A quick padlock question.

[Bladen]

I've been able to open padlocks for some time now.
How I've done it is to just stick the pick in the lock along with the tension wrench and just do one quick rip across the pins and it opens.

My question is: Why would it open doing things this way?

I mean, I know the pins must all line up because the lock opens.
To me it just seems like it should't work.

Cheap locks maybe?

Any thoughts?

[raimundo]

I remember someone who made that his technique, and it often worked well for him, but the reason he developed the technique was that he believed that he couldn't accomplish picking by feel.

the whole thing was to put in a half diamond and put on some tension then rip it out of the keyway.

Im pretty sure all the locks I saw him do this to were cheapos.

[Bladen]

I learned this technique before I had any real understanding of how locks work.

Now I can't seem to get my mind around why it works.

To me, it seems like at least a pin or two should be overset.

[raimundo]

considering how fast that pick is whipped out of that keyway, its probably like bumping, making them all jump up at approximately the same time.

How well does it really work? You tell me, I don't know, I haven't done the research.

[chaos4zap]

It would be the same as raking, only using a pick instead of a rake that is designed for that purpose. Something like a W rake will get more pins moving at the same time than a standard half-diamond. I have never tried using a pick to rake, but there is no reason to think it couldn't be as effective as using a standard rake on cheap locks and cheap padlocks. Since padlocks usually have fewer pins....getting more of them moving at he same time would be less of an issue. With raking, the tension is the most important factor. Too little tension...and you will have pins that over-set. The same tension issue becomes critical in being able to effectively use a pick gun, but with a pick gun you can usually adjust the snapping force and when raking manually, you have to adjust the angle to put more or less inertia into the pins Other factors come into play here as well, such as the strength of the springs and how new/worn the lock is.

[Bladen]

Thanks everybody. That clears things up for me quite a bit.