Editorial policy

Independence

Commissions never set a score or decide a pick. No brand pays for placement, reviews or coverage, and we don't accept free products in exchange for coverage. If that ever changes for a specific item, the page will say so next to the product. How we make money is explained on the affiliate disclosure page.

Sourcing

• Ratings come from the body that issued them (UL, Intertek/ETL) or, when that isn't available, the maker's own published spec page, labeled as a manufacturer claim.
• Every product's evidence table links to its sources, with the date we checked them.
• Guides cite standards bodies, government sources and neutral research, listed in a Sources section.
• Any number we can't source is left out. We would rather say "not published" than guess.
• We do not quote Amazon star ratings or review counts, and we do not publish testimonials. The site has none.

The full evidence hierarchy and scoring rubrics are on How We Rate.

What "Researched" means

Every pick on this site is labeled "Researched." We checked listings, specifications and recall records. We did not buy, install, attack or burn the product. We never describe a product as something we handled, used or lab-checked unless we did exactly that, and then the page will describe what was done.

Safety and legal topics

• No bypass instructions. We never publish how to open, pry, drill, bounce or otherwise defeat a safe or lock. For a lockout, we point readers to the maker's support process and a licensed locksmith.
• Firearm content is about storage only: keeping firearms away from children and unauthorized people, and protecting them from theft, fire and moisture.
• Law summaries are informational, cited and dated. Safe-storage and child-access laws differ by state and change. Every law page links the official source, shows the date it was checked, and says plainly that it is not legal advice.
• "Fireproof" is always qualified. No safe is fireproof. In our own words we say fire-resistant or fire-rated, and we name who rated it.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it and log the change in the page's "Corrections & updates" section with the date. Send corrections to mike@blackironathletics.com or through the contact form, with the page and the figure in question. We check it against the original source.

Updates

We re-check recalls monthly, listings and specs quarterly, and law summaries every six months. A page's "Updated" date changes only when its content changes, not when the site is rebuilt.

How pages are produced

Pages are researched and drafted with the help of AI writing tools, working from the sources linked on each page, and are published under the editorial control of Iron Mako Media. The tools don't add facts: every rating, specification, law detail and figure must trace to a cited source, and anything that can't be traced is removed.