A Different Lockpicking Guide

[Badmonkey005]

http://science.howstuffworks.com/lock-picking.htm

I found this as informative as the MIT guide, plus it has better illistrationg. I figured you guys might wanna put this in your FAQ of "MIT Guide, Locksmith Course, Impressioning Guide, Videos" located at viewtopic.php?t=588

If you go to the last page with the links on the howstuffworks.com link, you will see they have you guys listed

I just orderd my lockpick set, w00t ~16 days and counting till I get it.

[n2oah]

I just orderd my lockpick set, w00t ~16 days and counting till I get it.

They still use horse-drawn carriages to deliever mail in your area?

Many of us know of the howstuffworks guide (not exactly a guide), so it's not much of a breakthrough.

[Santos718]

I just orderd my lockpick set, w00t ~16 days and counting till I get it.

They still use horse-drawn carriages to deliever mail in your area?

oh and, Fill out your profile so we can know where you are and stalk you...just kidding. It helps when questions differ according to the region your are located in..

Many of us know of the howstuffworks guide (not exactly a guide), so it's not much of a breakthrough.

Yea, I remember the 1st time I read that. I wasn't even apart of this forum...lol..Sorry to burst your bubble Badmonkey005, but that's old news. Your attempt to help is still greatly appreciated.

[Badmonkey005]

no no no no, I figured that many many people have read it, I was pointing out that it was not in that guide topic. Myself, a noob at locksmithing, have not read that particular guide. It did not come up in any yahoo searches and I never saw it in this forum, a friend pointed it out to me. I just thought it would be a good idea to add it to that topic for the people who don't know what their doing, where every valuble resource is a must.

I live in Vermont, but the lockpickshop.com said that they try to ship within 2 days, and to allow 14 days for shipping.

It was not based on location.

[Santos718]

no no no no, I figured that many many people have read it, I was pointing out that it was not in that guide topic. Myself, a noob at locksmithing, have not read that particular guide. It did not come up in any yahoo searches and I never saw it in this forum, a friend pointed it out to me. I just thought it would be a good idea to add it to that topic for the people who don't know what their doing, where every valuble resource is a must.

I live in Vermont, but the lockpickshop.com said that they try to ship within 2 days, and to allow 14 days for shipping.

It was not based on location.

Your intentions were great. But reason why it's not in the guide section is because, like n2oah said, it's really not a guide. It's just some info posted on a site. Ok, you live in Vermont, but you still need to fill out your profile. TRUST ME!!!! people will get really annoyed. Like you said, you are a noob to Locksmithing/picking. Alot of your questions, soon to come, WILL differ on location. So fill that out ,

[helix]

Badmonkey is right, I didn't see that link there either, nor is it
in the 'Links' thread either.

But it is deffinately splashed around the site a lot and if I saw it
I'd probably make a post identical to Badmonkeys above.

Nice work, dude.

[Santos718]

search.php?mode=results - this is why its not in those threads. Becuase it's EVERYWHERE else.

[helix]

Well maybe we should be using this one.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/lock-picking4.htm

I find this invaluable for showing people.

THAT should be the link of all links, which is a part of what badmonkey has posted.

Not exactly a guide or not, the MIT would be not exactly a guide too, if someone
made a better one.

That is posted everywhere as well.
Would it then become also a crap factsheet all of a sudden,
if there is even such a thing?

I think that this link is a lot more help to a newbie than some
seventies black and white drawings (accurate drawings, yes).
Informative also, yes. Very.

But a picture says a thousand words and an animated one sure
as heck says a lot more than that.

Good link, badmonkey, keep them bookmarked on your computer.

[vector40]

We really need to compile a clear-cut post of links and Q/As to point beginners at. There's frankly no way we can pretend it's a piece of cake to do it right when we have about fifteen different FAQ threads and the rest of what you need is buried in search.

Here's an excerpt from an email I sent someone recently who was interested in starting out. (The first entry was LP101, which obviously is not needed here.)

http://www.capricorn.org/~akira/home/lockpick/ - the MIT Guide to Lockpicking. (An arbitrary online copy -- plenty more are available, just stick that search term into Google.) This is the traditional beginner's picking guide, originally, as the story's told, written by the MIT "hackers" (who snooped around the back alleys and maintenance tunnels of the campus). It's a little outdated and a little spotty in coverage, and at least one attempt that I know of is currently underway to create a new beginner's guide, but it'll still do you fine as a starting point.

http://www.crypto.com/papers/notes/picking/ -- Matt Blaze's notes for his security seminar at U. Penn. A good overview with excellent pictures. Blaze is a well-known security expert who's exposed some really cool vulnerabilities, and a big disbeliever in the "security by obscurity" school of thought.

http://southord.com/ -- the basic source for most beginner's picking tools. Southern Ordinance (SouthOrd) will sell to anyone and their tools are perfectly effective, though a little rough and stodgy (many experienced pickers end up preferring other brands, though some continue to swear by SO). They're tough to damage if you're monkey-handed and should do you fine, though you may eventually want to try some slimmer, pricier tools. Get a set of no more than 25 tools, for sure; the massive deluxe ones are uselessly redundant, and you'll almost certainly just settle on one or two you prefer anyway. (You do want to at least try everything, though, since you won't know what that preference is at first.) Don't bother with the keychain tools or other gimmicks.

http://deviating.net/lockpicking/ -- this just surfaced a few days ago, but it's pretty neat. This is the notes from a picking presentation that was presented at this year's DefCon. It's just the slides, so there isn't really any explanation, but it's got nice computer-generated pictures and some animations. (http://deviating.net/lockpicking/01.10- ... _pins.html is particularly good.) Flip through it. Server's a little slow.

http://www.fortliberty.org/locks/secret ... king.shtml -- another general tutorial.

[n2oah]

We really need to compile a clear-cut post of links and Q/As to point beginners at. There's frankly no way we can pretend it's a piece of cake to do it right when we have about fifteen different FAQ threads and the rest of what you need is buried in search.

Here's an excerpt from an email I sent someone recently who was interested in starting out. (The first entry was LP101, which obviously is not needed here.)

That's exactly what I was thinking! Great idea, it should be used more.

[Badmonkey005]

The search feature on forums is hard to use, you get so many hits and if you are a noob like me, you don't know exactly what you are looking for.

So where do noobs go? The FAQ. And even there it took me a while to find the MIT guide. You should deffinatly make an announcement there saying:

"Noobs start here"

Post the MIT guide, the howstufffworks link, the link of what you should buy. Just a small post to get people started.

It was just a thought, never thought this topic would spawn the conversation it did

[helix]

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?p=87076&highlight=#87076

[Santos718]

The search feature on forums is hard to use, you get so many hits

Yea, It can be a little confusing.

[Badmonkey005]

http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?p=87076&highlight=#87076

What about it? I'm not saying that the right information is not in these forums, I am saying that they are not easy to find.

I would say they are not easy to find without the search button, but try searching "lockpicking guide" and see how many results will come up. A LOT.

[vector40]

To be honest, helix, I don't think the deviating link ought to be used as a standalone beginner's source; the media is nice but it completely lacks any sort of continuity or explanation, so I suspect it would be just as confusing as helpful.