Have you ever lost your touch ?

by **locked** » 10 Feb 2008 14:04

I started lockpicking about 18 months ago and joined this forum at the same time. I got pretty good at it, i could pick my yale x5's in a couple of minutes. I had dozens of other 5 and 6 pin tumblers and padlocks and what not. I got pretty good at picking most of em'. Anyway, with one thing and another i neglected my picking and yesterday after 12 months i came across my stuff and thought i mess about while watching the television. Well, i couldn't pick a thing, nothing at all. The only thing i picked was rubbish lock that i'd messed about with and only had three pins left in it. I tried most of last night and today and i still can't open anything. Worst of all is that i can't pick as well now as when i first started. It's so weird.

Anyway, i'm just interested if this has ever happened to any of you guys ?

by **MBI** » 10 Feb 2008 14:33

Yeah, it's happened to me.

If it's just one or two locks that are giving you trouble it could be the locks and not you. First thing I'd do is try the key in the lock to make sure it's working, then flush it out with solvent and relube it. Then try picking it again.

If it really seems to be you and not the lock, just leave it alone for a while until your frustration to dissipates. Usually that fixes it for me. If it doesn't, try going back through the beginner's exercises to get the feel back. That's where you dump most of the pin stacks out of a lock, then pick it with one pin, then two pins, and so on until you can pick the whole thing again.

by **LockDFTR** » 10 Feb 2008 16:32

Yes, not picking for awhile can definitely effect your touch.

Everyone has had a day or two that nothing you touch will open. Your layoff was a bit longer, so it may take you some time to get back into your groove. I have been picking for over 9 years, and I still get rusty from time to time if I don't practice regularly. Your feel for picking will come back, don't worry.

All you new guys, practice, practice, practice!!!

by **JackNco** » 10 Feb 2008 16:41

it happens, i try and pick every day, if i miss a day ill make sure i pick at least 5 or 6 locks the next day. its the only way to keep the touch.

Just have a coule of picks and locks on your desk and pick it while you are booting up or installing software if you are short on time.

John

by **locked** » 10 Feb 2008 17:04

Yep, i'm going to have to start from scratch, hopefully it'll all come back to me (I think it will if i manage to open one of my old ones). It's certainly a lesson in not taking things for granted. I was that desperate i turned to a shoddy money tin (which thankfully i managed to open)

I play the guitar too, i try to play nearly every day, and if i miss a week or so it's surprising how alien it can feel (Although it does come straight back after half hour warming up)

by **escutcheon** » 11 Feb 2008 10:32

No fear! This skills are like riding a bike. Some days I have the same feeeling, but I'm a locksmith and there is no excuses for me exept ''Bad Luck''

by **poor paperclip picker** » 11 Feb 2008 13:12

It has happened to me. I haven't picked in about a week.

I should probably take some time today to start again. I have just been so busy lately. Thanks for this post to remind me not to take too long of breaks.

by **dmux** » 12 Feb 2008 9:59

i lose it a lot if i havn't picked for a week or two but it comes right back

by **picky1955** » 12 Feb 2008 16:54

I had the same problem...that is going away from picking then coming back to it. I have a high ? quality profile cylinder that has a particularly nasty high second pin followed by the third pin that needs to be set deeply and with featherlight tension. I read a topic about tensioning with a couple of key blanks literally hanging on the end of the wrench instead of finger pressure. Well, after trying this on the demon lock to take away the worry of applying light enough pressure and getting that third pin to set without pushing down the second pin and creating a false set, I finally defeated that demon!!! Good tip for tension practice! Picky

by **locked** » 14 Feb 2008 7:40

Well i've been trying to get my feel back for the last 5 or so days. I ordered a cheap Abus 65/30 a few days ago and it arrived today. I picked it as soon as i took it out of the box. I kept picking it in various different ways, using different tensions, Raking and especially SPP. Anyway i've kept at it all morning just paying close attention to every single occurance, and finally things have started to come back. I started to remember everything i'd forgotten and it's such agreat feeling when things click into place in your head (excuse the pun). It's only a 4 pinner but it has certainly helped me get back into the swing of things. I would recommend one of these Abus 65/30's to anyone in a simlar situation or starting out. They're not difficult, but they do make good practice for someone gaining (or regaining in my case) experience.

