holding pick

[Bertrand]

Stupid question.

I place my index finger on the picking hand onto the tang of the pick and against the plug. It feels like it gives me a little more feel and control over the pick.

Is there anything wrong with this?

[phippoD]

no there is nothing wrong with how you hold the pick every one has there own style and what every works for you is good for you, you can always change your style if its not working for instance i hold the pick with thumb and forefinger and that is good for me(but i use smaller picks)

-phippoD-

[raimundo]

bertrand's method is an advanced hold used most by europeans, the touch on the plug and also on the cylinder at the same time gives feedback about the setting of pins that you cannot see. Wht you are feeling is the change shift between cylinder and plug. more useful on mounted locks than on locks held in the hand simply because of the difficulty of keeping the touch while picking and also holding the lock

[Olson Burry]

One of the benefits I have found in holding a finger against the plug is that you can easily feel any slight rotation, giving an extra indicator as to what is happening.

What I find quite fun is practising a lock I can pick regularly, the other way up, with the pins on the lower part of the plug which requires a different approach.

Also picking a lock in both directions with top and then bottom tension helps develop a certain amount of skill and may hone the technique somewhat.

[Olson Burry]

God, did it really take me 8 minutes to write that? I didn't see your post before I submitted Raimundo.

It is interesting that it's a known method, it's just something I did almost instinctively because it felt easier to hold the pick and get some extra contact with the lock. Also I think I heard Rai mention this is a technique he uses so it definitely works!

[Bertrand]

Thanks! I was a bit concerned I was getting into a bad habit - surely the handles are there for a reason. But I guess knives have handles too, and yet every decent chef holds the blade with a pinch grip. (There are even some knives marketed to chefs that have a counterweight instead of a handle. You grind back the counterweight as you lose metal off the blade through sharpening.)

The finger on the pick / lock does give a little more feedback, but I have mainly been doing it to have more control over the pick.

[hydruh]

You know what?

The real experts can correct me, buuut ...

anything that opens the lock works.

I mean, you CAN get into a bad habit that will hurt you in more advanced locks, but other than that - if it opens the lock, then you are good!

S