The new official Best SFIC Thread

[Octillion]

Depending on the pinning of the lock, and if it is master keyed, some Best locks can be quite easy.

I was explaining to a few of my friends how lock picking worked, and demonstrated on an SFIC (not the best lock to explain with, as it is more complicated than a basic pin tumbler, but that’s all that I had available). One of them was intent on trying, so I let him torque the plug while I picked it (I simply raked it open, this one was quite easy to rake open the operation). Since I was able to feel the pins, I could tell when the torque was too heavy/light, and informed him when it was just right, so that gave him a feel for the proper torque to use. Then I gave him my pick, and turned my back to talk to my other friends, when about a minute later he had it open. This being someone who never picked a lock in his life, was able to rake open a 7-pin Best after about 3 minutes of instruction. This was an easy lock, but I was still impressed.

[devildog]

Must have been heavily masterkeyed; mine is masterkeyed but only to one level. There's no way I'd be able to rake open any of the cores I have.

Well, I'll say that a Best SFIC that is NOT heavily masterkeyed is one of the toughest non-highsecurity locks you'll run into.

[Octillion]

Well, as long as it is not heavily master pinned, AND both the control and operation keys are not pinned relatively flat. I’ve picked a few Best locks that had either no master pinning, or one level, and were still easy to open because the key bitings were fairly flat.

Certainly Best locks where the keys are pinned closer to MACS, even if it is master keyed, can be very difficult to pick. All I’m trying to say is that there are situations you will run into where picking a Best can be easy. But at the same time, they are some of the hardest locks, it just depends on the situation.