Question re: rake design

[Nasydave]

If you were designing a rake to be used with a specific lock, would it help to plan the bumps with the same center-to-center distance as the pins (or maybe 2 x the c-t-c?)?

Or does the randomness of the design help the rake accomplish it's purpose?

[jgencinc]

I have found that either way works. I have made rakes with center to center specifically for a certain brand, and I have made some that were off center. Sometimes the center to center work perfectly on the particular brand it was made for, sometimes I needed the off center for a different lock, but of the same brand. It seems to me that it doesn't matter what the spacing is. The bitting of the lock determines what works better. I have made multiple rakes for this reason.

You could always go with a bogota, they are awesome.

Search for the king and queen picks. They are lifter type picks, but you can see how they offset the peaks.

[skeeve]

take a look at raimundo's bogota picks. They're more or less hailed as the best rakes on this site and they, if I understand them correctly, function by getting two or even three pins in one valey (i.e. very wide bump placement). I have to wonder what the application of making a rake for a specific lock would be though? I tend to dislike any lockpicking tools that are limited to one type of lock. It seems to go against the whole principle of picking IMO. It is an interesting idea though, and I have to admit I haven't thought much about it before.