help impressioning

[Solomon]

Congrats rick, looks good! I might try my hand at impressioning some day. I've picked one of those bird cylinders before, definately a good one to start impressioning with. The tolerances seem very forgiving so I imagine the marks were really clear. Keep up the good work mate!

[Rickthepick]

tried a six pin yale today and failed/

compared to the key id gone slightly too deep on a few cuts... but close

[raimundo]

Ive impressioned for at least 4 decades when I needed to, its the way to open a lock that you can't pick as well as a way to get a key made to a locked cylinder.

Jos Weyers, the toool impressioning champion and some others recommend a pull technique for making the marks,
I have yet to try this as its obvious that pulling will make a mark on the slope of a cut, whether that mark relates to the fit of the shearline or not.

it seems counter intuitive to pull on the key while its bound since this could move the bottom center of the cut, but its recommended by many good impressioners, so I would definately try it next time I have a lock mounted to resist the pull, (doing an unmounted lock, I think only the leftup rightup leftdown rightdown series is good and pullin would involve two hands if your hand holding the lock.

[FarmerFreak]

I prefer the pull method myself. (Only on pin tumbler locks, I wouldn't try it on a wafer lock.) To get it to work you need to have your spacing already done. If I don't have a spacing card (hpc1200) to mark the spacing, I will use the lift method just to get the spacing.

The reason I like the pull method is because it leaves much larger/longer marks. The one thing to remember when using the pull method is that you "don't chase the marks." It will mark towards the side of the cut. But you will always file straight down in the middle of the cut, not directly over the mark.

[pjzstones]

i'm gonna have to try the pull method. seems like it'd be less likely to break the blank. that was one of my problems to start with.