bumping padlocks

[Dr Gonzo]

A fellow locksmith & I whilst farting about with bump keys at the workshop discovered that inserting a bump key all the way to the shoulder into keyway & then either hitting or banging against a surface the side of the padlock opposing the pins applying slight tension on key & hey presto bumped!
This was on the squire Q range of padlocks, we have yet to try other brands & specs etc if anybody else fancies trying this out let me know as i am interested in the results.

[UWSDWF]

I believe it's called rapping what you are describing

[Dr Gonzo]

No rapping is what eminem & Dr dre do.
Seriously though i have never heard of this method.
I am interested to practise its success rate though.
Anybody else got any input?

[UWSDWF]

No rapping is what eminem & Dr dre do.

No they abuse the english language.

[whiteknight38]

You could probably achieve the same effect by whacking the padlock against the table without a key. There are enough pictures of cutaway padlocks around on this site for any one to be able to figure it out.
The shackle is held down by spring-loaded locking dogs fitting into a notch (or notches) in the shackle. The shackle is itself compressing a spring, and the natural position it "wants" to be in is OPEN.
Consequently, if you hit the side of a one-sided locking locked padlock in the right spot, the shock causes the spring on the locking dog to compress, making it move away from the notch in the shckle, and Presto, the shackle will pop open.
Houdini, the famous magician/escape artist, was an expert at this technique, and with all with the padlocks of his era, and employed this skill as part of his escape repetoire. He did it both on the padlocks he was chained up with, and some of the various cufs and leg irons people would use to restrain him.
Pretty hairy, considering he was doing it blindfolded, and underwater, and so forth.
I believe the technique called rapping is close to what you described, but old shcool guys did it with uncut keys in cylinders, to open them up before re-keying them. It involved putting a bit of torque on the key, before rapping the cylinder against the work bench. It's been a while since I read Roper's book, but I think he described it therein.