Am I picking or raking?

[JohnnyWalker]

Hi everyone,

As you can tell from the title of my topic, I have a question about picking verses raking. I've been able to open most of my locks just by using the raking method, but I've really been working on trying to develop my skills with spp. What I've been doing is putting the tension wrench in the keyhole with no tension applied, then placing the pick in the keyhole all the way to the back. Next I apply light pressure on the tension wrench and start pulling the pick from the back to the front of the keyhole. What I've noticed is that as I pull the pick forward, eventually I can feel one of the pins get set, presumably the first binding pin (is this the correct assumption?), and then the plug turns a little. Once I feel the pin set and the plug turn I push the pick to the back of the keyhole again and start the process over and continue this process until the lock opens up. However, what I've noticed is that often I only need to do this process two or three times, and sometimes only once, despite the fact that I'm working with locks that have four or five pins in them and one of them even has a spooled security pin. The fact that I seem to be setting fewer pins than there are in the lock makes me think I may not actually be executing the spp method and that I'm just raking the lock instead. So, am I just raking the lock open, or is it normal to set fewer pins than what the lock actually has for it to open using the spp method? If I'm raking these locks open, what do I need to do differently to be properly executing the spp method? Thanks.

- JW

PS - Is raking considered picking, or is it something separate? Kind of like using a snap gun isn't really picking, it's just using the laws of physics to take advantage of the lock design in order to open it.

[gloves]

Well IMHO raking is a technique or if you want, section, of lockpicking. We may argue on which is which, but after all we'll end up in a grammar/personal meaning challenge rather than a picking one. Again IMHO using a snap gun would fall within lock picking, although I concur it's a less elegant way of doing so, but neverthless anything which involves using tools to open a lock without breaking it, would still be considered lockpicking by me and probably most of us.

I'd still consider raking what you wrote about: you slide your pick back and forth, without carefully pushing the pins one by one, but rather setting them as they will on their own then having something dragged on. The plug turning a little bit is what happens when you false set a spool pin, and having only one inside, you managed to properly set it after some rakes by means of luck rather than by engaging it properly mindfully (SPP).

If you get a lock with more security pins, you'll start feeling the urge to SPP because raking won't open it as constantly (or at all) as a thoughtful movement would.

With SPP you 'feel' each pin gently, to check which binds and which not, and proceed doing so until all are set, with raking you merely slide/scratch the pick back and forth until all pins are set by pressure and luck.

Also if you feel that fewer pins that the lock actually has are needed to open it, you're either missing some ones which are pushed without you feeling them, or some pins in the lock are not active and thus not needed to be manipulated in order to have it open.


Cheers

[JohnnyWalker]

Thanks for your input here, gloves.

Well IMHO raking is a technique or if you want, section, of lockpicking. We may argue on which is which, but after all we'll end up in a grammar/personal meaning challenge rather than a picking one. Again IMHO using a snap gun would fall within lock picking, although I concur it's a less elegant way of doing so, but neverthless anything which involves using tools to open a lock without breaking it, would still be considered lockpicking by me and probably most of us.

This is very interesting. I guess I had a more narrow concept of what picking is, but it seems it's a bit more broad than what I had originally thought.

I'd still consider raking what you wrote about: you slide your pick back and forth, without carefully pushing the pins one by one, but rather setting them as they will on their own then having something dragged on. The plug turning a little bit is what happens when you false set a spool pin, and having only one inside, you managed to properly set it after some rakes by means of luck rather than by engaging it properly mindfully (SPP).

If you get a lock with more security pins, you'll start feeling the urge to SPP because raking won't open it as constantly (or at all) as a thoughtful movement would.

With SPP you 'feel' each pin gently, to check which binds and which not, and proceed doing so until all are set, with raking you merely slide/scratch the pick back and forth until all pins are set by pressure and luck.

Also if you feel that fewer pins that the lock actually has are needed to open it, you're either missing some ones which are pushed without you feeling them, or some pins in the lock are not active and thus not needed to be manipulated in order to have it open.


Cheers

Okay, I kind of thought what I was doing was raking, but I wasn't sure. I think the main thing for me to work on is figuring out the order which the pins are binding in and then try setting them one at a time. I'm getting better at feeling the pins as they bind, but it seems like I'm getting more lucky than anything else. Often I seem to set one or two pins and then the lock opens, despite there being more pins than that in the lock. I go slow and try to set them one at a time rather than just quickly pulling the pick back and forth over the pins until the lock opens, yet despite this, the lock is opening after only one to three of the pins have been set (at least that's all I can feel being set). I'll continue to work on this and hopefully I'll eventually being actually be executing the spp method rather than just getting lucky by raking. Thanks again for the tips and advice, gloves.

- JW

[amlwchlocksmiths]

ranking is where you pull from the back to the front,witch is why you call it raking.if you really want to pick a lock and feel good about what you have done why dont you try and pick each pick with no raking.
you are picking the lock but not picking by picking if you get what i mean.if you start picking all locks just by picking one pin at a time you will learn a lot more about feel.raking is not a good idea with a hook pick as the hook pick really is made for one pin at a time
i would buy a basic hpc lockpicking book and read that as it wont take you long to read and you will know what is what.

[raimundo]

picking raking....its a rhetorical question. SPP is held up as the only picking by people who cannot think outside of convention.
both tools are picks, as is any snapper that turns the plug with pins set at the shear line.

THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT SKILL IS TENSION ING

spp ers with commercial wide shafted tools insist on hard tension and prying pins up, attempting to make them 'stick'

light tension works better 90 percent of the time and if you put on light tension, and a medium to short hook to the back of the lock and rapidly set each pin as you can do with light tension, Not possible with the heavy tension, you can open a lock while feeling each pin set and in a movement just as swift as raking with a multi point pick tip.

when you do it with the short hook which is the most successful of hooks because the others are for extreme bittings that are less common, its actually possible to feel the pins set very rapidly. unless you are feeling the rought edges or an un sanded pick carving its mark on the brass edges of the warding.