What was the first lock you picked?

[LockNewbie21]

My first locks was on my Brinks fire box..four wafer lock, i used a hook and a tension wrench both made from a pair of old sunglasses.. to say the least i was thrilled to pick it, it took me a good 15 mins. to pick, now i can stick my pocket knife in there and it opens with no tension wrench ahh gotta love your first lock.

Andy

[Reserved]

First lock would be my parents when I was 4 years old...
one morning they where just relaxing in bed, and I was board... they wouldn't let me in (yeah... they may have been... shut up... I was 4) Anyways... I knocked that little "L" shaped piece of metal off of the top of the door frame with a toy set thing I had. They heard and made me slide it under the door.

Second was from a magic set that I had when I was about 10... it came with a little master lock that I locked both keys to the clasp on... and I did it through the holes on the keys... so I had to pick the lock to get the keys. Full paper clip luck...

It didn't get good till about age 16 when I pin by pinned a deadbolt on our house with the pocket clip from a Uni-Ball pen that I bent to a 90 degree angle and a large saftey pin that was hooked at the end.

Today my pick set is due to show up... and I think I am going to pick the deadbolt on my door to start... then go find a pad lock... I should have one in my truck... which I will probably pick to get into. Should be a fun day. Wonder if I can pick my ignition? haha

[Reserved]

UPDATE:

Well... different order.

I picked my truck... then the door... then the padlock.
Truck was way to easy.
Door is a Schlade... not too hard... 1 pin always seemed to be a pain though... I believe it was #4
The padlock is a ... Vovo 33/40... It's just too small, and when the tensioner is in the ward it 1/2 blocks off the pins. I think I need to make a new tensioner. I would also like to make one for tubular locks.

[mh]

About 25 years ago, I discovered that certain bicycle locks (similar to http://www.rijwiel.net/img/hop-ozo.jpg ) used keys where one part at the tip of the key was required to open the lock, and the rest of the key had some slots at different positions, and the lock would block all keys without slots at the right position. And by removing all the material - I suddenly had a master key (similar to warded padlocks, but I didn't know that at that time. Internet wasn't available either )
Also, 3-wheel bicyle locks were easy to manipulate by applying force and finding the wheel that binds first.

As for real 'picking' - I guess it was a cheap 4 pin padlock imported from Taiwan. I bought that from my spending money, to protect my bicycle, because the usual combination locks were so bad - and then I was disappointed how easy it was picked.

Later I received a bicycle cable lock made by ABUS that employed the combination lock principle from safe locks (with wheels, gates & fence and so on). That was my favourite! Couldn't manipulate it, unfortunately somehow I lost that.

[sams choice]

My first lock i picked, that i can remember, was a 5 pin Dexter lock on my house. I was reading, the Blank Blank Cookbook(I dont care to mention the book because it is full of lies!) and it had a chapter on lockpicking. I then read and read and read it over and over and missed the facts on it, but had the tools. I then spent about 3 hours picking that deadbolt till it finally opened. I used a safety pin and screwdriver. That deadbolt is still sorta hard to pick when i go back to my parents house. it is form the 60's or 70's and is extremly dirty. Som of the pins are locked at the shearline. Nasty lock i say. But when i actually got into lock picking, the first lock i picked was a brinks 5 pin rekeyable padlock. It had spools in it and it was difficult, and i felt i would never get it. Now i can open it up with a pick in a couple of seconds, and can also pop it open with nothing but paperclips. I love the first lock you learn on.

[Treeson]

The first lock I ever picked must have been from when I was about 10. I had become FASCINATED in lockpicking from a history of secret agents book I got for Christmas. There was an entire page filled with pictures of old KGB picks and thats all I wanted to do, pick locks.

I finally convinced my dad to get me that little Southord 5 piece set with the book EZ-Pickings. It was great, I followed everything exactly, made him take me to the store and get a practice lock etc, the lock we got was an ILCO, thats all I remember about it. I then tried the lock one pin at a time adding one more each time and found it incredibly easy. (Might I add that this was also my first experience scouring the ground for springs and pins after dropping them.) I used the Half-Diamond as I liked the way it moved over the pins. I was able to open the fully pinned by simply using a little bit of tension and pusing the pick in and then ripping it out of the lock. I was so happy that I could open the fully pinned lock, my dad didnt believe it could be that easy and thought I must have done something to make it easier to pick...

I was so happy after being able to open this that I immedielty went on to the door of the house. (Don't know why Im adding this, but I happened to be at my Dad's girlfriends house which he used to live at.) and was unable to open it, I tried with the diamond over and over and over. I couldn only get like 3 pins to set. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what I was doing.

For the next several years, I picked locks maybe an hour a year, just when I would be cleaning a room and found them, Id try it out on a simple lock.

It wasn't until this winter (I'm now 16) that I became absolutely fascinated again, i don't know what it is. I just love to pick locks, I pick locks in class, on the bus, on the way to school, when watching a movie, at a friends house, on the phone, on this forum, when someones talking, in bed, on the toilet, while I'm walking, eveywhere imaginable. I have challanges like, 'No bed for you until you open all the locks on your dresser', and let me tell you, theres a lot of effing locks on my dresser sometimes. I try not to leave too difficult locks there so I am eventually able to win and go to sleep.

I guess the real first locks that I have been able to pick haven't been until recently, but there is jsut so many, mostly a brand called ACE when I was starting off again this year, which is a fairly cheap company that makes some padlocks.

Might I also add that I have been picking locks for well over 2 months with nigh but safety pins and a tension wrench made out of a pen cap (Thanks EGOOT ) I think that I have gotten very good with these tools. And part of me thinks that when I get my real set, (Should be sometime this week!!! Southord combo set!!!) I will be that much better due to my experience with such extremely inferior tools.


Thanks for listening to my life story,

Treeson

[LockNewbie21]

on the toilet

Haha i must say when it comes to pickin locks. Magic happens on the crapper, i popped my worst locks for the first time on there. I say hear hear to toliets being a lockpickers best friend



Andy[/quote]

[cheesehead]

My first lock was the cash drawer at the hotel I used to work at (about 8 yrs ago) it was a simple disc wafer. I of course had the key and wasn't out to steal anything (obviously, since it would be simpler to just use the key if that were the case...) I was amazed how easy it was - of course I then tried the pin tumbler on our office door...no luck. It was about a year later at my new job when needing to re-pin a lock and not having a key to use when pulling the cylinder. we needed the lock re-pinned but had no way to do it. I decieded to give it a try with a small screwdriver and a broken key extractor. To my suprise I picked it, and I have been hooked ever since. I consider myself very blessed to have a job in building maintanence, where I get the oppurtunity to legally pick locks on a regular basis!

[pinsetter]

my first lock was a medium sized 4 pin Master padlock. That has been 3 weeks ago. Since then I have picked 18 Master pin tumbler padlocks, my kwikset doorknob to my house, my dads filing cabinet, 3 disk wafer desk drawer locks, an American double wafer padlock, a Best padlock ( pain in the rear!...7 pins stacks), an ancient Slaymaker padlock that the plug pushes up into before it turns, and a few old padlocks of different size and shape, a couple notable ones a Popular Mechanics padlock that was a pain because it had a super loose plug that binded bad under any amount of tension, and a True Value padlock that had been out in the weather for years. Since I started doing this I have noticed that the cheaper locks are sometimes harder to pick just because of the loose tolerances and crappy parts used.