no need to bump

[VTEC]

Hi there

I'm all new to picking, so I've bought a set of picks and picked a few padlocks I had at home. Some still resist. I then bought a cheap door lock ( brand is titus ). I could pick it quite easily, and I made a bump key out of one of the key provided with the lock.

Quickly I could bump it almost 100% of the time...

And then, I discovered that I could open the lock with the bump key without bumping! Let me explain: In the normal position, the bump key doesn't work. I then push it down in the lock, apply some tension, pull the key back into normal position, and then... It works!

Any comments?

[illusion]

I have seen this work before, but it depends largely on how the lock is pinned.

[VTEC]

Can you elaborate on this?

[melvin2001]

if the lock is pinned almost exclusivly with depths of around 4-6 (or so) pulling the bump key out raises the pins just above the sheer line causing them to bind and the lock to be opened. If one pin is cut to 0 or 1 then it will not be raised far enough to be raised above the sheer line which means it will not be picked.

this is similar to raking the pins with a pick but has the limitation that you can not lift the key and set the pins that need to be raised quite high. hope this makes sense.

also i dont think this would work on most high quality locks regardless of pin arrangement... although you never know.

[illusion]

Can you elaborate on this?

Of course.

Depending on whether the pinning of the lock is very similar (5,3,4,3,6 for example) It's possible to actualy rate the lock by inserting the key one step and then pulling it out one step. It only happened on a single lock, and stopped hapenning when I repinned it.

I really couldn't be bothered to make a cut-away to prove this 100%, but it seemed a logical explanation at the time.

[illusion]

Bah, posted too late.

Melvin had it right, but since I was intterupted whilst writing this post mine came after...

Oh well, you got 2 answers to your question.

[VTEC]

Makes sense... thanx for that!