Thanks everyone.

by **Afisch** » 14 Feb 2008 12:46

Yep all the time, at the moment I can still SPP fine but can't rake a thing. Thats from spending a couple months getting used to security pins and not raking at all.

by **jpc1618** » 15 Feb 2008 1:34

I am still recovering from a nearly five year layoff after practicing regularly for about the same period of time. The first night I dusted off and cleaned up a few of the locks I recalled as being easiest, and couldn't open one of them (except by bumping, which oddly was what inspired me to resume picking locks - Somehow, in the hectic pace of the past few years, I'd forgotten how much fun solving these little puzzles could be!). At any rate, the same thing happened the next night. Frustrated, on the following day I took a couple of the cylinders apart and removed all but 3 pins from them, and chose the pinning to avoid any tricky low-high sequences.

After a couple of hours, I was popping both of them repeatedly, and something kind of "clicked" - my whole attitude changed and suddenly it was all making sense to my hands again. I replaced all the pins in both cylinders and in another hour's time or so was able to open both of them repeatedly. It took a few more weeks before I was able to open all but a couple of the non-high-security locks in my collection. I'm still working up to the "bad boys" by adding spool pins one at a time to locks that I am already familiar with. Suffice it to say that my fine control of the tension wrench still needs a lot of work (or else I should turn the sound system down a bit?).

But I want to go back for a moment to those non-HS locks that are causing me trouble - two of those troublemakers in particular I am still working on. They are both relatively new Schlage 6-pin cylinders in excellent condition, with heavy springs and well lubed with teflon, and they seem to both be examples of those cylinders where all the engineering tolerances happen to work out just right to produce a nearly-perfectly working lock. (The heavy springs don't help a bit, either!) It is really challenging to find the binding pins, as well as the correct tension. I'm having a lot of trouble with the binding pins that I do find popping back out of set unless I use enough tension that it becomes almost impossible to detect and set the next pins. The only way I've been able to open either lock is by raking after setting one or two pins first. I don't remember having this trouble before. Cleaning and re-lubing the locks probably has something to do with it. All the gunk that was in them before probably helped keep the pins set. I'd appreciate any advice to help make it over this "hump".

To return to the main topic, though, even when I have been practicing regularly, there seems to be a noticeable day to day ebb-and-flow in my abilities. Sometimes I can pick up one of my trickier locks that I haven't worked with recently, and my hands just know exactly what to do. There seems to be a psychological factor to it as well - when I'm "hot", I usually know it before picking up a lock. Likewise when I'm not, and I know of no reliable technique for getting the "touch" back when it has momentarily eluded me. Taking a break can help - or not. Getting pissed and throwing the locks off the balcony helps a little, but is a hassle to deal with afterward. Oh well. Such is life.

by **joseph01** » 21 Feb 2008 0:43

escutcheon wrote:No fear! This skills are like riding a bike. Some days I have the same feeeling, but I'm a locksmith and there is no excuses for me exept ''Bad Luck''

thats true

by **raimundo** » 22 Feb 2008 12:09

sand all rough edges off your picks and lube the locks, then stop trying to understand the mechanics of picking and start sensing what the lock is telling you. Do it subconsiously while watching TV, don't be trying to pick the lock, just be trying to lift pins lightly while tensioning lightly and tell yourself your just visiting the pins with the pick and want to see what they tell you.

Your using too much tension and not enough lube.

by **parapilot** » 22 Feb 2008 12:55

It could be a bad day to. i had a crap day today, nothing went to plan, even had to drill an era, wouldnt pick with any of the guns, hand picks, or ever the bogota. so annoying. sometimes its better to put it all down, have a rest and then go back with a fresh head or you will keep getting frustrated.