GWiens2001 wrote:Nicely done, apburner. Like the fine, narrow neck on the pick - it will be good for high-low pins, allowing you to set pins further in the lock without disturbing the front ones. Anyway, it is satisfying picking a lock with picks you made yourself.
Gordon
2nding this! Good job, TC!
The best advice I got when I started learning was from two posters on Youtube:
1) Bosnianbill's video no. 185 "Improve your lock picking skills for beginners" suggests an excellent progression of easy-to-challenging locks to learn how to pick. My only gripe was that he suggests a Wison-Bohannan as a good 2nd lock before moving on to security pins. I have 3 WB's (one new, two used) and IMHO they are a lot more challenging than "#2" in the learning progression. I could pick the 5-pin (with security pins) Master 150s well before I could pick the WB.
2) Lockpickinglawyer has a video (sorry, I don't recall the title) which contained an excellent point: don't pick the same lock twice in a row. If you pick the same lock (or same small number of locks) over and over again you can't help but start to memorize little details about each one. Instead of learning how to pick locks in general you just end up memorizing instead. But if you get a few different locks then each time you pick you can't rely on memory and are forced to develop your feel and technique instead. This might seem expensive but check out Ebay, etc, and you can often get some fantastic deals.
I found the Master 3 to be so easy I never bothered to get another one. But I bought several Master 140's & 150's, several Abus 55/40s, several Master 570's, and so on. When I had thoroughly mastered one type I re-sold those on Ebay and then put that money towards harder locks. Now I'm practicing on the 6-pin Abus models, 6-Pin Americans, etc.
