Luck?

by **Finan** » 7 Mar 2006 23:09

So I just started picking locks, and I am thrilled doing it. I made my own set of picks out of hacksaw blades last night at my friends house and they are performing way better than I expected them to, so I'm very pleased with them. Since then, I have picked 3 different locks, but it seems as if I'm not exactly sure what is going on. I do try and feel for the binding pin and doing the pins one by one, but I usually spend so long doing it that way (10+ minutes) that I end up just jiggling the pick up and down really quick in the lock, almost like a lockpicking gun, and that'll open the lock. So I'm thinking that I probably need to work on being able to determine the binding pin more exactly, so I can do the pins one by one. Any suggestions???

And yes, I have read the guide to taking apart the lock and repinnning it, and that whole guide. I went out and bought a cheap door lock and took about 20 minutes destroying the casing until I finally just reached the hull and the plug. But it seems as if there is a lip on the plug, and I wouldn't be able to push the plug out. I haven't tried it yet, but any other suggestions? Sorry this is such a long post and that I don't have any pics. I will try to get some up soon!

by **LockNewbie21** » 7 Mar 2006 23:17

I was right with ya bud. Dont worry its getts better as you go, but i found that since oyu have made your own. Creat a double ended pick. One end have a feeler.. half diamond, hook. Then use that for initial picking. Then the other side of the pick put a snake or some sort of rakes of your comfort choice. Then one you single pin picked to you think you just wont get it flip over the pick and start raking varieing tension. I do this with many a padock. For good practice buy a master lock # 1 or 3 these you can rake open alone but its helps to single pin first then rake. I also have a brinks with 2 spool pins. i usually single pin pick till i get the false set. Then lighten tension and rake away. Pops them pain in the a** security pins in place. Hope this helps.

Andy

by **zeke79** » 7 Mar 2006 23:30

Take the time to learn single pin picking. This will make all the difference when you move up to locks that have better tolerances and were manufactured better. Security pins will also cause problems if you do not take the time to learn single pin picking. Some pickers are good at raking locks that are low to medium security, but it seems to me that the best pickers out there are generally single pin pickers. Just my opinion though :wink:

.

by **LockNewbie21** » 7 Mar 2006 23:31

Yea i would listen to zeke above me, it wont hurt to try my method.. but then again i only work on medium to semi hard locks so deff. take zekes word.....newbie surrenders

by **clayton1123** » 8 Mar 2006 20:57

i like the idea of picking one pin at a time by taking all the other pins out but one and putting more in as you go.

by **Stylefree83** » 9 Mar 2006 3:16

newbie here putting my 2 cents in. I've picked 3 locks since I caught the lock pick bug (aint dying any time soon). Starting out, you MUST have the patience of JOB (biblical reference which means long O sound :wink:

). I'll admit I feeler picked to rake when I just couldn't get those last couple pins to bind, but then I had to get real and I stopped and said "this isn't how an elite lock pickers would train. SO BUCKLE DOWN, and if anything put a heavier tension on the lock to really feel those pins break at the shear. And that's my 2 cents.

Nick

by **Finan** » 9 Mar 2006 18:05

Thanks guys. I went out and bought a kwikset last night so I can take all the pins out except one and then learn 1 by 1 from there single pin picking. Now I just have to find the time to be able to sit down and enjoy learning to pick some locks...

by **p1ckf1sh** » 24 Mar 2006 10:51

zeke79 wrote:Take the time to learn single pin picking. This will make all the difference when you move up to locks that have better tolerances and were manufactured better. Security pins will also cause problems if you do not take the time to learn single pin picking. Some pickers are good at raking locks that are low to medium security, but it seems to me that the best pickers out there are generally single pin pickers. Just my opinion though .

My thoughts on this, as I am currently going through this... (picked up locksports in mid-February):

I think both should be done and practiced. I feel that I am kinda "dona" with a lock once i have single-pin-picked and raked it open. I kinda like raking and jiggling or some bogota scrubbing with a new lock to just get the feel of the lock - tension, tolerance, spring force. I have some bogotas, a King/Queen set and a HPC computer-gen set (all selfmade copycats, the advantages of the HPC set are probably gone because of that, but what the heck) and by just poking around with these ~20 rakes for 3 or 4 minutes you get quite some clues of the lock. How many pins snap back after using this (rather flat) rake? How many after using a more contoured one? This can give you slight hints on the bitting - you can guesstimate if it is a rather flat or a quite peaked bitting, if there are really bad high-low combination in there, sometimes you can even find out if or which pins are spools.

Apart from that, with locks that gave me a bad time, and to which I had no key, I used the bogota until I had them, then turned a bit and used a feeler pick to make an inventory of the pins and how they finally set to give me a little headstart for single-pin-picking. Sure, it's a bit of cheating, but this is training in itself. But you are trying to pick the lock, and you know how the pins need to be set. Therefore you can concentrate less on what you do and more on what the lock does once the pin is set. Reading this feedback and being able to distinguish from other feedbacks (false set, overset) is gonna make a diffence later on with other, unknown locks you don't know the bitting for.

So, I think raking/jiggling is that should be practised, because done right it can help to improve single-pin skills...

by **maxxed** » 2 Apr 2006 2:39

After you develope a meathod of picking that works well overall, practice the meathods that you find harder. When I have difficulty opening a lock on a job, out come the seldom used picks and I have an additional resource available. Having a variety of picks and meathods of picking available only helps you get better.

Luck?

Luck?

Who is online