Your technique

[tors10]

What do you have against raking? I always run a rake in three or four times first. This will show you the pins that bind easily. You want to pick those pins last. The key to picking is to find the pin that is hardest to bind and pick that pin first. Then you pick the next hardest to bind pin and so on. This way you are taking advantage of the locks tolerances. Each succeeding pin becomes easier to pick. If you have ever had a few pins pickes, and the next one you do causes one or more of the previously picked pins to drop, start over and pick that pin first.

This seems to be the opposite of that I learned from the MIT guide. The pins all bind when the cylinder is in a different position, so that the pins that are likely to bind initially are going to have to be set before I can move onto the next pins. Since the pins are set more to the right or left, they bind first, and are necessary to move on to the next pins.

I tried raking initially (and still do when frustrated), but I can't get anything more complicated than a cheap master lock open consistently.

If you're breaking picks or wrenches, you're doing it wrong.

I've broken a couple of picks, but it is almost always trying to pull the pick out (very tight fit), not when I'm picking.

[lido]

Hello!
I like to start of with raking with half diamond pick. If the lock doesn't open quickly I keep the tension and start SPP.
If no success I keep the tension and change to a hook. By now it should be open...
Usually light tension.
It seems a lot of people start over when they come to a "false set" (security pin). I like "false sets". Then there's only one pin left to pick. I use more force on the pin left and lighten the tension as much as it takes....
But there's different techniques for different locks... Ball picks - Strong tension - Raking with snake or double half diamond on cheap locks.

Half diamond is my favourite.

Lars.

[shadow11612]

Quoted for emphasis. If you're breaking picks or wrenches, you're doing it wrong.
-steve

Well I have "yet" to break a pick, but I have bent the crap out of some. I have one Half-Diamond that looks like a rake now. It was one of my first picks. Having learned some patience and tolerance, I use a very light touch and slowly use more pressure.

I believe that using picks without a handle cover, push the user to use a lighter touch. Also without a handle cover, the slightest movement or lightest click will be felt.

[Urbex]

I have a bad habit of picking the lock upside down, thats something I'm trying to break. If what I'm picking is mounted, I'll turn my head until it looks upside down. If I'm simply holding it in my hand, it will be upside down.

I just pick better that way I suppose, or at least thats what I subconsciously tell myself

[thunerhair42]

I pick better upside down too, it's a hard habit to break.

[jordyh]

Considering giving picking a try again, dusted them ol' picks off.
Started yesterday again. Back to the level of opening 3-spool winkhaus euro's, struggling with a Buva lock with extremely restricted keyway.
Saw this thread.

My style:
- I SPP, almost never rake. Raking kills a little part inside of me.
- Am too heavy handed with the tensioner, trying to work on that.
- Usually pick my locks in a way that you americans would cal upside down, so that's an added problem with the pins not falling down when they're set.
- Believe religiously in perfection by practice.

[lockeymoto]

visualize what is happening in the lock, SPP
find the best spot for tension,top or bottom of keyway
tension, I find depends on the lock. some need very light, some need tons.
But if you can picture whats going on in the lock, those clicks and minute thumps. will make more sense AKA feedback.
I rake as a break, or if the bugs are bad
nothing worse than gettin 4 pins to the shear line when a mosquito decides to bite your eyeball...
picking is as individual as locks are, find your style and practice
and have fun

[Spinster]

If I had my way, I would open all my locks by SPP'ing them, with the lock opening as I lifted the last pin to the shear line. In practice, though, I find that even after I've lifted each pin one by one to the shear line, the lock frequently won't open. It generally takes a *very* light rake or two with my hook or diamond pick for me to get all the pins in place.

[ady1989]

I got two techniques I use 90% of the time.

The first one is a slow and careful SPP approach. I use SLIGHTLY more tension thus I can feel the pins set easily. Don't get me wrong, this doesn't involve bent picks or hearing pins SNAP in place.

