by Greyflex » 17 Oct 2005 22:13
Hook: your first hook should be fairly shallow. Make deeper ones when you need them. Hopefully your first lock won't have a nasty hi/lo combo.
So make the angle gentle, and head short. Note: on most cheap padlocks, you can pick them with a non-hook... just a straight shaft. So don't overdo the hook part. It will just make it harder to learn.
Also, you may wanna try a non-traditional hook, just a gently curved shaft with no head, kinda like the Falle-Safe picks. They are very noobie-friendly, imo. Just make sure your wrench doesn't clutter up the bottom of the keyway.
I learned to rake using a homemade version of Raimundo's bogota pick. It works. It took me several days to learn, but now that I have the feel for it, I can scrub cheap padlocks in seconds.