to rake or not to rake...

[jgencinc]

I am still new to picking for fun. I've only been actively trying this for about a week now. The exhilaration of popping open a new lock is a nice rush. I like the idea of single pinning each lock. The point of this post is; For some reason I suck at raking. I can almost never open a lock I previously single pinned by raking it. Maybe it's my home-made rakes, or my style. I don't know. Maybe some of you guys can throw out some tips. Do you reciprocate fast? figure 8? how much tension to apply upwards onto the pins, if any?

I don't plan on making raking my choice of opening locks, but I'd like to be able to atleast do it.

[illusion]

Why not?

It's a skill and you may as well become at least proficient at it.

Try bouncing your tension... don't keep it the same ammount, but pulse the wrenxh with your finger as you rake the lock, this helps overcome security pins, and I've found it to significantly imporve picking speed.

Also try using a saw-tooth rake and placing it under the pins, then you rock it in a similar way to that a ship rocks in the water.

Try 'jiggling'. This is done by shaking the pick in the lock as if you had too much coffee (tip from Raimundo) and bounce tension.

Hope this helps

[linty]

you're doing this for fun and as a hobby presumably. raking is often faster if it works and if you still find it fun and challenging than go right ahead and rake to your hearts content.

i found that it took much longer for me to get the hang of raking than single pin picking, and certain pin configurations make raking certain locks much more difficult than normal picking.

[Dartan]

Hey, I'm not the only one in this boat! (the boat of people who can't rake )

The couple locks I have been able to rake were cheap kwikset's. What worked for me on those was bouncing the tension while moving the rake (sawtooth I believe) in and out of the lock. I'm going to have to try some of these other suggestions in this thread.

Dave

[pizarro]

I havn't got round to learning how to rake yet either.

[jgencinc]

took some pictures of my picks. Any suggestions on what other pick types, or modifications to the ones I made would be greatly appreciated.

[CPLP]

I think they are just fine for first time!

[Bahrg]

I cant tell if its just the way the light is hitting them or not, but some dont look like the tips are very polished. The first one looks so, but not sure on the others. If not only suggestion I would make is polish them a bit more otherwise they look good to me

[Olcaytug]

Try moving the pick faster and be less gentle.

Most people only do not apply enogh force on raking to lift the pins up to the shear line. Do not forget that the force you apply is distributed along many pins. Moving faster gives the force in shocks, like a pick gun, so prevents overlifting the pins already set while easily lifting the others.


By the way, I figured out that hook is the best pick for raking if you use the proper method (insert to hook as deep as you can, and pull it out fastly) and if you do not have spool pins (bouncing the tension tool is not possible in that single motion).

Here is the easiest method for the spool pins that I figured out myself:
A spring loaded tension tool is required. After raking a few times the keyway will turn slightly, fallsely setting one of the spools. At this point you need to find the falsely set spool pin (the most solid one), push it farther strongly against the spring until the keyway turns back to the normal position and the pin is properly set. But do not do this if your pick is made of a mild steel or it will deform in shape after long use, due to the strength you apply. Any way if you can make your picks, it will not matter. Easy to make hooks!

You can do the same thing with a standard tension tool, but you need to release the tension mostly at the point of re-setting so you will lose already correctly set pins. It seems to be theoretically possible, but I could never manage since all my pick-resistant locks have more than one spool pins.

But do not forget that raking with a hook is quite aggresive and damages the pins if you do it for a long time (especially with a pick that is not sanded properly).


As a general rule: If you can rake most locks in seconds, and a specific lock gives you trouble, it is due to a pin required to set deeply. Try raking with a deeper hook or find the single pin that do not set, and push it alone. Contrary to raking, a bit forward and downward force helps in these deep set pins. And I always make a small inward slope at the tip of my deep hooks that are difficult to insert. It helps a lot. See the following link for an example:

http://www.lockpickshop.com/p-SLS-11.html


Regards...

[CPLP]

Olcaytug wrote:

As a general rule: If you can rake most locks in seconds, and a specific lock gives you trouble, it is due to a pin required to set deeply. Try raking with a deeper hook or find the single pin that do not set, and push it alone. Contrary to raking, a bit forward and downward force helps in these deep set pins.

In this cases (when pins set deeply), I usualy use the taping method. It as proved to be a very effective one...works most of the times. Also if you are trying hard and the lock doesn't open, try relaxing a bit and resting... then try again, usually it works better after taking a break.

[jgencinc]

I've been practising with some newer rakes I've made. I'm getting a lot better.

As for the polishing of my picks, I'm trying a lot of diferent types first. I don't want to waste a lot of time cleaning up picks that I won't even use much. I sand them enough that they feel smooth to the touch. Once I find some I like, I'll duplicate them, and shine em up.