At this point I’ve been picking different combos of security pins (spool, serrated, mushroom, check and munitions) and not to toot my own horn but I’m simply too good at this. I haven’t been able to line anything up that I can’t get through. It got me wondering if there are any notorious combos that are known to be difficult and also is there anything I can put together that would help broaden my skill set? Anything applicable for real world lock situations. For instance I’ve been watching a lot of Youtube challenge lock picking and in one a guy sliced a wood screw horizontally and made a gnarly serrated pin out of it.
I also noticed that Bic lighters have springs in them so I cut one into fours and plan on seeing if different spring resistance plays any noticeable roll in how pins react.
Speaking of Challenge Locks, are the keypins which are spooled of serrated etc custom made or is that something you can find in commercial locks? I did a quick search for them and all I found were standard key pins but those are something I’d like to try out as well.
Long story short is there any way to increase the difficulty of this practice lock or is it time to actually start ordering locks on-line and get into different styles? My one main reservation to taking that step is it’s bound to get pricey. I was incredibly surprised and pleased with the minimal amount of investment it took to get some picks, I think I found the yang to that yin now that I’m considering picking up lock collecting. I’m also not 100% sure which locks would make good candidates so it would be nice if I could up the difficulty of what I have and work on that while I sort out which locks are ideal for me to get where I want to be.