Josh66 wrote:I kind of feel like raking is cheating... Or maybe slowing my learning. Sometimes I get frustrated when I can't SPP it, so I rake it just to get it open.
I'm also debating on whether I should buy a proper pick set, or just make more of my own (all of the ones I have now I made myself).
The deadbolts I have are clearly cheap, and offer no challenge at all. I feel like I should wait till I get better at picking padlocks before I move on to better deadbolts. Is that sound thinking, or are deadbolts inherently different than padlocks?
Hey you're doing great!
I won't consider raking as cheating, unless you practice only that technique. When it works it is way faster than SPP, and can also be used to achieve a quicker false set of the spool pins to later pick them with a hook.
I think it's odd that you can successfully rake a Brinks with spool pins in it, I guess it has loose tolerances. You can consider getting a restrictive-keyway padlock to add a twist to your manipulations, a Cisa or Yale for example.
You're having trouble to pick your brass military padlock probably because it uses some serrated pins, which are somewhat tougher than spool and mushroom ones. Or again it'd just be worn or dirty, those parameters along with rust make nice challengers
The Chateau C970 has 5 spool pins AFAIR, so it's normal to be more difficult that Brinks which has just 2 and is probably machined with bigger tolerances.
About deadbolts, keep in mind that they aren't more difficult than padlocks because they fall in another category, it all lies in the mechanism behind, just as for any other lock. You'd get a KABA deadbolt and end up throwing it in a wall due to frustration while you noticed how Kwikset ones are easily feasible to pick.
Focus on feeling and feel free to combine raking to achieve a false set to then unlock using SPP. Tackle those locks with spool pins in them and gradually move to locks with more spools (that Chateau C970 for example), buy what you think would be a nice addition, even if you ask me you already have enough locks to play with and even with just an Abus more, plenty to get frustrated at.
On the lock pick set, do as you prefer. You've proven your tools to work, so why would you expect any big improvement in using bought tools? Also the customization of handmading could make you look back when you'll get, for example, a said 'slim set' and find locks in which they cannot move as you want.
Again there are some pieces of hardware you can't easily match in DIY, but pin tumbler lockpicks doesn't seem to me like one of them. If this question continues to bug your mind, get an affordable small set and play with it without huge expectations. Good tools are necessary but in the end skill evens all out.
Cheers
