Struggling with tight keyway

[Azraton]

Hey guys,

I'm currently at the very beginning of my lockpicking hobby, and after a lot of reading and getting into the theoretic background, I bought a training cylinder just a few days ago.
I got myself a Multipick Training Cylinder Standard MK2 30/30, and as soon as it arrived I took all the pins out but two standard ones in the back in order to get a feeling for binding pins and stuff.

Now, I'm struggling quite a bit with the keyway. When trying to push down the pin furthest away from me, I am running into some problems.
I can't really use a levering motion with my hook because I don't have enough room, I'm getting stuck in the front. What kind of worked was moving my hook parallel to the keyway, but when trying that on the pin in the back I'm pushing down the pins that are closer to me as well. Another problem with that approach is that I'm not able to do that very smoothly because I need to follow the shape of the keyway, I kind of get stuck on the curves.

Do I need a smaller hook or is my technique wrong?

Thanks a lot in advance
Azraton

[Squelchtone]

Unfortunately, without photos, we cannot tell what kind of hook you are using, so if you could post a picture of the hook pick next to the keyway of the lock you are practicing on we can give you better advice.

Thank you
Squelchtone

[Azraton]

Hey guys,

Thanks for your quick reply.



In this picture the top of the cylinder and the hook are being held at the same height, my hook is about .5mm thick and 4cm long (without handle).

[billdeserthills]

Why not give your diamond pick a try?
A spritz of spray lube can help too

[GWiens2001]

You might want to use a file and thin down the shank of that pick. Had to do that with a number of my picks to get into tighter keyways.

For practice, if you have the ability to disassemble/reassemble the lock, you can remove all the pins and springs except one stack, preferably the one furthest into the keyway. Then you learn to navigate the keyway while it is still fairly easy to pick. By the time you are adding enough pin stacks to make things interesting, you already have an idea of how to get your picks in/out of the keyway.

Also, are you putting your tension wrench in the part of the keyway the pins are located in? That is what we would refer to as TOK, or Top Of Keyway, since on this side of the Atlantic, we mount our locks with the pins located at the top of the keyway. TOK tension is trickier to get used to, but it really does free up a lot of space in the keyway for the pick to move.

Gordon