on my way to a challenging hobby!

[backontrack]

So I received my picks today BDH-18, got them this afternoon and I open a chinese padlock, and my file cabinet lock, both fairly easy
However my home's deadbolt dexter by schalage and an american lock 1105 series no luck. My question is wich will be the ideal pick on these kind of locks to use? The first two I open I used the small hook.
Thank you guys in advance!

[Squelchtone]

So I received my picks today BDH-18, got them this afternoon and I open a chinese padlock, and my file cabinet lock, both fairly easy
However my home's deadbolt dexter by schalage and an american lock 1105 series no luck. My question is wich will be the ideal pick on these kind of locks to use? The first two I open I used the small hook.
Thank you guys in advance!

There is no "ideal pick" for "x brand or model of lock" That's not how it works. The "ideal pick" is the amount of skill and experience you bring to the table.

One word though about picking locks around the house, don't do it. As a beginner too many things can go wrong, and it would be a shame to mess up your home's deadbolt and either be locked out of your house, not be able to lock your house,or have your key work rough and the lock turn poorly after continued picking at it. We have a whole thread about this, so I'm sure someone will copy/paste the whole thing, but basically, we pick locks while sitting on the couch, or at the workbench, and we pick practice locks that we get on ebay or on sale at the hardware store, that way we arent picking locks that are in use, and its a double bonus, because your friends, family, and neighbors wont suddenly think you're that shady guy going around the house, apartment, dorm, office picking all the locks. It can lead to a lack of friends and supportive coworkers, trust me. Wait till someone's iPod, GPS, or $10 dollar bill is missing, you'll be the prime target.

That said, welcome to hobby lockpicking, it's a great hobby, as long as you follow some general rules,
Squelchtone

[Squelchtone]

Per your other post where you think my answer is unhelpful. Let me put it in words you may understand.

Professional Shop: "Hello, Bob's Auto Repair, how may I help you?"

Customer: "Hi, I want to fix my car's engine, which wrench in this Snap On tool box will fix it best?"

Professional Shop: "ummm.. that's not how it works, you have to know how to fix a car, there is no magical wrench that works best, its a matter of experience, and choosing the right tool based on past experience and training, and knowing what you're doing"

Customer: "oh so you won't tell me? You just don't want me starting up a chop shop or fixing my own car and not bringing it to your shop. Sounds like you have a political agenda."

Profesional Shop: "wtf???"


Do you understand now?
Squelchtone

[illusion]

I use a Falle Safe pick set to open all the cylinder locks I pick-except MTL-and the set favours hook picks primarily. I used to dislike hook picks, using the half diamond and deforest picks mostly but now I personally find having a selection of hook picks to be very effective. Use whatever you find works best, it's just a bit of metal to press some pins after all, obviously you're going to find some feel more comfortable.

Too often you see people fannying around worrying that they don't have the right picks when their energy might be better spent actually practising.

[JK_the_CJer]

Squelchtone is 100% correct about preferences developing over time and how there is no magic pick. However if you aren't a little girl, you just get professional and use something like this:

[cds333]

The lock on your file cabinet is as cheap as they come, and probably only has 3 or 4 pins, also cheap locks are made with much less tolerance (ie there is more play / backlash / movement amongst the internal components), therefore you may only need to get the pins to within 0.5mm of the shear line for the cylinder to turn.

Better locks however, such as your deadbolt, are much better quality, therefore the tolerances are much tighter- which means you must be much more accurate with the manipulation of each pin. Also most residential door locks are 5 pins, 6 if they use a master key... The more pins you have the difficulty level increases exponentially.

Also each lock is different, even amongst identical models. Depending on the random configuration of the pins as set at the factory, you may have a shear line that is relatively straight, or it may resemble a Himalayan mountain range. A perfectly straight shear line can be picked with the flat backside of the pick, although they do try to avoid selling locks with such; however the straighter the line is the more susceptible the lock it to an L or W rake pick, the more varied the line is the harder it is to rake and the more it will benefit from picking each pin individually with a hook or diamond pick. You can tell the pin configuration and the topography of the shear line by simply looking at the key for any standard pin tumbler lock.

I would recommend you get one of the training sets- it is 5 identical locks, each with one more pin than the last. Once you learn to pick each level then you step up to one more pin, and an increased difficulty level.

But yeah, your problem is the higher tolerances in the better locks most likely. If you don't want to buy the training set you can simply take apart a lock you already have and remove some of the pins, and then add them back as you get better.

Good luck and keep at it!

[raimundo]

UH JK, tell me about that tensor, it looks like you put it through a thread cutting die.

[JK_the_CJer]

UH JK, tell me about that tensor, it looks like you put it through a thread cutting die.

That one is part of a set from Peterson, but it could be easily made at home. Nostromo modified a set of pliers/cutters to make serrations like that. I usually just hit it with a trianglular needle file. Using a die is an awesome idea; but buying an entire die set and fitting your wrenches to your dies seems like no fun, though

[femurat]

a die set was one of the best investments I made when I started modifying my bike

In my set, like in all other sets I saw, there are 3 or 4 holes around the piece to let the steel shaving fall. It could be extremely difficult to thread a flat piece of steel with my die set.

A good consequence of using a cutter is the small metal spread on the sides of each cut, this helps a lot the grip in the kekway. Using a triangular file don't have this benefit, unless you hammer it on the wrench

Now I'm curious to see Nostromo's invention.

Cheers

[raimundo]

legion 303 puts the cuts on there with a wire cutter, this not only removes metal from the v cuts but causes the metal removed to spall out the ends of the v cut, leaving a real gripper on the edges of the blade.

Yup femurat, it would be difficult to do that with a die, unless there was also a couple of strips of metal along side the blade to keep the internal metal from slipping into those chip relief areas, and if the die was tapered inside so that the first cutting would not be as deep as the second and so on.

anyway if JK had said yes, I would have asked how it was done?