Hello all,

Found this site last night. Lock picking has always been a bit of an interest for me. I thought of locksmith training but decided against it as I figured it would be too hard to find enough business in the rural area that I am in.

Anyhow, I made a pick and tension wrench out of the spring steel that comes on a cheap set of headphones. The pick tip that I made was a half diamond because that was the easiest to make out of the stock I had. Plus, at the time I made it, I had only found pictures of various pick designs, but hadn't found a description of what heads were used for what purposes.

I changed the locks in my house about a year ago and I had a spare Kwikset key in knob lock laying around so I decided to start playing with that. Well, after about an hour on the thing I gave up. I think I could hear 3 pins resetting when I'd release pressure, but darned if I can get the other two. I think it's because of the shape of my pick, (pushing up adjacent pins) but as this is my first attempt at it, can't truly be sure.

I'm not going to ask for advice here, as I know that there is a search tool on this board and I'll be darned if I'm going to get flamed on my very first post here. I just wanted to say hello and introduce myself and say how my first attempt has gone so far

Thanks to the moderators and site maintainers for what definately seems to be a first rate site. I do believe I'll be around a fair bit.

welcome to the forum.
You might want to make a hook next, And then a rake. However, make them from feeler gauges, which can be bought at hardware stores or auto supply stores.

Welcome. You can find loads of info on this site. Check the FAQ and other stickies, they give a lot of good tips that might help you in your problem. I would also buy a professional set of pick to start with. Good-luck and keep practicing.

Out of all the things you cuold use to make picks from would you really recommend feeler gauges? Maybe you could use the very thick ones but they would still be a little faulty

Stainless steel automotive feeler guage stock. Normally full hard spring stainless. Excellent material, and quite possibly one of the best for home made picks.

This material can be obtained in strips 12" long x 1/2" wide in just about any thickness. I commonly recomend .022" although the rage is more like .015 - .025

They are normally sold in boxes of 6 strips.

Romstar

Thanks for defending my choice there romstar.
I've made many picks since I started lockpicking. And the best picks I have are made out of feeler gauges. I wouldn't use any other material, except maybe hacksaw blades. But only for a really desperate occasion.