Noob question! (how many pins does my key have)

[roketmike]

I am new to this, as in I started my interest last week, my picks are coming in the mail as are some other tools. So as I wait for my shipment to come in I bought a cheap 2 $ pad lock. And I noticed on the key that it has three grooves on each side. Does this mean there are 3 pins?

[Aldenrenfrid]

it has three grooves on each side.

Maybe The discription is a little vauge so I'll use a picture

Are the groves along the length of the key, like the one above the letter D here? or are the notches cut into the flat part of the blade? (marked by C here)
Grooves along the key are simply wards designed to control what types of keys can be inserted in a lock. the notches are the heights that manipulate a locks pins.
Assuming there are three notches, and that there's not another that's so high the key just wasn't cut on for that one, then yes, its be safe to think there were only 3 pins
TLDR, What do you mean by 'grooves'?

[squelchtone]

I am new to this, as in I started my interest last week, my picks are coming in the mail as are some other tools. So as I wait for my shipment to come in I bought a cheap 2 $ pad lock. And I noticed on the key that it has three grooves on each side. Does this mean there are 3 pins?

Hi and welcome to the forum! Please do your best to make question headings useful and searchable by others who will stumble upon it down the road.

We can help you better if we saw a photo of your key. Pictures are always better than words, so take a pic of your padlock and key and use http://tinypic.com to upload it and then paste the jpg here so we can see what you mean. (The forum server is full so you cannot upload right to the forum using attachments)

Can't take a photo? Use Google Image search and find a key that looks like yours and paste the pic here so we know what you're asking about.

Sounds like you bought a warded padlock.. your picks wont work well to pick it.
Does your key look like this?

taken from this post: http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=13443&start=75

Squelchtone

[cledry]

The valleys that are on part C will be the number of pins if it is a pin tumbler lock.