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I got my beginner kit a few days ago and I was able to pick the clear lock with a rake.
However, I am having a hard time trying to pick the pins one by one.
My first question is why does picking them one by one works? From what I understand it's because each lock has imperfections which allow it to set a pin one by one. So why does each lock have these imperfections and how do they enable it to set each pin one by one? Why after one pin is a set I can set another one as well?
The other issue I have is that I just can't manage to do it on the clear lock. I think I managed to set 1 pin but I can't find another one that will set. Can I upload a video to here so someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong?
The reason we can set one pin at a time is due to mechanical tolerances. No matter how well a lock is machined, because we live in the imperfect physical world, some holes in the plug or the housing will be slightly one direction or another, which causes pin stacks to bind unevenly, instead of all at once. If we find and set the pin stack that binds the most, the tiny rotation of the plug will trap the driver pin above the shearline, and we can move on to the next most binding pin stack. I've borrowed this explanation from ToooL's Intro to Lockpicking, which I can highly recommend :)
For your troubles with the clear lock, what do you feel when you feel that the one pin is set? If I feel I've set a pin, but no other pins are binding, I may have actually overset the pin and the key pin is trapped between the plug and the housing. If you haven't seen it, naswek's video on feeling the pin states (loose, binding, underset, set [at shear line], overset) is great.
I'm not sure if you can upload video directly here? But you should be able to link it if you're able to upload it somewhere else.
