xkillaghostx wrote:hello everyone, im a beginner to lockpicking. i bought a set from dino and was disappointed with it. I was able to pick a few locks, but 2 of the picks ended up breaking. What would be a good lock pick set for me to use? What tension wrenches besides the twist flex are good to use? Are the penpick sets from southord any good?
Like everyone else said, if you're breaking picks you're using WAY too much pressure. Take it easy when you're picking, you're not trying to force the thing open. You need just enough tension that you can get pins to stay set... do yourself a favour and read up on how the whole process actually works. It's not just a case of "apply tension, push pins". The idea is to find the right tension for the lock, and push each pin into place one by one in the order that they bind up.
Buy one of those $5 deal extreme sets. It includes 5 different hooks, and if you break one you won't be breaking the bank along with it. The tension wrenches you get with it suck, but since you've got some proper ones with the Dino set it's all good. Assuming you didn't bend them to pieces aswell anyway

The southord pen pick is a gadget. Chunky, off-balance, and whereas you get a lot of picks with it you'll have a hell of a job getting them all back inside it properly. Those sort of things are for people who are already good at picking and want something gadgety to mess around with.