Learning Curves

[nikonerik]

Hello! This is my first post. I have been learning to pick padlocks for about three weeks or so and my family and I are having a great time.

I stumbled upon BonsnianBill's you tube channel about two weeks ago and enjoy his videos a lot! When I saw Bill's video "#185 Improve Your Lock Picking Skills (for Beginners)" I immediately bought 5 of the locks in the series: Masters #03, #140, #911, #570 and American 50D . . . I skipped the WB padlock due to cost and availability in my area. The 03 was a joke, the 140 is tricky for me to SPP, but my wife found another exploit and can open the two differently keyed 140s I have in about 5 seconds each . . . The #911 gives me trouble, but I've opened it three times in the last two days. The one 570 I have: I discovered a SPP pattern that will reliably open it quickly and consistently (love the feel of that lock). The American 50D thinks I'm a joke . . . So that one is set aside for now . . . .

My question to this community is: Am I learning to pick locks, or learning to pick THESE locks?

Thanks ahead of time to anyone taking the time to read this.

Edit: I just learned from a LockLab video that the Master 140 must not be shielded. The reason my wife is opening it so fast is that she's manipulating the actuator! Cool stuff.

[kwoswalt99-]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
That's the first time I've ever heard of anyone picking locks as a family.
The answer to your question is both. While you will memorize the binding order, any practice will help you develop feel. Only you can determine how good you really are, if you are wondering about your consistency, try some other locks and you will find out.

[nikonerik]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
That's the first time I've ever heard of anyone picking locks as a family.

Ha! I'm just a "how does that work" nerd.... my wife is naturally competitive, and my young teen sons are like their mom....so everyone is looking over my shoulder. As I'm sure everyone here knows, people are fascinated when they hear that lock picking is a real thing.....

The answer to your question is both. While you will memorize the binding order, any practice will help you develop feel. Only you can determine how good you really are, if you are wondering about your consistency, try some other locks and you will find out.

Ah... makes perfect sense. Thank you!

[sisk]

I'm a Bosnianbill fan myself and that video in particular has been one I've been using as a rough guide to learning the skill. I'm not using the exact locks he's using, but the principal is the same. Pick a 4 pin lock till it's too easy, then a 5 pin lock, then a 4 pin with a spool, so on and so forth. I've also got a whole bucket of other locks to practice on. So here's my view on it: You're going to get to the point where those specific locks are too easy, but you still find another lock of the same model challenging. That's ok. The whole point of following that video is to learn how the pins feel, which you'll do.

My advice (with a caveat because I'm a beginner myself) would be to not tie yourself down to JUST those locks. Go on Ebay and buy yourself a box of random locks. The one I got cost a little over $40 including shipping and had twenty some-odd locks in it. In between working on your padlocks grab one from the pile and see how you do with it. Obviously you won't be able to pick them all right away. I've got one mortise cylinder that I just figured out last night is seven pins including at least one serrated pin that I don't expect to get open any time soon. But having other locks sitting there to work on gives you options.