Lock Pick Design Manual (Paladin Press)?

[Peter Martin]

Does anyone have a copy of this book? It appears reasonably priced at around $11, but was printed in 1973 and again in 1992.

Is the boook worth the money? I have found that most of Paladin's books aren't worth much--and I get them only through my library because it's cheaper.

Does the book actually contain any worthwhile or novel scientific or engineering information to support lock pick design? I was interested in reading something that might be considered a good primer for design and or shows a little "original thought" concerning their engineering.

[UWSDWF]

I think Romy does lets wait to hear what he has to say...

[Romstar]

I do have it.

The one big problem with it is that it was not written by SAK. It was written by someone who was trained by him. It reads very much like a "What I learned at my recent training course." book.

While there are some good ideas, they are for the most part outdated. The majority of the book deals with probing locks and building a pick based on what you learn from the probing.

They do contain imagines of the original King and Queen pick, and this is about the most value you get from the book.

The original material as presented by SAK is no longer available, and this very thin book is a poor representation.

I would say skip it unless you are very curious, or you find it on-line.

Romstar

[Peter Martin]

Interesting. I did a search for "SAK".

Does anyone know who SAK, or SAK Systems is? Was this in the late 70's or early 80s? I did read in another threat that he wrote a "tutorial" on pick engineering.

Is anything else known about him, or the company?

[Romstar]

This was the late 70's if memory serves. Bar in mind, I am using much of what I remember, and some of what my grandfather told me, so its a little unclear.

I have the original material, which I can say is better, and there is more to it. All in all though, I don't have a great deal else on SAK.

He, they, whatever were British, and that lends some difficulty to the problem. I would be willing to guess that our UK friends would be more likely to have some information.

If anything else does come up, I will pass it along.

Romstar