The second technique is raking mixed with SPPing. I start off raking either with my hook/half diamond or with another pick. Most of the time this is not enough to open the lock by itself (depends a lot on the pin lengths) but it does make everything a lot faster by setting some of the pins in a second or two. I then SPP the rest and the lock opens.

[tekproxy]

I like this thread. I realized I'm not the only one who doesn't like to rake.

Mostly, I do single pin, from the back, maintaining a mental image as I go. Start with slight pressure, more for dirty locks, and I vary it ever so slightly as I go.

[Verhasst]

I am definitely a fan of SPP, and don't like to use raking much at all. I've noticed the same thing Spinster mentioned above, though; sometimes a light final raking makes the cylinder turn.

I prefer a half diamond pick. Sometimes, if I'm getting vexed by accidentally lifting an obstructing pin, I'll switch to something I've heard called a "reach diamond" or a "diamond hook".

I prefer putting tension on the bottom of the keyway, and while I'm ambidextrous in most things, I almost always work the pick with my right hand. Sometimes I'll switch hands just to get a different take on the lock, though.

I completely lose my "touch" when I've had anything more than a single drink.

[raimundo]

newcomers and beginners are discouraged from raking because its too easy and they will develope bad habits and some of them actually eschew spp because they think they're onto the lazy mans way.

Rough rakes will really chew up a lock and beginners are all without exception rough with the tools. In this way some rough unfinished rakes can destroy locks. Sand the tips and shaft and round off the sharp edges, the rake will move easier, do less damage, and work better.

after newcomers hear all the negativity about raking that is fed to them by those who have been there and don't want raking to permanently limit the newbies, raking is left with a bad name that it truely dosent deserve.

Any good picker can do both, and when intial speed is desired, the rake comes out first. When you want to put on a show to impress the audience with your sensitive touch, then the hook comes out.

Similiarly, there is a lot of negativity against the half diamond pick vs the hook. many commercial half diamond picks are barely adequate, the shaft is thick and the pick tip does not raise far above it. There are a lot of ways to make the half diamond, the angles can be steeper, the shaft thinner, the tip edges can be curved out or inward, the point can be cut back and undercut.

Those who say the half diamond is a rake and only a rake are mistaken, The best half diamond picks are spp picks that do not impinge on the pin forward of the picktip due to dimension and the spacein between and on the pin. A half diamond can advance to the next pin more freely than the hook because it has the same slope as the key. Many hooks do have a radius that can impinge on a long pin that the tip has already passed by and set. You see, that front slope on the half diamond, works the same way on the next pin as the backslope on a hook can on the passed pin.

Some spp'ers prefer the hook and these pickers would be well off to have the hooks in different heights, the lower heights, are often the key to getting a lock. Other spp'ers realize that the half diamond is not so dissimiliar to the hook in what its doing and how to use it. It just does it faster because it just is better made for advancing in the lock

I for one think that raking is too valuable a technique to dismiss, and there are better and worse ways to do it. I say lighten up when raking.

[Verhasst]

I didn't mean to sound as if I was dismissing raking. I just generally want to focus on SPP because I want to really build that ability; specifically, picking locks with mushroom and spool pins by working through each one deliberately.

I definitely think having raking in one's skillset is a good thing, though. Sometimes I can fumble around with SPP for a while, and raking just seems to be the magic technique for getting a lock open.

If I were working on opening locks where time was a constraint, as opposed to just for my own private enjoyment, I think I'd certainly lead off in most cases with some raking.

[spoolspanker]

I am very new, but my style so far is:

feel out all the pins one by one, get used to them, put tools in place on lock, try to find the first pin to stick, seems to be the last one usually, figure out tension and move forward one at a time and spp.

[monsignormotard]

I also try to use the lightest touch and lightest tension as possible. Finessing a lock and owning it is always my goal. I also try to do what I can to prep the lock before I start to make it a bit easier to finesse. A quick inspection with the pick to feel how much grit is in the lock will dictate what needs to be done. I usually buy used locks at the flea market for practice locks, so I run into some filthy ones.