If You Can't Find the Key to Success, Pick the Lock!

Lock-Picking 101

Photo Courtesy of https://blackbag.toool.nl

  

"On March 8, 1971, burglars took a lock-pick and a crowbar and broke into a FBI office in a suburb of Philadelphia, making off with nearly every document inside.They were never caught." (Mazzetti)

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.

 

Introduction

Before we got to be a master of lock-picking, one must know something about locks and keys. How do keys open lock? In the pictures you will see a typical basic tumbler pin lock that you might see everywhere be it in your house or a typical store. The purpose of the key is to put all the blue pins in the shear line so that you unblock the way and therefore unlock it. The pictures below also shows you a more realistic depiction of the inside of a lock so that you may get a better visual on it.

Photo Courtesy of Google.com

Here we see an unlocked lock with a key inside. Notice that the blue pins are not aligned along the shear line, therefore blocking us from turning the key.

The picture below show that the blue pins are at the right place. This enables us to turn the key and unlock it.

Photo Courtesy of Google.com

To master the basics of lock-picking, you would need 3 things:

• Nerve
• Tools
• Practice 
  

Nerve

Nothing is more important than the will to even try. Most people think it is illegal to own a lock-picking tools but that’s a common misconception. It is not a criminal offense 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 to resist temptation and not 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 or a door. 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 and try to put it in the shear line. Once you get all the pins in the right place, you would use the tension wrench which is in the third picture to turn the cylinder and unlock it.

Photo Courtesy of Google.com

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. There are more expensive tools like the pick gun which is an automated tool but 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.

Photo Courtesy of Google.com

The photo on the right shows  different types of picks. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses. The most common to use is the rake.

Photo Courtesy of Google.com

The photo on the left shows different types of tension wrench.

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:

• https://www.southord.com
• https://www.lockpickshop.com
• http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2/179-0675355-6678817?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=lockpick 

For Beginner Guides:

• https://securitysnobs.com/Types-Of-Locks.html
• http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/11/19/how-to-pick-a-lock-pin-tumbler-locks/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI7Lx-73lU0
• https://www.youtube.com/user/LocksmithArmy      

For Advanced Guides:

• https://www.youtube.com/user/LocksmithArmy
• http://www.lock-picking.org/lock-picks.html
• http://www.capricorn.org/~akira/home/lockpick/ 

 

  I wish you happy picking!

 

 

Works Cited

  

Mazzetti, Mark. "Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows." The New York Times. The New York Times, 06 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. 

"Greg Miller's Guide to Lock Picking for Beginners." Greg Miller's Guide to Lock Picking for Beginners. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.

"How to Pick a Lock | The Art of Manliness." The Art of Manliness. N.p., 19 Nov. 2014. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.   

"The Document Which Used To Be Called The MIT Lockpicking Guide." The Document Which Was Formerly Called The MIT Guide to Lockpicking. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2016.