by zeke79 » 6 Oct 2005 16:13
US cylinders are fun to practice on. Most of your cylinders you run into everyday can be picked with some practice though making bumpkeys more of an exploratory method for myself anyway. There are exceptions however such as dimple locks where they come in very handy for openings and keep the bottom pins from falling into the keyway. Other than than bumpkeys tend to do damage to the face of the lock very easily if you are not careful and can also trash a lock rather quickly. There are high security applications in the US that a bumpkey can be the fastest method of getting the locks open but that should not be discussed in the open forums.
My point is do some research, study your locks and take some time to learn how to make your own bumpkey. If your bumpkey does not work disassemble your lock put the bottom pins in the plug, insert the bumpkey and try to see if you can tell why it is not working. If nothing is obvious then it is probably your technique. If there is something obvious then fix it or make a new bumpkey.
Multipick Service does a fine job of supplying goods to their region. If they offered schlage and kwikset bumpkeys they would be wasting their time and efforts for the most part.
For the best book out there on high security locks and their operation, take a look at amazon.com for High-Security Mechanical Locks An Encyclopedic Reference. Written by our very own site member Greyman! A true 5 Star read!!
