Opened my first quality lock – an Assa

[andy17]

SInce I started picking two months ago, I'd only opened some no-name five- and six-pin cylinders, but I wanted a challenge so I bought a secondhand Assa 701. It came with a key but I purposely didn't look at it so that I would have no clues. I could, however, see the driver pin of pin 1, so I knew from its position that it gave a false set.

It took me about a week, working on it for an hour or so most nights while I watched TV before I finally got it. It was certainly tougher than my other locks – there was very little to no rotational movement when a pin set and I had to use very light tension throughout. I used my Majestic hook and z-shaped tension wrench.

I suspect it's going to take me a while to get it open again but it feels good to have done it once. I got two blank keys with the lock, so I might try impressioning some way down the track.

I'm going to buy a Medeco Biaxial for my next challenge after I become confident with the Assa.

Andy

[landeroth]

woot. gratsness. after you get the medeco biaxial done, be sure to share that one as well. still not up to this level, so not sure exactly how hard that one was, but sure sounded like a beast.

[andy17]

Thanks. After looking closely at my Assa, it doesn't appear to have the torpedo shaped key pins that the 701s are meant to have, and at least the first driver pin looks standard too, so maybe it was an early model before they included all the security pins or maybe someone repinned it at some stage.

So, it's probably not as much of an achievement as I first thought, but it still was much tighter tolerances than any of the other locks I've picked. I felt the pins setting through the pick rather than through the tension wrench.

After I've picked a lock once, I find it much easier to pick it a second time, and I put a lot of that down to the confidence factor — knowing that I can pick this because I already have done — so I now try to approach new locks with that same feeling of "I can do this".