Coupple'o'n0bb'ish questions.

[treehuggerish]

Right, so I'm beginning to get into this whole lock-picking thing. First thing I did was to make myself a tension wrench and a.. half-diamond'ish pick. (I don't have a machine shop in the basement so.. its all sort of macgyver'ish.

Anyways, after spending something like 20 hours on a lock I had lying around after a change of doors, I went online to read about the lock, and get some tips. And I found out that maybe a Medeco isn't the best lock to start out with

So the questions is, in Denmark (Northern Europe), which locks should I get as first time locks?

Also, if anyone knows where in Denmark one can get a hold of some "real" picks and wrenches? The ones I've made really.. suck. The wrench is way too soft (not springy just.. soft) to give me any sort of.. real feel with the pins (I think), and the pick is really.. springy, in a bad way

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards
-Me

[treehuggerish]

Typical, my first post and I forget to introduce myself. Emma Gad (if you have any idea who that is) would be turning in her grave. Well, Hi there all y'all. Looking forward to learning a whole lot more on this subject, and this definately seems to be the right place. I'll stop shamelessly bumping myself with posts about stuff that I forgot in the OP

Best regards
-Me

[xorb]

The best lock to try yout new picks on would be a 4 or 5 pin standard euro cylinder. Era, Ieso, zone would prob be the best bet as 5 pin cylinders (30mm models for the era). Don't try complicated locks to start with, the modeco would truely kill your moral!!

Start small until you get the hang of opening basic single pin line cylinders.

[treehuggerish]

Cool, that means that the first thing I'll be doing after work tomorrow is to buy me a new lock. I'll put the medeco on the shelf for now then. And yeh, it was only after reading about the medeco in here that I understood that it probably wasn't the best starter lock

Thanks for the fast reply, and best regards
-Me

[JackNco]

Hey
Right ill keep this short and sweet.

Get your self some nice cheap southord picks. www.southord.com or www.lockpickshop.com (Enter lp101 for 10%off in LPS)
southord are great fro beginners and lots of the Vets on here still use them.

As for you next lock i have to disagree with xorb on the brands, ISEO have Evil keyways, zones are a little better but can still be a little bugger. both brans have security pins.

If you can get a nice Rim Cylinder grab one of them. Personal i prefer working on Euro profiles. i think the easiest ones i have are by E*S or some unbranded ones.

All the best

John

[Gypro]

I would suggest you to start with some padlocks. They are often cheaper and easier to pick. Maybe in Danmark you can get the Abus 45/30 that would be a good one to start. If you'll take an Abus with an other number (65 84 85 ...(the second number only depends on the size)) you will have security pins in.
If you dont like padlocks just take a cheap noname cylinder.

You can get some picks on multipick.com or on the hompage of the lockpicking.org. Bothe might be close to you. But they are much more expensive than LPS ore Lockpicks.com

Have fun with LP

Gypro

[JackNco]

Im afraid ide have to disagree with your assumption that padlocks are easier to pick and i defiantly wouldn't recommend Abus as a beginners lock.