Evil Best Padlock

[Korver15]

This is the story of No key. A novel

Be me.

Lockpicking sounds kinda cool
Watch some youtube videos
Get JACKED
Obtained Southourd standard tools
Cruising eBay and find a Best padlock with no keys.
Thats a cool lock
Bought.
Its name is No key
New to picking so no idea what to do
Using beginner picking skillz conclude there are pins
Put it aside for couple weeks.
Pick rando master locks
Lockpicking level doubles.
LVL 1 LVL 2
Try No key again
Using my superlative picking ability conclude there must be 7 pins because I saw this lock on youtube
JK
Realize the lock is missing 1rst and 3rd pins
No key kicks my butt
Buy master locks, Brinks, Abus, more Best locks 5 pin, 6 pin, 7, pin cores
So much Xp
Pick them all accept the real sticky ones with no feedback
Come back to No key
See it is a "A" keyway, good working area with BOK
Can. Not. Pick.
OMG! The frustration!
Determine a 6 pin Core and not missing 2 pins
It is actually missing 3 pins, the 1rst, 3rd, and 5th
Brain implode
Why cannot pick
It should be easy

The plug turns no problem, and there is good feedback in the remaining pins. There are scratches on the top of the keyway that suggest someone might have been trying to rake this before me. Suggesting someone else couldn't get it either? I contacted the eBay seller and he said that he "picked it up on the side of the road" -_-.
Best locks rarely have security pins but maybe this one was modified hence the 3 missing pins.There are definitely no spool pins I can recognise those, could there be serrated pins???



Any wizardly pickers have any advice?

[BSG_314159]

With serrated pins you will feel/hear click..click...click..CLICK!! You can tell if you try and set a pin and it sticks (does not have spring tension) but you can still press it up. You will be looking for a more drastic click and movement with your tension wrench. Are you using top of the keyway tension? That was my method for my BEST core. PETERSON PRY BAR will be your best friend if you don't have one. Easy to make out of a butter knife or anything really if you don't want to spend the 8 bucks plus the ridiculous shipping cost.

If it is serrated pins I recommend using a light tension. You don't want to get stuck at one of the serrations.

[Korver15]

Currently using Bottom of the keyway because I feel I have a good working area. I did try TOK but I am still struggling with that as it is uncomfortable. As for multiple clicks indicating a serrated pin there only seems to be 2 clicks per pin and then it is overset. Maybe not serrated then?

[UnlockingBoredom]

I had a lock that was kicking my butt, an American 700 5 pin... I should have been able to pick that since I picked a 7 pin with christmas tree pins shouldnt I? LOL well after I posted on here that I was having problems picking it, I finally got it picked. Sooo.. now you will pick that Best lock and show it whos boss!

Ok, its my story and I am sticking to it....


Loved your story about "no key"



Happy picking!

[cheerIO]

You do realize that a BEST lock will have two unrelated shearlines right?

In my experience they are impossible to pick without luck. Or just tensioning one of the shear lines. Your multiple clicks may be multiple pins. I don't think that they usually use security pins.

Take a look at this thread for the workings of a BEST. They are not like "normal" locks.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=59275&hilit=best+lock#p435329

[BSG_314159]

In my experience they are impossible to pick without luck. Or just tensioning one of the shear lines. Your multiple clicks may be multiple pins. I don't think that they usually use security pins.

Maybe I am just really lucky but I have picked open all my best cores many times. The only portion I think is luck is wether or not its picked into the control position or just the open position. Having two sheer lines in my opinion makes a lock less secure because now you have two way to open a lock instead of one. I know Best (IC) work different than locks with two keys but most locks with a master key and a regular key is twice as easy to pick.

But that would explain the clicking/ serreted like feeling in that lock. I did not even think about that lock having two sets of pins.

Just keep working at it because I opened up my first best lock with only 2 months of picking.

[MatrixBlackRock]

Determine a 6 pin Core and not missing 2 pins
It is actually missing 3 pins, the 1rst, 3rd, and 5th

If is it an IC and not master keyed,there will be two sheer lines one for opening and one for control.

Oddly enough I have two BEST padlocks which I can pick to control over and over again but cannot for the life of me pick to open, even though I have the operating key to give me and idea of where I need to be.

They seem to be decently built locks but finicky.

