Beginner's Lockpicking Exercise - by digital_blue

[sentientsentinel]

The poking and prodding technique has served me well but it is time to single pick thats where the expertise and experience come in and to date I have neither. Thanks for the post I will do some re pinning tomorrow then I will do some single picking this is where you separate the men from the rakes.thanks a lot.

[south town ninja]

I am experimenting with shimming the last 4 pin stacks, so i dont have to dis-assemble/reassemble the lock. will these exercises still work?

[GWiens2001]

Yes they will still work. One issue is that the shim will slip to the side as the plug is turned. There is also a concern with the pick lifting a pin again and again into the shim. The shim could well break in the lock.

Gordon

[south town ninja]

thanks for the info. I am having a hard time detecting binding vs springiness. I could ramp up the tension, but that seems wrong, perhaps because i've always been told easy does it as far as tensioning is concerned. Thoughts?

[deolslyfox]

Great advice !! Timeless and accurate !!

Many times I have seen people "jump in with both feet", fail and quit before they got going ....

Any time I see this advice I always feel compelled to add .... "Ask Questions" !! Some folks just can't "read and do", but show 'em once and they "got it for life". Others understand perfectly but just can't seem to translate that understanding to doing.

If you're shy about asking for help, watch videos on YouTube of folks whom you KNOW are really picking the lock. EG: bosnianbill, locksmitharmy, kokomolock, schuyler towne and folks of this caliber. They will show you the lock, key and bitting. They will show you the picking process with commentary and then gut the lock after its open to show you that it did indeed contain a full complement of pins and all its other parts such as sidebars, etc. Note: If you see someone picking a MEDECO or S&G 951 in 15 seconds flat with a bent pin, ignore that.

"Practice makes perfect" only works if you are practicing the correct process. Otherwise, you're just reinforcing bad habits that you'll have to un-learn one day. "Success breeds success". (Failure breeds frustration).

And the frustration level will one day exceed the skill level and the person will quit a very fun hobby / sport.

JMHO.

[LocksportSouth]

OP - Thank you! Thank you for this awesome post, honestly it felt like an eye opening experience to read this. I saw this thread earlier while lurking before I signed up and it just hit me that that's exactly what I have been doing - picking up a handful of 4 or 5 pin Master locks and the like, and just adding tension (light? medium? heavy? I have no idea) and just jabbing with a hook, interspersed with random raking and fiddling around until either 30 mins goes by and I get frustrated and put the lock down, or it pops open, sometimes several times in a row, from (as far as I can tell) sheer dumb luck and "playing the numbers", which for me feels as much a failure as just failing to open at all, since I *KNOW* that it's not an open due to skill.

I don't have any re-keyable locks at the moment (only just started my collection), but I'm determined to get one (and a vice of some kind to hold the lock in for ease of access) and give this method a shot. It feels like golf - you can whack balls around on a practice field all day but if you're not using the right technique, all it does is reinforce bad habits I'm sure. I dunno if this technique will help me, but I'm sure I will give it a try!

[viper501]

I have been playing around with locks for years now, but I want to perfect my skills and as another poster said it's like golf without the correct technique it's a waste of time.

I am going to sit down tonight and go through methodically as you suggest. I can't wait.

Many thanks.

[Moses057]

It's a shame that no noob will ever find the thread by themselves. They'll have to ask "What's the bext way to learn to pick? (Or should it be "wots tha best wey to lern to pik?") and then we'll have to direct them here anyway.

But, all in all, good guide Db.

I'm a total news and I found this pretty easily. I really glad this is here. Now I'm off to practice

[AngryHatter]

Being able to discern the feedback you get is crucial. This exercise gives you valuable insight to translating the information you get.

One aspect I think gets overlooked is the reaction you get through the wrench.
There is a ton of information coming via the wrench. Many times people become fixated with feel from the pick when it is the slight movement of the wrench telling you a pin has set.

Personally I find that springy wrenches do not give me enough information or confuse the info I do get from the pick. Once I "discovered" pry bars I found the wealth of feedback I had been missing.
The feel changes from luck to skill. I could begin to read the lock. I could tell which pin is set or not. And this makes all the difference in the world.

[Bmiller]

Thanks DB I'm a noob to this just got my picks like a month ago been able to open locks but just by luck now to learn how to tear the locks apart and I will start this process thank you for sharing it I'm sure I will learn a lot from this.

[jcooper20]

Here's an advice relevant to anyone re-pinning the same lock incrementally to do this exercise. It's related to the linked post on re-pinning (I'm posting here because that topic is locked).

I'm a beginner, and re-pinned my Schlage door lock for this exercise. I made a mistake that ruins springs (different from the mistake illusion warned about). This only happens if you either (1) don't have a plug-follower or the key, or (2) are omitting some pins.

When removing/inserting the plug, keep the plug rotated away from the locked position unless fully inserted. Otherwise, springs may push driver pins into the wrong holes, the plug will get stuck, and it will be tricky to continue without damaging springs.

[luckey]

That was a great exersise, thank you very much.i learnt a lot from that, repinning , lock assembly and disassembly. It was brilliant getting hands on - and seeing how small everything is etc