I'm about to place an order for 3-4 beginner Master/Abus padlocks to better my skills. I know Master 1 and 3 are typically recommended, but I wanted to know if any others were good starters as well. Thanks in advance.
Pretty much any master lock is good for beginners... they do have a few which contain spools but they're nothing to shout about. Abus are a bit trickier, the keyways are more paracentric and they're manufactured better. One thing I've noticed about abus padlocks is that they go into really deep false sets, and because their spring returns tend to be fairly heavy, getting the tension just right can be a bit of a pain. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the heads up on Abus, Solomon. Right now, I only have an SC1 keyway to utilize; it's a bit narrow and the bitting depths are so close together that most of my picking exercise is resetting falses. Hopefully, it will serve as good practice for later locks.
No Euro locks for me, thanks! The tolerances I've started to see picking locks has really shown me how much space a millimeter really is; though, the glutton for punishment in me wouldn't mind giving them a shot down the road.
