Falcon/best IC - what am I doing wrong (or right)

[GWiens2001]

Just got a Falcon IC from a lock shop, no keys. I have picked it open 4 times now, always to the control pinning. Is there something I am doing wrong (or right)? Would like to pick it to the change or master keyed position. I can see on the first pin stack that it has a master wafer above the key pin.

Also, is there a way to determine key cuts with it picked open? In the control position, I can drop a thin wire from the bottom of the keyway to the pins.

If this is considered to belong in another forum, my apologies.

Thank you all

[GWiens2001]

Thought I'd update this. Impressioned a key for this Falcon. It impressioned for the change key. That looked pretty familiar from my estimates of bittings taken from the cylinder when picked to the control position, except for the sixth bitting, near the bow. (I hear the Best IC locks are numbered from the blade end, not the bow end, due to the stop cut in the bottom of the key.). The sixth bitting looked much lower when picked to the control position.

Deciding to take a chance, I filed another blank with all the other bittings the same as the change key, and lowered the sixth bitting to what I had measured when picked to the control position. Tested it, and voila... It opened to the control position!

So the two keys only differ in the one (sixth) bitting. Since the deeper bitting is the control position, that explains why I could pick the control shear line and never the operating shear.

Knowing this, I used a second pick to hold up that pin stack above the control position while I picked the previous pin in the binding order. Results, I could pick the operating shear!

Gordon

[Josh66]

I have one of those too and find it to be much easier to pick to control. I do have the keys for mine - on my control key the 4th cut (from the bow) is deeper than on the user key. Other than that, the keys are the same.