Dragon Tension Tool

[MBI]

Anyone try making the Dragon as featured in Steven Hampton's book Advanced Lock Picking Secrets?

[Major Boothroyd]

I had to look it up to see what it was and I've got say it looks cool, but it's not that hard to carry a Y wrench and a regular one with you if you're already carrying picks.

[mkultra23]

Sounds intriguing. What is it? Some kind of wacky rake like the King and Queen picks?

[Major Boothroyd]

If I'm not mistaken.

[MacGnG1]

lol i asked about that wrench when i was new(er) and was told that it is a novelty now.... but it still looks cool!

i'd buy one if they still make them

[SUBJUGATOR]

Yes, that is the Dragon I was talking about. I was just wondering if anyone actually made one. I've had Advanced Lockpicking Secrets for a while now and I was thinking of making the Dragon and magnetic lockpick discuessed within the pages.

[LockNewbie21]

Why it would certainly be a nice peice to look at.

Steven hampten's tools are a bit... 007'ish and seem to only compliment his books, not real world usage. But Kudo's to the person who makes one just to show off none the less.

[SUBJUGATOR]

I have a pretty complete collection of picks, rakes, etc now. But I have the urge to build stuff. Since I don't have the Dragon I thought I'd make it. I also thought I'd make a twisted wedge point pick like he describes for picking Medeco locks.

[Eyes_Only]

I've tried the wedge end pick idea. I didn't have much luck.

[Engineer]

Yes I've made one. Not worth the effort I've found. It looks nice, but it is fiddly and cumbersome - At least for me it is, perhaps others will have more manual dexterity than I?

Not only that, but I'm in Europe (UK) and the points were just too thick for a lot of locks. I ended up thinning one of them down to fit the sorts of locks we get over here. The other points are for use as a wrench on tubular locks for example. They take quite a bit of clearance around the lock to work.

I think it just takes a fair bit of practise to get the best from this tool, so you instictively know which prongs to use to apply torque to an unfamiliar lock. I think I will always find it fiddly to use though. It's fun, but a proper tubular pick is so much quicker than SPPing a tubular lock. Ultimately it failed my "gold standard" - If it's in my tool box -It's golden, if it isn't - Then I'm never likely to ever use it in anger...

[raimundo]

That wrench is an attempt at one tool that does everything. I never made one, I dismissed the idea when I first saw it. It looks like the usefullness is compromised by the attempt to address everything, and force it all to fit. If I were designing a do all wrench, I would have a couple of short points for two point plug control and some other stuff, and forget the tubular pickup as that is not the best tubular solution anyway.