Today i sat down to have a little pratise on a 4 pin padlock. In the past my success rate of picking it under 10 seconds was poor, but i have managed to get a good feel for the best raking technique, PLUS i can unlock this lock in under 3 seconds with both a normal size half diamond, and a small hook. The key (no pun intended!) it seems is to get the right amount of tension, and to rake it at the right speed. Now i can pick it everytime.
Feeling encouraged, i went to face that b*****d on my back door, a Yale Pin-tumbler, which i have never managed to pick before. Using my newly aquired raking technique and a half diamond (the hook was too small in length) i picked it for the FIRST time and UNDER 20 seconds! You still get a great feeling with raking a lock, even if its sometimes thought of as cheating. All i did was rake it a bit, then went to the last pin, AVOIDING the second to last pin which sets high, and single picked the last one. I also used slightly less tension then i did before (one finger pushing gently on the other end of my tension wrench) Yippee!
I will now start looking at Lever locks and methods of manipulation (having started with wafers, then pin-tumblers) and perhaps design a easily homemade tool for getting past those tricky anti-picking measures.
So onto my request, I would love as much information as possible on levers locks, please send it to me. Any websites on the innards of this particular locks would be a good start for me.
Also later on, i may want sources and pictures on the current range of tools for lever locks.
Thanks.
