The Feel

[oaksy]

I have got a Question for you all i have been picking locks for about a year now and i dont think i have the FEEL yet every cylinders lock that i have had a go on i can open Yale,Bird,ERA,Yale X5,etc etc etc i can open without to much trouble at all... The thing is i am not raking these locks but keep going over the pins but i still dont know which ones are set and which are not????????
They just open
I do know when i have hit a Security pins and when i have set it wrong when the plug moves..
But i couldnt tell you what number the pin is sitting in??

I think in a few more years i should have the Feel by then??????????
Any help

[illusion]

you got magic fingers - they just open

you can randomly lift pins and eventualy open it, especialy if there are no high/low combos of pins.

if it is a euro cylinder, then the pins fall down with gravity.

if it is a rim-cylinder: When the pins are unset the spring still pushes down on the top pin, which in turn pushes down on the bottom pin. When you set a pin, the top pin will get trapped above the sheer line, and therefore when you lift the bottom pin it will feel much to easy - the preasure that is normaly there because of the spring is removed - the MIT guide explains this, but it took me a while of practice before it made any sense.

maybe this wil make sense

[Keyring]

(Answering as a definate NON-expert)

It seems to me that if you can do the X5's then you can't be that bad.

As for 'feel', it seems to me I do better when I'm not trying too hard to work out what's going on. Like I'm listening to the radio or something.

I wonder how many people can honestly say they can picture where the pins are in every type of lock they are picking. I find it frustrating that I can spend 5 minutes before managing to pick say a Yale padlock, and then I close it again and stick a rake in and out and it's open.

[digital_blue]

Funny, I just had a conversation on MSN with one of our newer users last night where I commented on this exact point. I mentioned that I believe that there are a lot of lockpickers who can successfully open many locks but never really learned to "feel" what's happening, and be fully aware of where they are at, or why it's working. Good timing.

I do believe that it's worth you taking some time to really develop these skills, as it will take you much farther in the long run. Kinda like learning to play music by ear vs. learning music theory.

My advice, start back at the beginning. Strip out all the pins but two and start there. This will feel ridiculously tedious I'm sure, but don't move forward until you are ABSOLUTELY SURE that you can tell which pin is the binding pin. Pay very careful attention to what you are feeling, and don't even think of adding the next pin stack until you really feel that you have learned all you can from the exercise.

Then add a 3rd pin stack and repeat. It will take some time, and you'll probably get bored and have to set it aside for a while, but I promise that at the end of the exercise, if you are diligent, you will be a better picker for it.

Hope this helps! Happy picking!

db

[oaksy]

Thanks guys for the info...