Found a Yale cylinder to play with.

[mcsteve]

Cleaning my garage today I found a somewhat weathered Yale deadbolt cylinder. I don't know Yale keyways yet, so I'm not sure exactly what kind it is. It seems to be in fair shape, the plug rotates freely to bind the pins, and the pins themselves are only slightly sticky. There's a fair amount of play in the cylinder before the pins bind, so it's definitely old and used.

That said, is this a lock for which I might need slimmer/Euro picks for best results? I haven't been able to pick it yet with my regular Southord picks. I think the keyway actually seems wider than the KW1 I'm used to, but definitely has more aggressive warding. I can sort of manage to manipulate the pins with my short hook, but it requires maneuvering around the wards as I lift the pin, and I loose a lot of precision.

Would a Euro pick give me better control here? Any other pointers?

[Solomon]

I'd say slimlines make it easier, although that's not because of maneuverability cos the standard yale keyways are actually pretty easy... I just find them nicer to use because the smaller tips give better feedback. You'll be able to pick it wih standard size picks just fine.

Do you have a pic of the lock with key? Should be able to tell you a bit more about it, different yales have different security pins depending on when they were made. If it's old-ish (around 20 years old), for example, then it probably only has 2 spools.

[Northwest1]

In most Uk yales, atleast the older ones, the spools are usually in positions 2 and 4.