Does "Raking" = 'Cheating'

[Shrub]

You pick that like i pick on the job,

Use a rake but sort of single pin pick with it

[p1ckf1sh]

You pick that like i pick on the job,

Use a rake but sort of single pin pick with it

Yeah, that is what I have been occasionally talking about - if you are discouraged by not getting the hang of SPP at first, start raking. Concentrate on the rake feedback, and when you are made aware of the "sticky area" (like the area where the most binding pin is in) concentrate your rake to that the move on. Even with raking motions you can feel individual pins setting quite nicely, and then concentrate the action to other pin stacks. Some smooth raking is like bogota jiggling light, it can set the majority of spools quite easily and sometime you don't even notice you had spools to deal with on the first place.

Doing that stuff is essentially what taught me the feeling for SPP (sorry digital_blue, I still like your guide! ).

[Shrub]

Well i mainly still spp but just use a rake as the setting of other pins is quite easy whilst trying for another, what you did in that vid i would not really class as raking as the definition of raking is in and out in and out etc which you obviously didnt do, the slight in and out you did do wa sslight and i think you will find common with people only useing a hook pick or at least i do the same on 2 pins with a hook,

At home i do use true spp but homework is getting les and less i must admit to more busy i get during the day,

[p1ckf1sh]

Oh, and something I regularly do is micro-raking, it can be hardly seen in the vid, but when I enter the pick in the keyway, I go all the way in until I locate the "sticky area" (due to the size of the rake you can't tell which individual pin it is, just the area) and then I do micro-movements. It does not come out as clearly in the video, because in this case I also added motion by moving the lock as well as the pick. When doing this with the right amount of feel to it you can regularly get two pins to set almost simultanously.

[raimundo]

Raking is without a doubt picking. This question keeps coming up, the fact is that there is nothing invalid about raking, and if your trying to open a lock, start with raking, and after 20 or 30 seconds, move on to pinsetting.
I think the question arises because some heavy handed hookers think that if everyone found out how simple raking is, they would not bother to learn to spp. Well, if you can only rake and not spp, you are without doubt limited, but raking opens many locks and spp is the next step if raking is not working. There are people who only rake, some of them are completely unaware of pinsetting, obviously, there are more locks that they cannot open A true picker knows both techniques and when to use them. the same people who try to say raking is invalid as a picking technique also seem married to the hook pick. I pin set with a half diamond, a good half diamond can be made that does not impinge on pins ahead or behind the pick tip. look at your half diamond pick, and look at the spacing of a plug, realize that you can put the half diamond tip in the length of the pin drilling and extra space separating the pin drilling on either side of it. A half diamond should be sanded smooth, another technique that i use with the half diamond is turning the pick tip in the keyway, to get the pick down and under the next pin, rotate the axis of the pickshaft a bit in coordination with the wards of the keyway, that is, go cw or ccw according to what the keyway suggests, and move the pick forward under the next pin, then rotate the pick back to its vertical position while feeling for pin set as you rotate. in this way, the pick is able to get low, then lift the pin. I find this method particularily handy in the smaller keyways, like on the american padlocks.

[pinsetter]

...another technique that i use with the half diamond is turning the pick tip in the keyway, to get the pick down and under the next pin, rotate the axis of the pickshaft a bit in coordination with the wards of the keyway, that is, go cw or ccw according to what the keyway suggests, and move the pick forward under the next pin, then rotate the pick back to its vertical position while feeling for pin set as you rotate. in this way, the pick is able to get low, then lift the pin. I find this method particularily handy in the smaller keyways, like on the american padlocks.

I also use this technique. I'm also one that favors the half-diamond design over the hook. I do use hooks, but my "go to" pick is my homemade double ended half-diamond. In my opinion, the half-diamond is the best pick design to use when combining raking and SPP technique. S-rake's also work very good for this, but you usually can't single out just one pin with the rake head like you can with the half-diamond. I stumbled on to the technique of turning the pick head in the keyway by setting a low pin going into the keyway then having trouble getting back under it on the way out without upsetting it. By turning the pick head and tilting it a bit I was able to go around the side of the pin on the chamfer instead of under the very tip. It's a trick that's quite effective for low setting pins.

[TOWCH]

I favor the half diamond because it glides over the pins making it easy to identify binding order. It encourages me to pick properly.