What is a mortise lock?

A mortise lock is a lock that requires a pocket—the mortise—to be cut into the door or piece of furniture into which the mechanism is going to lock, they have recently become more common in commercial and upmarket residential construction and in the application of security systems. They are widely used on all types of doors where a surface mounted magnetic lock is not feasible such as doors that swing both in and out or where the frame does not allow for a bulky locking system. The magnetic mortise lock itself has to be cut-in and installed inside of the door frame while the catch plate with the springs and pins gets installed into the door itself and it uses the magnetic field to pull the plate unto the magnet and secure the pins into the notches.