Wayne

[nite0wl]

I have a handful of Best SFIC cores with A keyways. I would really suggest trying ToK tensioning with a PryBar type tool, edge/bottom tensioning on those cores can sometimes tension both the plug and the control sleeve which makes it more likely that you will end up picking stacks to different shearlines.
If you have the special SFIC tension tools (like the one's Peterson makes) and can get them to work correctly, you can probably focus the tension on the control sleeve, otherwise get a prybar and use ToK to focus tension on the plug. This should greatly simplify your picking.

It is also possible that there is enough built up junk in the empty chambers and shearlines that something is jammed. Use a pick like a postal hook or thin Gonzo (or just bend a paperclip into a similar shape) to try to reach into each chamber and feel for obstructions and debris. Give the thing a nice bath in WD 40 overnight and check just how brown the runoff is afterward. I can only pick about half of my Best A cores open but there have been rebuilt many times and have all sorts of nasty crud and burring in the chambers which makes an already difficult thing worse.

[Korver15]

I had not done a wd40 bath yet, Ill do that. But like i said it seems to be turning smoothly. Since there are only 3 pins could they be getting caught on both sheer lines as there isn't good distribution of force? It just seems so odd.

[Raymond]

I believe you simply have not visualized in your mind what having two shearlines means. It means that when you apply bottom of keyway torsion, the pins can theoretically be set to either or both shearlines. If the friction is greater on the plug, it will set and if the friction is greater on the core shear, it will set. Sometime you can set a bottom pin at one location (a really obvious set) and then move the pin again to hear another clear set. It is highly likely that you are setting one pin to one shear and another pin to the second shear. Since there is NO direct rule you cannot tell whether the control key will be higher or lower than the operating key. Best does use spool pins. If one is stuck at the control shear, the bottom pin will act normally, be loose, and never appear to be set. Since you do not have direct control of the control shear you cannot back off and finess it like a normal lock with spools.

Search LP101 for some posts referring to the specialized turning tool designed to pick only the core shearline.

Because you say the lock is missing pins, I would be inclined to believe that it is a construction core. Most construction companies put in construction cores so they can lock up the building to protect everything with the full understanding that when the time comes to hand over the building to the final users, new cores (with all pins) will be installed providing full security. I have never noticed a construction core to have spools, but who knows what devious locksmith pinned it up.

I have had a lot of locks where I could pick to one but not both shearlines. And, for some reason, I have noticed that when I turn the plug first, I can never seem to pick the control. Those get the rotary pick.

I hope this infor at least helps you understand what could be happening.

[Squelchtone]

Read everything Raymond wrote above, that's good advice, and then follow it up by looking at the photos in this link http://www.crypto.com/photos/misc/sfic/



and if you don't read any of that stuff, this diagram explains it pretty well:

Fig 1. The seals swim up the plug, the fish follow them, the top seal waves them in, and then the side squids rotate the control sleeve, simple.


Squelchtone

[GWiens2001]

and if you don't read any of that stuff, this diagram explains it pretty well:

Fig 1. The seals swim up the plug, the fish follow them, the top seal waves them in, and then the side squids rotate the control sleeve, simple.


Squelchtone

Why can't I explain it so clearly as that diagram, Squelchtone?

Gordon

[1mrchristopher]

...and if you don't read any of that stuff, this diagram explains it pretty well:

Fig 1. The seals swim up the plug, the fish follow them, the top seal waves them in, and then the side squids rotate the control sleeve, simple.


Squelchtone

Best Mod ever, or freakin' BEST Mod Ever!

[Korver15]

So in a stroke of anticlimactic luck i picked it to control. I was trying to feel the back pin and then click. Pulled it out, only 3 pins seems in good shape idk why i couldn't get it. Thanks for the advice. Quite helpful

[nick08037]

For interchangeable core systems, without master keying or high security features: it seems to me that the opportunity for picking a Best SFIC lock to either open or control is more a factor of the individual shear line bitting then the obstacle of getting hung up on the incompatible shear lines . Whereas the Schlage FSIC lock picking to control is simply a mechanical obstacle to overcome and key control is a more important factor.

But ultimately the comparison of these IC systems in this way is less important since IC cylinders commonly include master keying and high security features. And the likelihood of picking an IC lock to open or control will be influenced by these features. Without going in to any detail, the greater concern is elsewhere for these locks.