Safes’ double-redundant automatic relocker mechanisms

One important way Liberty Safe steps up your safe’s security is with our proven relocker devices. This is a key security feature that is absent from some cheaper safes.

What is a relocker device for a safe?

A relocker device or mechanism is a spring-loaded, automatically triggered mechanical system that helps secure your safe in the event of drilling, punching, torching, or manipulation of the lock or safe door panel. You can’t see the relockers once the safe is assembled, as they are located behind the door panel and/or inside the lock itself.

Liberty Safe Relocker

Liberty uses two types of relockers. 1. The first is built inside the lock. 2. The second is located outside of the lock and connects the back plate of the lock to the spring-loaded firing pin that interlocks with the cam or gear-drive mechanism for opening the safe.

Benefits of Liberty’s safe relockers

If a thief tries to knock the lock’s backplate off or torch the lock, the lock’s internal spring-loaded relocker automatically fires, preventing the tumbler from completely turning. This keeps the locking bolt (in the lock housing) from retracting and keeps the safe locked.

In addition, Liberty adds a second redundant external relocker to the backplate of the lock and the opening mechanism. If the lock’s back plate is punched off, the second external relocker fires like a mouse trap, permanently locking up the safe’s opening mechanism. This keeps the hardened locking bolts from retracting. Even if the lock is completely destroyed, the safe remains locked tight.

BEWARE: Many competitor’s safes DO NOT have internal relockers inside their locks nor a second external relocker connected to the lock’s back plate. Liberty has both. This is one of the reasons Liberty’s safes are UL-listed and lesser safes are not. Some safe manufacturers go cheap on the mechanism, reasoning that if you can’t see it, you don’t need it. Wrong!

Liberty’s efficient, environmentally friendly paint system

Did you know that Liberty produces the cleanest safes in America? Our employees appreciate it, and so do our customers. We have eliminated nearly all of the environmental hazards that normally occur with other safe manufacturers’ processes. We’ve invested in clean, powder-coat technology to produce a higher-quality product while maintaining a cleaner and safer environment for our employees (and for our planet).

All 3 finish types are electrically charged when applied and then fully cured for maximum durability and quality of finish. As a bonus, our powder-coating process produces far less waste than typical painting methods and helps keep our prices reasonable. There’s nothing like our powder-coat paint system. It’s so clean and efficient even California would be impressed (and that’s saying something)!

Video: How Liberty Safe Paints Our Safes

Liberty uses 3 styles of paint finishes on our safes

Textured Finishes are tough, TEXTURED surfaces that come in a matte look (such as the Colonial 23 in bronze textured shown) or a textured black look.

Colonial 23 Gun Safe in Bronze Textured

Marble Finishes also have a TEXTURED feel but add a marbleized, glossy appearance (such as the Franklin 23 in gray marble shown). Marble-finish colors include variations of solid marbleized colors with a gloss sheen.

Franklin 23 in Gray Marble

Gloss Finishes are SMOOTH finishes with a high-gloss sheen for that classic, elegant look and feel (like the Presidential 25 in champagne gloss shown). If your safe is located where you get to look at it frequently, our high-gloss finishes are often the most popular choices.

Presidential 25 Gun Safe in Champagne Gloss

NOTE: Pricing on textured and marble safes is more competitive than high-gloss-painted safes due to reduced labor requirements on the metal finish work prior to paint. However, there are other advantages to the textured finishes, including resistance to showing fingerprints, dust, and scratches. They also have a more subdued, stealthy appearance if that’s your preference.

Liberty Safe’s patented 3-in-1 Flex™ interior

When you invest in a safe, you want the utmost in security and versatility. Since its founding, Liberty Safe has been a leader in the development of gun safe functionality and customization. Even our economy-level safes are available with Liberty’s patented 3-in-1 Flex™ interior. Designed and implemented in 1998 (and patented in 1999, US Patent No. 6,042,207), this unique system includes adjustable shelving and shelf covers, allowing you to configure your safe’s interior storage space in three different ways:

Liberty Safe 3-in-1 Flex Interior

3-in-1 Flex™ Interior

Sportsman - In this configuration, the adjustable shelving and shelf covers are removed from the lower left side of the safe’s interior, providing multiple rows of slots for long-gun storage on the left while retaining lots of shelves for smaller items and valuables on the right.

EZ-Access - For people who favor a mix of shelves and quick access to long guns, this configuration has the adjustable shelving and shelf covers removed from the lower right side of the interior and the EZ-Access slots installed there instead, providing open, quickly accessible slots for long-gun storage.

Collector - For safe owners with lots of long guns to secure, the Collector configuration features maximum capacity for rifles and shotguns. The adjustable shelving and shelf covers are removed from both the lower left and right sides of the interior, providing all available slots (both Sportsman style and EZ-Access slots) for long-gun storage. You still get a large shelf above for other items and valuables, too!

Liberty Safe’s 4-in-1 Flex™ interior

Liberty Safe 4-in-1 Flex Interior

If you step up to the Liberty Franklin series or higher models, your safe will come standard with our 4-in-1 Flex™ interior. (The top shelf is available in safe models that are 40 inches tall and above.) The 4-in-1 interior features all the configuration options described above in the 3-in-1 Flex system, but with the addition of a fourth option for installing all available Flex shelves and covers for an all-shelving interior configuration. This allows maximum organization and storage of smaller items, valuables, documents, and/or handguns and is ideal for people without long guns to secure or who have other safes for their rifles and shotguns. The choice is up to you!

Your satisfaction is guaranteed at Liberty Safe

Whatever Liberty home or gun safe model you select, we know you’re going to love absolutely love it. We are proud of our company, our employees, and our customers, and we stand by all of our products. If you ever have any questions or issues, feel free to contact our friendly, US-based customer service representatives at 1-800-247-5625 or email customerservice@libertysafe.com any time. Even in the rare case they can’t answer your specific question, it’s just a short walk to find someone who will know the answer. You can count on your Liberty safe, and you can count on us.


*Made in the U.S.A. from U.S. and Global Parts.


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