If you can’t find the
key to success, pick the lock
Introduction
Lock-picking
has an old history. Preceded with the invention of lock which dates back up to
Ancient Assyria and Egypt, we can safely assume lock-picking skills are
developed soon after. It has been misunderstood and unappreciated for a long
time, being associated with criminals and overpriced locksmith!
But what if
I say you can learn it in a day? I bet you would want to learn it. In recent
years, we have heard so many stories about cyber security. People got their
bank accounts compromised, their credit cards used, and even their Facebook
accounts hacked. But forget about digital security if you don’t understand
about physical security first. What’s scarier? People that can go to your
Facebook account or people that can open your room in under a minute. This
post is not an encouragement for you to illegally pick locks but to use it to
legally save money when you are locked out or maybe save some of those little
TSA locks when you forgot where the key is.
To really
master the basics of lock-picking, you would need 3 things:
Before we
got to be a master of lock-picking, one must know something about locks and
keys. In the pictures you will see a typical basic tumbler pin lock that you
might see everywhere. The purpose of the key is to put all the blue pins in the
shear line so that you unblock the way. The pictures below it shows you a more
realistic depiction of the inside of a lock.
Nothing is
more important than the will to even try. Lock-picking is not for the faint
hearted, it is for the chosen few who dares to walk its path. Most people think
it is illegal to own a lock-picking tools but that’s a common misconception. It
is not a criminal offence in most states to own a lock-picking tools unless you
used it on something that does not belong to you of course. What I meant by
nerve here is not only being brave to try but also having the nerve in your
brain not to do something illegal. Spending time in prison for lock-picking is
not funny, and definitely not what I intended when I wrote this article.
Tools
Having the
necessary tools is probable the “key” to success. Forget all the things you saw
on TV where all you need is a wire or hair pin to open a handcuff. Picks come
in different shapes and sizes. In most cases, the handle and tang are the same.
You would want a handle that is comfortable and the tang that is thin enough to
avoid bumping and ruining the key pins. The most important part of the pick is
the tip. It has numerous designs and it has different strengths and weaknesses.
Each design is a combination of ease of insertion, ease of withdrawal and the
“feel” of interaction. Here the “feel” is when the tip touches the pins and you
slowly move it to apply torque on the pins. Once you get all the pins in the
right place, you would use the torque wrench which is in the third picture to
turn the cylinder and unlock it.
I would
recommend for beginners to buy the Southord PXS-14. That was the first one that
I bought and it has all the basic tools you require to get the feeling of
lock-picking. It comes with a leather package and the handles are comfortable
and it also comes with a handy guide for beginners. Of course there are more
expensive and better tools like the pick gun which is an automated tool. I
would not recommend it for beginners as to be really good with lock-picking you
would need to really get the “feel”. This is hard to achieve using the guns.
Practice
When I said
you could learn it in a day, I was being serious. To lock-pick is to basically
imitate what a key would do. Of course there are different types of locks and
some of them are harder to lock-pick but then again practice makes perfect.
Most of the time, you would encounter the basic tumbler pin lock and therefore
I would recommend you to practice using these kind of locks. You can basically
find these on Home Depot, Target, or Walmart. I would not recommend practicing
on your doors as most of the time, your first lock would be the first one you
will throw to the bin. Getting a new lock would also enable you to look at the
design of the lock itself and give you an edge in getting that “feel” as you
would also be able to see what’s going on as you move those picks.
Guides and Links
There are
plenty of resources online that will give you a better understanding and
mastery of lock-picking. Here are some:
For Tools:
For Beginner
Guides:
For Advanced
Guides:
I hope you
guys enjoy this article.
