WHICH PICK TOOL IS BEST FOR YOU?

[mtj_nvk]

Hi everybody,

I have at home bumpkeys and tension tool for picking, but so far no success. I have trying a long time with home locks, but no luck.

Tell me guys your experience. I know that every tools are not easy, but which method is the easiest - guns , light tools or .....?

[UWSDWF]

practise

[freakparade3]

Starting out I has the most success with a medium hook. As you get more picks and new locks you will try out new things, some will work, some won't. It's alot of trial and error. I have around 250 picks, I use about 6 on a regular basis. In my opinion, a wide variety of tension tools is alot more important than alot of picks.

[Eyes_Only]

You'll most likely end up liking only a few select picks as you progress in this hobby. In my set, more than 3/4 of it are all some type of hook picks and the rest are just a small selection of rakes and diamonds. And freakparade is right, what matters most is having a wide variety of tension tools for different locks and keyways.

[mtj_nvk]

like I say, I have try it pick locking with bump keys and tension tools, and it is f.... dificult. Maybe, for start, I should pick with guns, or???

Can someone, with experience with guns, tell me wich one is better. Electric or ordinary(non electr)?

[machinist]

well bumping isn't really "picking" although it does open a lock if your serious about the hobby like most of us you'll get bored of bump keys mine are all just sitting in the back of my "lock box" 99% of the time.

I used to use only a standard size hook and extra fat wrench and a half diamond. The five tools I keep using for common locks (despite making 30+, of any thing I saw and didn't have) are: the hook, the 1/2 daimond and the snake for tension the feather touch and the fat old wrench for heavy padlocks.

90% of the time picking doesn't work because of improper tension. Get a practice lock, insert the key and turn feel EXACTLY how much force it took to turn the correct key made for the lock. Thats how much force you want to use when raking.

[Eyes_Only]

You won't learn anything that will help you become better at standard picking by practicing on pick guns, manual or electric. Pick guns, from what I understand, was designed for police and other law enforcement people to be able to open locks with minimal training and very little understanding of how locks work or why they can be picked. If you aim to make lock picking a hobby, you won't get anywhere by learning on impact tools first. It will dull your senses and make it even more difficult to pick locks by hand.

[Shrub]

Bumping is not picking and you dont use a tension wrench with them,

You need to buy a small pickset of around 14 pieces i reccomend the 15 piece South Ord set, do not buy a jack knife,

Do not buy guns, if you cant bump a lock you will struggle even more with a gun, electric is better than manual but neither have any place in a hobbiests tool box,

Click on my www button,

Click on my signiture picture,

Check out howstuff works and see how a lock works,

Read the lockpicking stuff on Matt Blazes crypto site,

Buy yourself a cheap door cylinder,

Read and follow Db's beginner picking exorcise,

Do anything else and your peeing in the wind, theres no subsitute for reading up and knowing what you are doing and then getting a few proper tools and a cheap lock and simply going at it, things dont come quick and you will need lots of practice but you need to stick with it,

Now do yourself a favour and throw the bum keys away,

[digital_blue]

The important question here is, what is your objective?

If you want to learn to pick locks because you think it seems like a fun hobby, stop wasting your time with pick guns and bump keys.

If your intention is just to be able to open a lock without the key.... you've probably come to the wrong place. That's not what we're about here.

Listen to the advice you've been given and get yourself a set of picks - preferably a set of slimline Euro picks. Then get yourself a few cheap cylinders you can practice on. It could very well be that the reason you've not had any success is that the locks you've been trying a just bloody hard. Once you get the cheap cylinder, take it apart, start with one pin, and work through the Beginner Lockpicking Exercise as mentioned.

Good luck!

db

[helloman]

get a crapy padlock try picking it with everthing you have the whatever is the easiest you have your awnser but then move up to harder and harder locks and PRACTICE[/quote]

[raimundo]

to the question which is best, the concensus seems to go for the small or medium hook, probably with the round top, so the pin can be adjusted a little bit by moving it back and forth, so the round top works like a little ball pick under the pin tip.

Since you asked about the one most used pick I am assuming you will be making yourself one, remember small and medium, the tip of the pick standing above the shaft of the pick about as high as a medium pindepth cut. A number of the pickmakers here make them a bit too big on the first try, that can always be corrected by reducing them,

Sand your picks smooth on the tip and the shaft surfaces. this reduces the brass filing and rough feel of the pick in the lock. allows the pick to swim like a fish in the warding.

[LockNewbie21]

Well I love hooks, there all i use excpet in given circustances.


Or you can cheat and use a bogata.. I made some new ones closer to rays specs. and uh... man there narely picks, schooled a crap load of my locks