"Best" brand locks

[mdst]

Anyone have experience with those? Doorknob locks, deadbolts, padlocks, that is... seven pins I believe...

Do they have security pins, etc.? Any other brands they'd be considered similar to?

Thanks for the help.

[ablazia]

Can't say I have experience on them yet... but I do work at a university and they use Best everywhere. Been getting to know the main locksmith there and will be scabbing parts to play with soon. I will let you know what I find out within a week or two.

ablazia

[digital_blue]

Best brand locks are not necessarily the "best" place to start learning to pick, so if you're still new at this, I'd look for a better practice lock.

db

[illusion]

I have an Arrow SFIC that is dead hard to pick, since you can't use a Peterson style wrench upon it - bugger!

Check this link out:
http://crypto.com/photos/misc/sfic/

With the right tension wrench I'm led to believe they can be done without heartbreak, but without one they are hard. My Arrow SFIC 7 pin defies picking, and has me in tears.

I'd agree that getting another lock to practce upon would be your 'best' bet... feel the pun lol.

[pinsetter]

As stated, Best locks use SFIC design. What this means is that there are 2 shear lines in the locks. Not only can the plug itself rotate with 1 key, but another key could be used that would rotate the plug and another rotating cylinder together. You can think of it as a plug inside another plug. There are 3 pins per stack, and yep, there are 7 stacks, so things get really hairy when trying to pick this with standard tools. These locks are made for masterkeying, but are much more secure than standard masterinkeying because of multiple shear lines. They *can* be picked with standard tools, but it isn't an easy task and can get real time consuming.