Schlage Cylinder lock help...

[Puzzles101]

I just bought 3 schlage cyclinder locks on ebay for $19.99. I took the first one apart and it has extra bottom pins. I have been able to pick a few locks but thought I would try some cylinders. Should I re-pin these locks with normal pins or practice with these pins in? I want to get a real feel for picking these and don't want to have these extra pins interfere with feel.

[MacGyver101]

It sounds like your cylinders are master-keyed (i.e., so that they can be opened with more than one key). It can make it easier to pick the cylinders -- but it's not necessarily an unrealistic setup for a lock that's used in a commercial setting... so it really comes down to what you want to practice. Personally, I'd say that it's fine for when you're starting out: it'll let you build up some confidence by getting those first openings a little more easily, and it shouldn't interfere with you getting a proper feel for what's happening in the lock.

[Puzzles101]

Do all picks work on all locks? I took 3 pins out and left 3 pins in to start out. I can easily pick it with half diamond, snake, circle and a bogota style pick but I am having trouble with a hook. I do not want to develope bad habits and I want to learn to pick by feel not just scrub with the hopes the pins will set.

[raimundo]

most commercial hook picks are too large, look at a key, use a caliper to determine the distance between the shallowest pins, and the deepest pins
or another way to say it, measure the distance from the deepest cut and the uncut top of the blank, you can see this near the bow of the key.
a hook should be within this space, and do not think that it should raise above the pickshaft this full distance,

picks do not have to fill a keyway the way a key does, with a shaft that is not too wide, the middle heights are really better, because the agility of the pick in the keyway compensates for the shortened height, and a hook that raises above the pickshaft to the full height of the bitting depths will actually make picking harder since most of the cuts are not shallow and difficult to reach, full height hooks cannot adequately set the deep pins, and half height hooks can reach both the deep and shallow pins best.