Lock picking is one of those sports that is practical, yet fun and challenging. For some people, it is their lively hood, as in the case for professional locksmiths. Regardless of where your future lies, a firm grasp of the tools, techniques and how a lock works is good knowledge to posses.
The frustration spend in your early days of locking picking will quickly be forgotten after you’ve spent 3 hours on a high security six pen lock and you hear the click of it opening…”
Me
The Golden Rules
Rule 1: never pick a lock that you don’t own or do not have permission to pick.
Rule 2: do not pick locks that you rely on or that are in use.
Terminology
Lock picking is the practice of unlocking a lock by manipulating the components of the lock device without the original key. (wiki)
A lock bypass is a technique in lockpicking, of defeating a lock through unlatching the underlying locking mechanism without operating the lock at all.
Lock smiths are professional’s that deal with locking systems. The most common are home and auto. There are also commercial lock smiths that service bank vaults, large building accounts, or even lock smiths hired directly by larger businesses.
Locksport is the sport or recreation of defeating locking systems.
For now, we will consider ourselves to be lock pickers / lock sport followers, that enjoy Locksport. Farther, to keep things easy, we will focus only on pin tumbler locks.
The pin tumbler lock is a lock mechanism that uses pins of varying lengths to prevent the lock from opening without the correct key.
The Tools of the Trade
Most people, including myself, started off with a low cost set from Amazon. Most of these sets include many picks, most of which are just for show.
The tensioners are what allow a picker to apply tension to the lock while it is picked. The tensioner can be a bottom of the keyway or top of the keyway. In most cases, location will be picker preference, in a few cases, top or bottom must be chosen to allow the lock to be picked.
Right Four: Top of the key way tensioners.
Lock pics are made of many materials for the pick and one for the handle. If you are a DIYer or need a non-standard pick, a wind shield whipper insert makes a great pic. Picks come in a few standard sizes. of 0.015 and 0.025. The . 0.015 thickness works great on european locks while the 0.025 works for wider locks in the Americas.
This set of lock pics has 9 picks and one key extractor. The two diamonds on the left, then the broken key extractor and finally the snowman get literally no usage. The three in the middle are hooks and used for single pin picking. Next three snake rakes and finally two city rakes. Hooks and Rakes will be the most used when you start out.
The Mechanics of Pin Tumbler Locks
The saying a picture is worth a thousand words, definetly holds true about the internals of a lock.
As the diagram illustrates, a series of pins are held down by springs, blocking the core from rotating. When a key is inserted, the bottom pins push the top pins to the shear line, allowing the key to turn.
Notice the key lifts the bottom and top pin until the gap between them (where they meet) is at the shear line, allowing the plug to rotate.
As an added security measure different shaped pins can be used to making the different types of picking more challenging.
Once viewed from this perspective, there is not really that much protecting you from the outside world. The good thing is, that most thieves are opportunistic and do not use lock picks or lock bypasses, but prefer open windows or unlocked doors.
Attacking Locks
Attacking a lock is dependent on a number of factors, mainly has the lock seen usage, or is it used mainly for sport.
When an active service lock is picked, it has been exposed to the elements, possibly attacked, or vandalized. Often element exposed locks will has rust or crud build up within the lock or on the pad lock bar. Used locks may have also been tampered with sticks, steel or locks picks pushed into the key way leaving damaged internals or fragments. Finally, thieves or juveniles may sometimes push gum, spray foam, or “junk” into the key way leaving foreign debris.
Thus, when attacking one of these types of locks, care should be taken to verify the keyway is clear. First, visually inspect the lock and verify the lock is clear and clean. Second, take a hook, backwards and verify all pins are loose and none are seized.
Please see the video for additional information.