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How to Pick Locks: From Start to Finish Newbie to Expert!

Have you become interested in how to pick locks like an expert? Well, good for you! Lock picking isn’t exactly rocket science and with practice, some knowledge, and the right lock pick set of tools, you’ll be well underway to becoming an expert lock pick technician. You may be wondering, “What’s the need of learning how to pick a lock when I have no intention of committing any breaking and entering offense?”

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There are various circumstances or reasons that may see you learn how to pick a lock.

Makes you handy. If you’ve ever had the misfortune of getting locked out of your vehicle or home, you are aware of how frustrating this experience can be as you wait for somebody with the spare key or a locksmith to come. Not being able to jimmy your way will waste a lot of your time and money. Lock picking is an extremely convenient skill under these circumstances and can really prove to be a lifesaver. With the proper toolset and some patience, you’ll be able to jimmy just about any locking system, providing you with access quickly.

The lock picking skill may even assist in saving somebody else’s life one day. There are circumstances that have necessitated somebody to pick their parent’s lock because they weren’t responding to phone calls or door knocks, only to find them on the floor and in urgent need of medical care. They could also have decided to break the window or kick open the door. Although that’s an option, picking the lock is a way better choice since it will take a couple of seconds and is non-destructive.

It’s a fun and cool skill. Think back to all the spy movies where you’ve seen the characters pick a lock with ease. Pretty cool right? Even if you don’t have their fighting and physical abilities, lock picking is one skill you can easily attain. Imagine how powerful you’ll feel when you know you can slyly gain access to most doors without needing a key. Lock picking can also be fun and act like a hobby you do when you’re not busy with work or the kids. If you master the art of lock picking, you can attend contests and events to evaluate your skill set against other pro lock pickers.

So, what is lock picking?

Locks are silly and simple things that have a rigid path operation. This straightforwardness and unchanging pattern make lock picking a very attainable skill for anybody to acquire and execute. Lock picking is a non-destructive technique to circumvent a locking system without the use of a key. This can be achieved through various lock picking methods like raking and single pin picking; still, each method aims at tricking the locking mechanisms into thinking you’re using the right key of the lock whereas you are imitating the key’s action. However, to obtain this skill of mimicking a key, you’ll need to have an understanding of how a key operates when inserted into a lock. This is achieved by first knowing how the locking process itself works.

There are various types of locking systems used these days, but all use relatively simple concepts as the basis – keeping in mind that locks are senseless things. This read focuses on the most standard and frequently used locking system, the pin tumbler lock. This lock makes up over 90% of locks utilized these days and is what you’ll expect fitted in every padlock, door lock, and deadbolt. The design of the pin tumbler lock is very elementary and has been utilized for 6,000+ years dating back to ancient Egypt.

How a Pin Tumbler Lock Works

To become an expert lock picker, you’ll need to know the terminologies and different parts of the pin tumbler lock. When you have this know-how, you’ll have a firm grasp on how a lock functions, and how you can use lock picks to manipulate it. The standard pin tumbler lock consists of six main components.

The Cylinder

The lock’s cylinder is basically a little container that holds the rest of the functional parts. This is the piece that’s affixed to a padlock or door.

The cylinder makes up the topmost part of the shear line and can also be called the body of the lock, housing, or shell.

The Plug

This is the cylindrical part of the lock that revolves freely inside the housing, making a rotating shear line.

The plug’s front side is where the correct key is put in and on the backside is either a tailpiece or cam which pulls back the latch and unlocks when rotated. The plug makes up the bottommost part of the shear line.

The Shear Line

The shear line is the opening between the plug and the cylinder. This is the abstract line whereby the plug revolves in the cylinder and is the most integral section when it comes to lock picking.

If the line is hindered in any manner, the cylinder and plug will ‘lock’, making the plug incapable of turning. The plug will be able to revolve again only after the shear line is clear of any impediments. If you want to successfully pick a lock, it’s essential that you understand how the shear line works.

Key Pins

Key pins are responsible for figuring out the cuts of a key. After the key is slotted into the plug, the upper section of the key comes into contact with the key pins. Every key pin is made to a different length matching directly to a key matching those patterns. When you observe a key, you’ll see there are low and high parts. These are what we refer to as ‘cuts’

Driver Pins

These are the top set of pins above the key pins whose role is obstructing the shear line. Driver pins make sure that the lock can, and will remain locked. When the wrong key is inserted into the plug, these driver pins linger midway between the plug and the housing. This forms a bind that obstructs the plug from fully turning, thereby keeping the appliance locked. Also, you should note that driver pins have the same length, unlike key pins.

The Springs

Springs are the final piece of the puzzle and they essentially play two roles.

The first is pushing everything down into the plug to maintain the driver pins at the shear line when no key has been inserted into the lock.

The second is pushing the key pins in opposition to the key, which assists in reading the key cuts. Without the presence of springs, the lower and upper sets of pins could get jammed in the pin chamber, making the use of a key impossible.

Okay, now that we’ve covered the main components of the pin tumbler lock, let’s go through how everything comes together to make a fully operational lock.

When a correct key is inserted inside the plug, it forces the key pins to go up. Since the key’s biting and the key pins’ lengths have been specifically fabricated to correspond, the lower set of pins go up evenly with the shear line making the upper set of pins get out of the plug entirely. It’s at this particular instance when the space between the driver pins and the key pins is exactly the same as that of the shear line, that the key can be turned and the lock disengaged.

In a nutshell, the key has taken out all hindrances –the pins– from the shear line. When you have an understanding of the locking mechanism, you’ll know exactly what you need to do to successfully pick a lock.

Quintessentially, lock picking is all about imitating the key by configuring the pins to the same position they would otherwise be if the right key were slotted in.

All Of Our How To Pick Lock Courses Will Teach You Step-by-Step

Lock Picking Tools

Getting the right lock picking equipment is usually the most challenging and confusing aspect of taking on this amazing craft.

But when it comes down to it, you don’t necessarily need to have a wide selection of tools to start off or advance your lock picking skills. Even expert lock pickers only utilize one or two different picks – even if they have a slew of lock picking tools at their disposal.

When picking the pin tumbler lock, you’ll need the following lock picking tools:

– Hooks

– Rakes

– The Tension Wrench

1. Hooks

Hook lock picks are thin and pointy at their end and are very concise when it comes to identifying pins in the lock. This preciseness makes them suitable for single pin picking where you’ll need to find and manipulate each lock pin at a time. The whole concept behind this hook lock pick is forcing the pins to be level with the shear line.

There’s a wide selection of varying styles of hooks ranging from different shapes to different lengths. Nevertheless, regardless of the design you wish to go for, they all do the same function of manipulating separate pins at a time. If you’re a beginner, you should consider starting with the standard short hook.