Impressioning For Beginners

[freakparade3]

Impresioning is one of my favorite topics. I have not seen much interest on the topic lately so I wanted to write this and mabye geet some beginners interested in the skill. To mark the blank there are a few different techniques you can use. You can use a file to knife edge the blank. This means to file the blade of the key until it is angled like the blade of a knife, thinner metal marks easier. Second is to use a sharpie marker to color the blade of the key. When you have your blank prepared insert in into the lock and apply turning presure clockwise. With pressure applied wiggle the blank up and down a few times. Turn the key counter clockwise and wiggle up and down a few times that direction. What I do is use a small hobby file to take the bright brass coating off the blade of the key. Last night after I filed off the brass coating I used very fine sandpaper and sanded the blade of the key. It worked perfectly. It made the blade of the key absolutely smooth. Then I used a red sharpie marker on the blade and I could see the marks from the pins clearer than ever before. I have always recommended to beginners they learn impressioning the same as they learned picking with DB's beginners exercise. One pin at a time. The first step for a beginner should be to remove ALL pins from the lock, insert a prepared keyblank and use the normal motion to mark the blank. The blank will have alot of marks on it when you remove it. Including a line of marks on the side of the blank a beginner would think are the spots to file, they are not. Put this key aside and add ONE pin to the lock. Prepare another blank the same way and insert into the lock to mark it. You can now compare the two keys and determine what mark is made from the pin. I believe this exercise will make learning impressioning easier for any beginner. Now come on boys and girls, get out those blank keys and files to learn this wonderful skill!!

[Eyes_Only]

I've been getting into impressioning a lot lately too. My shop taught me how to impression wafer locks used on automotive and desk/cabinet locks and that really gave me a boost of confidence and motivation to learn more about this art.

So far I found Schlage to be a pretty easy lock to impression but Kwiksets are not so simple. Maybe cos the tip of the bottom pins are not pointed like other lock making it a little tricky to read the marking right. I'll probably have to try to Sharpie method to help me out on this.

And I do the same thing when preparing the blanks. I take a regular file to take off the rough surface first then a medium to fine grit sand paper to finish it off. The marks become much easier to read when this is done. I'm gonna try using a emery board and see if that will work in place of a sand paper though.

But over all this is another really fun area in locksports.

[gotta]

A swiss cut 6" Grobbert file will eliminate the need for sharpies and sandpaper. To prep the blank, run the file down the blade as you would a mill file, then file your marks straight across. The file leaves a very fine easy to read surface. Don't forget wafer locks leave slightly retangular marks while pin tumblers leave round. As you get closer to the proper depth, the mark will increase in size and you begin to rotate to the next binding pin/wafer. I usually file on one or two marks at a time. With practice, you can tell the difference between a mark that needs filing and a pin that's just riding on the blank, leaving some slight marking. When everything stops marking, you've gone too far.

[Eyes_Only]

Yeah I use a fine swiss file too but I still find myself prefering to sandpaper the blank for a little extra advantage.

And the swiss file is awesome. Those standard file sets they give you when you take those mail order locksmith courses are just garbage when it comes to impressioning. They leave major scores and make the proper marks very difficult to pick out.

And you can feel it too when you get really close to getting all the right cuts. Just like picking the plug will have a lot more play and you can even hear the shearline "clicking" as you apply torque on the lock.

[freakparade3]

A swiss cut 6" Grobbert file will eliminate the need for sharpies and sandpaper.

True, but not many beginners and hobbiests are willing to pay for expensive files. The method I outlined gives everyone a pretty good chance at learning the basics of impressioning.

[gotta]

The last file I bought was $14.60. That was my cost. The Pippin styles are at least double the price.

[Eyes_Only]

They are pricey but it is TOTALLY worth it. If I had the money for it I would have bought the entire set like this one, http://www.lockpicks.com/index.asp?Page ... ProdID=597

[freakparade3]

The last file I bought was $14.60. That was my cost. The Pippin styles are at least double the price.

The reason I wrote this is to help beginners learn what marks are made by the pins. You can have the most expensive locksmith file available but if you don't know what marks are made by the pins it is useless.

[Eyes_Only]

If you have a Schlage lock on your front door or something with a working key available, take a look at that key. Usually there will be a small black/shiny dot at the valley between the ramps where the pins will rest when the key is fully inserted. The marks you get from impressioning is very similar to such marks.

Does that help a beginner?

[Wolfe]

a guy named Shane Varney taught me a neat trick in preparing your blanks.
Basicly you anneal the blank before you start.

So basicly you
1.heat the blank to a nice cherry red.
2.then you let it cool naturally.

and the end result gives you a very malleable key that:
1.wont break or tear as easy.
2.receive impression marks better.

Its works great
hope this helps.
W.

[gotta]

a guy named Shane Varney taught me a neat trick in preparing your blanks.
Basicly you anneal the blank before you start.

So basicly you
1.heat the blank to a nice cherry red.
2.then you let it cool naturally.

and the end result gives you a very malleable key that:
1.wont break or tear as easy.
2.receive impression marks better.

Its works great
hope this helps.
W.

Wow, that's cool. I'm going to try that!

[freakparade3]

Thanks for the tips guys! I made the thread and I'm learning new things too! I know theres more impressioners out there, keep the tips coming

[gotta]

For master padlocks, I have a set of depth keys that are cut straight across. What I do is pick the lock and hold it turned with at the top of the keyway. I then start with the deepest depth key until I find the deepest cut and it's position. In other words, if the #5 key goes in but not the #4, you know the deepest cut is a #5. You can also get the first cut depth this way as well since you only have to insert each depth key one space. That gives you 2 of the 4 before even starting the impressioning.

[Wolfe]

another thing i should of mentioned is in preping your blanks is.
If you know say a kwiksets shallowest cut is a .328 the you should prep all your kwikset blanks down to that first cut. it will save you time.

Another good tip is know your macs for the lock your are impressioning.
For example: If you were to know that on your first cut that it would be a no.1 then(lets say kwikset again macs would be 4) then you know for sure that your next cut would not be a 6,7 and so on

So to use this together first you would file your kwickset blank down to .328 then go in for marks and if say your first position doersnt mark well there is a good possiblity that your first cut would be a 1 and your second would not be a 6,7 so on and so forth.

[yoyoboy]

one thing that helps a lot, especially for getting correct spacing is to use a code machine and cut zeros in every position.