Locksmith a key without touching it?

With Durble, we just killed the Empress, I picked up the key, locksmithed it, and it never crumbled. I definately held it to locksmith it. It used to still not crumble. This was several years ago though, and when I tried it again with Sylos a year or so later, they crumbled. I would just plant it on a mob if I quit, and could steal it later to gather again (I admit, the planting and stealing probably could have been seen as overpowered or a flaw in game mechanics, but I would have assumed that if you guys worked to get the key, it was meant to not crumble. Especially since you can't copy a copy.)

So code had to be changed at some point, because I definately picked up the key before I locksmithed it. I didn't even know you could locksmith a key on the ground, to be honest. Dead serious.