Convincing my woodwork teacher

[Chao92]

Hi,

I'm new at the forum and I've picked my first lock blahblahblah, But I'm going to skip all that.

The question i have is: how to convince my woodwork teacher(not sure about that word in English) that lockpicking isn't bad. I know the rules, I haven't and will not pick locks that i don't own or rely on, haven't picked in "public" (such as my school). I've had enough of picking with paperclips and tried to make my own picks from hacksaw blades with hand tools: no game. It took me half an hour to get the teeth filed off. So, I asked my woodwork teacher could I use the school's bench grinder, he asked what for, I said picks, and he said he doesn't like the idea at all.

So, any ideas how to change his mind?

BTW: I hope I don't need flaming, this post wasn't like "0mGZ I WaNT TO PIcK MY SChO0Ls L0CkER$ AnD STEaL StUFF OmFZ!!1!!!"

No, really I am an honest man

[rohi]

Welcome, and thanks for reading up before posting.

As to your teacher, give him a link to this site and let him decide if it is a sport and a hobby, rather than some devious activity.

Ronald

[UWSDWF]

try showing him www.locksport.com

[freakparade3]

I think it probably comes down to your teacher covering his backside. If he allowed students to make lockpicks with school equipment, and then alot of lockers, doors, etc. were opened he likely would be out of a job. I'm not in any way implying that you would do this. I'm just saying if I was a shop teacher there is no way I would allow my students to do this.

[Chao92]

Yeah, though basically one could make them at home and use them at school with exactly same results, but when we live in this kind of society, he would be accused, should some idiot do something illegal.

[Chao92]

But then again, all my school's locks are abloy.

[Orwell]

Get a file and some 1.6mm piano wire, and bend it to shape and then file it down to make it thin. This will be good for a lot of pin-tumbler locks.

[d_goldsmith]

Or you could go by a grinder. I've seen people post links to some that are only $10.

[Shrub]

If you want to use hacksaw blades and hand tools then you will need to soften the blades first,

Heat them up to a bright red and let them cool in the air, you should find that your hand tools will now cut the material,

After making your picks you then need to reharden them,

Heat to a bright red again and then quench them in clean cold water,

Now you need to de-stress them and remove the brittleness,

Useing fine emry paper make the surface clean and shiney, then very carefully and gently heat the pick until it is a straw colour (deep yellow) then quench imediatley in cold clean water,

Be careful as the yellow colour comes fast and if it turns blue you need to start again as in reheat to bright red then quench then shine up and heat to yellow,

This should give you somthing to work with and leave the teeth on your files lol

[d_goldsmith]

Great to know. Thanks for posting that.

[Shrub]

Practice on some scraps first as its nsot the easiest thing to get right if youve never done it before but once you get the hang of it you shouldnt have any problems,

[Chao92]

I found THIS at my "local eBay". How much do you think it's worth to pay?

[Shrub]

5 euros maybe,

Personally i wouldnt buy that, theres too much that can be wrong about it making it unsafe,

The best thing to do is as mentioned, buy a cheap brand new one, they will only be around 20 euros if that from your local discount centre type place,