Help Picking An American

[prophecy]

heres the deal, i have an american lock. i can't open it and all i have is a half round and a half dimond. does any one no how to pick it without anything but a 1/2 round and a 1/2 diamond?

[mcm757207]

Probobly not the best lock to start off with for a noob, there are most definetly serrated pins and maybe spool pins as well. Start with something like a Master No.3 or Kwikset.

As to your question though, a half diamond would pick the lock just as well as any pick. You would pick the same way you would pick any other pin tumbler lock, but with lighter tension due to the security pins.

[SFGOON]

Another tidbit on American Lock - the key combos the use are a bastard to pick, they invariably go high/low. The shear lines on them are also very narrow. The US army uses them a lot to secure things like sheds with lawnmowers in them. I have noticed that master keyed ALC systems would be fairly easy to rake, as all the change keys seem to be cut very low, with little variation. This is almost definitely because they don't want anyone filing down a change key to get a master vis a vis Matt Blaze's technique.

[Chucklz]

Matt Blaze may have published an academic paper on the technique.... but it certainly predates his paper.

[SFGOON]

Well, yes, but the fact that a newly discovered dinosaur existed eons before the scientist found it's fossilized remains doesn't stop him from naming it after himself, "egosaurus."

[Chucklz]

Well yes. But, this technique was well known and well used before publication. I love Matt's paper, but to call it his technique... well a little too much credit, in my opinion. But then again, we laud Nobel laureates, not grad students.

[raimundo]

try to sand the pick tip and shaft smooth without reducing the pick height, sand along the flats of the diamond, if its really smooth, it won't cut grooves in the pins and the pin channels, then use some lube on the lock, this actually helps against serrated pins, they are made to hang up, especially under pressure, lube will tend to negate that.