New locks, anything interesting?

[Julius]

Just won this auction on eBay, I am fairly new to picking. Few different styles to practice with, I only have experience with pin tumbler. What do you guys think of these?

[GWiens2001]

Looks like a decent assortment for you to learn from.

Gordon

[Squelchtone]

Nice score, you'll have fun picking all of those locks. I have only ever seen those Em-D-Kay padlocks in New England, I wonder if that's where the seller is from.

Can anyone tell if that BEST core a rebranded KABA Peaks?

[demux]

Can anyone tell if that BEST core a rebranded KABA Peaks?

It's hard to tell from the angle of that pic, but it looks likely. The plug has that distinctive taper on the front, and it looks like the first pin is far enough forward that it could be the one that interacts with the peaks feature.

[Julius]

It says BEST on the face of the lock, I may have a padlock to go with it on another auction. They look fun, I'm exited haha.

[demux]

That particular type of lock is what's knows as SFIC, or Small Format Interchangeable Core. It's kind of a de facto standard in the industry, and a lot of manufacturers make locks in this format of varying security levels. What Squelch and I were debating was exactly what product line that particular one came from. Best is the name of the company that kind of pioneered the format, which is recognizable by its distinctive figure 8 shape. They make locks of this format in various product lines and keyways. The Peaks line has a bit higher security than others in the same format due to additional locking elements in the core that interact with corresponding features on the key, as well as tighter key control.

SFIC locks in general are considered to be more advanced, and not something that a new picker should expect to be able to reliably open. They are manufactured to very tight tolerances, and have two shear lines per pin stack (control and operating), which can throw pickers off if they're not familiar with this.

[Julius]

Ah I see..Thank you demux for the info, lots to learn. If not now I'm sure later on it will be lots of fun.

[cledry]

Nice score, you'll have fun picking all of those locks. I have only ever seen those Em-D-Kay padlocks in New England, I wonder if that's where the seller is from.

Can anyone tell if that BEST core a rebranded KABA Peaks?

Yes, now sold by Reiss. It used to be Em-D-Kramer. Still the same people. A Jewish family from NYC. Back in the 1970s their catalog looked like a newspaper.

[cledry]

To be honest I am surprised there is a market for such a collection. Most except the Corbin Russwin stuff would end up in the garbage at our shop.

[demux]

To be honest I am surprised there is a market for such a collection. Most except the Corbin Russwin stuff would end up in the garbage at our shop.

Could have been an auction specifically for a collection of practice locks for picking. I've seen those before. A bunch of random stuff, usually sold cheap and without keys. Listing things like that is also a great way to clean out your collection if needed, and get a few bucks for it instead of throwing stuff away.