get the feel of things

[MacÔda]

ok i'm a newb and when i'm picking i have trouble telling which pin i'm on and if it's set or not...i've read the MIT guide and some other guides but i'd appreciate any help

[master in training]

the MIT guide has some exercises to help you get "the feel", to help give you more accurate help, fill in your profile so we know where you are and we can give advice on what locks to get etc.

[Elijah]

Do what MiT suggests so that you will be able to tell which pin you are on. There really isn'y any trick to figuring it out, it's just a matter of developing enough manual dexterity and sensitivity to figure it out. Try flipping a regular lock pick upside down and depressing all the pins in the lock at once. Slowly pull back your pick and listen and feel for a distinct 'click.' Each click is a pin being sprung back into its normal position; thus, the number of clicks you hear is the number of pins in the lock. From there, try and memorize which position is how far into the lock - after all this, you should have a good marker to determine which pin you're working on (mentally keep track of the pins as you work in the lock).

To feel if you've set a pin, you once again need better manual dexterity and sensitivity. For practice, do this: Using your lock pick, push one pin as high up as it goes. Slowly let it back down, feeling the spring put pressure on the pin to return it to its original position. When you set a pin, you will no longer have this spring pressure; the spring is pushing against the top pin which rests on the shear line and does not come into contact with the driver pin. Gravity will be the only force that returns your driver pin to resting position. Basically, if you have a feel for the spring pressure in a specific lock, you can tell when the spring is NOT acting on the pin - that is when the pin is set.

Hope this helps, and sorry if I made it too confusing or something, I tried my best! Good luck!

-Elijah

[MacÔda]

thanks a lot for the help MiT and elijah...i have another problem though....using you guys' help i found all the pins in my lock...the first pin that binds is the second one but i can't find the next one that binds....help please!!

[FSSARD]

you may be focusing too hard on it, either put it down, and take a break, or do my favorite, try to pick the lock while watching tv, focus on the TV, let your sub-consious work on the lock.

(wouldn't reccommend this as a permanent thing)

[Elijah]

If you can't figure it out just yet there are a few things you can do:

1) Apply more tension. If you don't feel a pin binding just yet, apply more and more tension until you can feel a bind. Be sure to ease off the tension once you feel the next pin you need to pick. Keep in mind this technique wouldn't work very well with security pins; only use it on your cheap locks.

2) Screw it for now. Just rake around or pick randomly until you feel something out of the ordinary. Your fingers as well as your brain will eventually develop to be much more sensitive to the stimuli you are receiving. There is no humiliation in admitting that you don't yet know or are not yet able to do something. Just keep practicing.

3) Change your pick. If you have a good selection of picks, make sure you're using something with thinner handles or a pointier hook. This may not apply, but some people like to use the brass handle with some SouthOrd sets which can dramatically dull your sense of touch.

I'm sure someone else can help you with this, these are just the three things that came to mind right away. Hope it helps!

-Elijah

[Elijah]

I may also mention at the last minute that my first suggestion may not always solve the problem. You could have a faulty or just plain stubborn lock if you don't feel a bind while using normal tension. There is a recent thread about this somewhere, but I'm kind of in a rush and have no time to search for it. If you consistently need heavy tension to keep a pin bound, try picking a new lock of the same make and model. I suppose this can happen quite often with Master padlocks. Good luck!

[master in training]

what pick are you using and what lock are you picking? this may have a big impact on your ability to feel whats happening inside the lock.

try holding your pick quite gently and have very little tension on the lock, a common mistake is to use far too much tension, use just as much as you would need to turn the key (often very little), then proceed to try lifting the second pin of the lock, since you said it is the first to bind, and get used to how this feels. do this for a couple of minutes to get your fingers used to how this feels.

next set the pin, you will know when it is set hopefully because there will be a minute movement in the tension wrench (using light tension will help you feel this too), once it is set, as Elijah said, once a pin is set, there will be no more spring pressure on the pin, it will just be gravity.

once you know the pin is properly set, you can move onto the next pin and try to set that. if the first binding pin is not quite set properly, you will not find the next pin. remember, a pin will still drop down by gravity if it is not quite set, you can make the driver pin bind if it is not set, you will know when it is actually set because the plug will move.

most importantly, dont get worked up about it, just relax, keep calm and make sure you enjoy yourself!

[digital_blue]

For the newbie, I tend to agree with the "poke and prod" mentality. As a beginner, it may be quite difficult to really understand what is going on in the lock because you have not yet learned how to translate feedback from the tools to usable information to help you pick the lock. Just the sheer act of poking and proding will, to a certain extent, help you learn the feel of picking. Try experimenting with a raking technique, then after raking a bit, you might start to feel around and see what you can learn about the pin states, which ones you think might be set, which ones are definately not, and so on.

I have to say that I am not a real big fan of telling a newbie to practive picking while watching TV or other distracting activities. I understand the point of this excercise, but I feel it is best used once you have developed a foundational knowledge of picking. For the very beginner, I feel that the point of all the "poking and proding" is to pick up cues from the lock and learn what it feels like when a pin sets, or when a pin oversets, etc. I just don't think you'll grow as fast if you are not paying attention. Once you develop your skills a bit, picking while watching tv can be fun, and even useful when you want to hone your skills, or when you want to stop yourself from "over thinking". In the mean time, you are far more likely to find yourself "under thinking" anyway. Pay attention, this isn't exactly easy. Your long term success depends on your ability to interpret what the lock is telling you so you'd better be listening to what it has to say.

Hope this helps some, happy picking!

db