by Shrub » 9 Aug 2007 6:35
Its not the tools its the person behind them,
If you cant pick very well then you run around with a EPG if your a cheap skate you run around with a set of bum keys,
If you look at it in its stricktest sence anything opened with a bum key or EPG will have to be changed once opened but 99% of the time this doesnt happen and the customer keeps a lock that has had varying degrees of hammering done to the pins,
Now lets pretend you are great with all 3, lol i was gogin to call them tools then but a bum keys isnt a tool its a toy so ill say, the 3 items mentioned, if you can use them all to a professional standard then manual picks will open any lock the other two will and more,
There are excuses for lack of skill and epg's and bum keys are just that, on the job it is a factor of time however and some things open so quickly and easily with one of the other two that many forget the value of manual picks and often quickly loose the skill, ask anyone who normally uses a set of keys or a epg to manual pick a lock and youll be stood there for a very long time before they eventually give up,
I use manual picks, i only use manual picks, i have one or two bum keys somewhere but i think they are on the floor under the workbench of my workshop along with the tomahawk which remains unused, crapy things,
Epg's have their place but again its either an excuse for lack of skill or purely a time constraint factor, i dare say i can pick a lock quicker than someone unskilled on a epg can open it with said tool,
HOWEVER, if you are a real locksmith you will have ebery possable method you know of opening locks in your tool kit, theres no excuse for being unable to pick a lock by wahtever means and resort to drilling it, if the lock picks it should be picked open,
I know a common thing to do in the us and maybe here but i dont know is to simply drill any cheap cylinder you come across and simpy replace it with a new one bcuase they are A) so cheap and B) quicker to do the job,
If you are wanting to start up a lockie business or run one based on one tool then your gogin to fail unless your dam sure you can use that one tool to open all locks,