Trouble only picking one pin at a time.

[Dsnentry]

For what it's worth, I've looked for the answer as best I could so if it's been answered a million time, I'm sorry and please refer me to the correct thread.

Being very new to the hobby, I went out and bought an EZ Rekey Practice lock with a Schlage keying. I also bought the South Ord basic lock pick set. I started out with 2 pins and found that to be incredibly easy. I then bumped it up to 3 pins and found it was also very easy. When I started to try anything above 3 pins, I found that I couldn't only press one pin at a time. If I try to lift the 4th pin, pin 3 raises a bit too. If i were to have all 6 pins in and try to press the 6th pin, pins 4,5 and 6 raise too. My question is this: Am I using the wrong pick, am I not doing it right, or is my tension wrench possibly getting in the way of the pick being low enough in the key-well? I've mainly been using the half-diamond pick and when that didn't work I tried the shallowest hook pick. The problem with the hook pick is that I couldn't get the pick under the pins in the middle (pins 3 and 4) due to the shape of the pick. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.

[eppiotic]

Try putting tension at the top of the keyway if you feel the wrench is in the road and using a more pronounced hook. If the back pin is short and the rest are longer or if its high-low-high-low it will be more difficult to pick.

Remember when putting tension at the top to not bind that first pin, its easy to do.

[nostromo]

OP- You can never have enough tools. You might want a couple more hooks, something like a Med Hook (round top) and Long Hook (flat top) from SouthOrd, HPC or SoSpec (http://www.lockpicktools.com/lockpicks.htm).

Or you can get a nice 9 piece set for $5.71 (S&H included) at http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16417.

[Bad_Jason]

OP- You can never have enough tools. You might want a couple more hooks, something like a Med Hook (round top) and Long Hook (flat top) from SouthOrd, HPC or SoSpec (http://www.lockpicktools.com/lockpicks.htm).

Or you can get a nice 9 piece set for $5.71 (S&H included) at http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16417.

Five bucks... free shipping... why not? I was actually looking for varied set of inexpensive hooks to complement my ever growing collection of tools.

I just wanted to thank you for the link because after further review, I found an auto pick set for $23 bucks (free shipping). I wasn't planning on buying an auto set anytime in the near future, but for that price... why not! Hell, decent double sided tensors sell for $20 bucks alone. Obviously, I can't comment of the quality of the picks, but the customer reviews were good.

Heres the link is anyone is interested.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.16427

[Gozzo]

[color=#000080]That set was my first set, got some nice hooks in it, but i paid $38aus for mine, should have shopped around the down side with those is the tension wrench is useless and will snap, and the tips seem to wear down very quickly. The handles are very comfortable, but dont give a lot of feedback. I ended up with a 14 piece set from southord which are definitely a better buy, even though they will cost you more but hey you can never have to many.

[sphinx762]

dsnentry, I noticed the same thing when I started picking but I realized that while the other pins move some they don't move enough to affect my progress with the lock. Once a driverpin is set you can move it's keypin all you want and it won't unset the driver pin (unless you release the tension of course).

I improved significantly once I quit using my cutaway ez rekey practice lock and started using standard locks. That way I couldn't cheat and look, had to rely on feel. Now I can consistently pick all my practice locks and normal deadbolts. I really only use the basic hook pick and a tension wrench.

Hopefully, I articulated my thoughts properly and you found this helpful.