Worn pins

[Squelchtone]

This is my first attempt at posting pics here so please forgive me if I screw it up. I have never noticed pins that were worn out like these. I got the call because the customers key was trapped. Do any of you see this kind of thing often ? I wonder what caused this kind of wear.

[Zenophryk]

I have seen the points worn down before, but nothing like what's in your picture. One of the pins looks like it's completely conical.
I can only think it's due to old age and heavy use. How did the rest of the lock look?

-Zenophryk

[GWiens2001]

Have seen pics of one that was so worn that there was a groove in the key pins. Can bet it had problems with key operation.

Gordon

[Syl]

I've read in a few places about the traces that picking invariably leaves on a lock. Apparently, these can be used in the course of forensics to determine that someone picked, or attempted to pick, the lock. Super neat.

I had a mental image of a pin that had been worn down by hundreds of pick attempts and the above photo is a really close approximation of the image I had in my head.

Does anyone have a photo of a set of pins from a lock that has been picked hundreds of times, or more? Maybe one of the shared locks from Toool or SSDEV? Now I'm even more interested to see how that picking wear manifests on the lock.

[Comrade627]

I've got a padlock or two that I've been rearranging pins, picking and using to teach people with for a couple years. I'll pop it apart later.

[Pintickler]

I have seen the points worn down before, but nothing like what's in your picture. One of the pins looks like it's completely conical.
I can only think it's due to old age and heavy use. How did the rest of the lock look?

-Zenophryk

I am glad you were able to tell from the picture that one of those pins is conical. I thought that was weird too. The lock was in pretty rough shape. It's worth mentioning that it was in a pretty harsh environment but I don't see how it would cause that kind of wear. This lock lives less than 1000 yards from the ocean and about 15 feet away from a pool. Most of what could rust in this comercial grade lever handle was rusted. Two of the five key pins looked normal. I'm not sure what keyway it was, but it wasn't something common. At least not around here. There seemed to be a little more slop than I am used to seeing inside the pin chambers. In other words it looked like the pins needed to be a little bigger in diameter. Also, at least one of the key pins wasn't even round. I was slightly oval shaped.

[Pintickler]

[cledry]

Seen this sort of wear plenty of times, not unusual.

[cheerIO]

Are you sure no one previously filed those down to make them the right length or something?

Those look like pretty clean, flat, facets to be caused by keys.

[Pintickler]

Seen this sort of wear plenty of times, not unusual.

Well I don't really do a lot of calls where the customer can't pull their key back out of a pin tumbler lock. I confess I don't usually inspect the key pins on locks that I rekey. Maybe it's totally common, like you are saying, and I just have never paid attention. What do you think causes that kind of wear ?

[Pintickler]

Are you sure no one previously filed those down to make them the right length or something?

Those look like pretty clean, flat, facets to be caused by keys.

I can't be 100% sure. It seems like it would be a dumb thing to do though.

[GWiens2001]

Believe it or not, pins don't really rotate much in the locks. While you may think the pins rotating would happen all the time, the keys are put in and pulled out (fgarci... mind your manners ) pretty straight, so the pins can wear into almost chisel shapes on locks that are:

a. Really old
b. Really heavily used
c. Have brass pins and steel (or nickel-silver) keys. The hard keys wear the softer brass pins more quickly.

Gordon

[Comrade627]

Okay here goes.

1. I've had this lock longer than 3 years.
2. I used to pick this lock daily as my warm up lock.
3. All parts are originals
4. I now use this for people I teach to start with.
5. I picked this lock 18 times prior to photographing, for kicks.

Here's a link to the first photo. Just click on through the gallery for closeish HDish pictures.

http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah291/comradehotsauce/20150331_131312_zpssz771kzv.jpg

[Syl]

The hard keys wear the softer brass pins more quickly.

It must be even worse with picks. I hadn't given much thought to this yet. But, now I'm realizing that some of the locks I own just for the purpose of learning to pick might have a much shorter lifespan ahead of them than I had originally expected. Oh well. They will've served a meaningful purpose.

Edit:

Okay here goes.

Here's a link to the first photo. Just click on through the gallery for closeish HDish pictures.

http://i1383.photobucket.com/albums/ah291/comradehotsauce/20150331_131312_zpssz771kzv.jpg

Oh wow. That is much less damage than I was expecting. That thing looks practically great!

Just a note about the photos. You must go backwards to see the pins Comrade627 is referring to. Just stop when you hit the Power Ranger.

[Comrade627]

Update.

Just photographed a vintage locks pins in macro at 4x zoom. You'll be able to tell the difference between the two sets of pins, just follow the same link and scroll left.