Salutations.
I first got interested in lockpicking about, oh, 20 years ago. I was in Jr. High at the time, and managed to get my hand on a lockpicking book from Loompanics press. I was fasicnated, and I began making my own primitive tools. I made tension wrenches out of the metal strips that come in hanging files, and some small rakes out of jigsaw blades.
I quickly learned to rake or "scrub" wafer tumbler locks and had a good amount of fun impressing schoolmates with my ability to open things like the glass cases in the school lobby. (I blame the foolishness of youth.
)
I also made a few T-bar picks and learned to pick the warded master locks that use those types of keys.
But I never really learned much more than that, and actually picking a pin lock by lifting each pin was not something I was able to do; I lacked the patience and I didn't want to practice.
Jump forward to now, 20 years later. I'm 35 and my hobbies of mechanical things has not receded. (neither has my hairline, at least not so far, thank goodness.) I work on computer software for a living, but my hobbies include metal work, blacksmithing, motorcycle building and repair and all sorts of other things I dabble with.
It occurred to me recently that I'd enjoy taking up lockpicking again, and actually learning it this time, rather than just shortcutting to learning how to rake easy locks. So I started reading. I read and re-read the guide formerly known as the MIT guide, watched several videos, and tried to read just about everything I could find online. (needless to say I read tons of stuff on this forum.)
I ordered a set of 10 basic picks/wrenches from Lockpicktools.com. Last weekend I was at the junkyard and I snagged 3 padlocks from a pile: 2 "ILCO" brass padlocks, and one master lock. (stamped "37") I brought them home and cleaned them up.
Tonght my picks arrived via UPS and I had a go at the padlocks. I was unable to open any of them by raking, which is fine with me, as it's probably a habit I should avoid until I can get better at setting each pin individually.
I was able to open one ILCO lock fairly quickly by lifting each pin carefully (it took quite a few tries to find the right amount of tension to set the pins and not bind them) and the other lock followed shortly after. (It was really stiff from having sat in the junkyard so long)
I've not been able to open the master lock yet, though I'm persevering. I relocked the ILCO locks and have not yet re-opened them, but I'm optomistic.
Thanks for running such a great site and rekindling my interest!
--TMIB
