A Good Beginners Guide to Lockpicking
The following exercise is one that I feel every new lockpicker will benefit from. I first learned about this exercise in Locks, Safes, And Security by Marc W. Tobias. The point of the exercise is to help a beginner to properly learn how to feel what is happening inside a lock, and to detect a binding pin. Many new lockpickers tend to use what I've often referred to as the poke and prod method, in that they spend a lot of time poking around in the lock with their pick tools, and along the way they manage to set the pins and eventually, through mostly luck, the lock opens. As exciting as this is for the beginner, if their skills do not develop past this poke and prod method, they will have increasing difficulty as they move on to harder locks.
Because lockpicking relies on lifting the binding pin to the shear line, it stands to reason that figuring out which pin is the binding pin would be a useful skill. This exercise will help you develop this skill.
If you have not already, it is important that you study how and why lockpicking works. Read the MIT Guide To Lockpicking for more information AND/OR the LSI Guide To Lock Picking.
It is very important that you go through this exercise in a slow and methodical manner. If you rush through it, you may as well just save your time and not bother at all, as you will learn very little from it. Take each step one at a time, and do not advance until you are absolutely certain that you have learned all you can from the stage you are at.
In order to try this exercise, you will need:
1) You'll need a 5 pin cylinder. This can be any 5 pin cylinder that you can disassemble and remove pins. A simple Kwikset cylinder would be fine, though my experience has shown that a beginner may actually benefit even more from a more difficult cylinder such as a Schlage. As you'll see, you work your way up slowly, so it doesn't matter at all if the cylinder is currently too difficult for your current level of picking skill. It is important, however, that the cylinder not have any security pins. Picking security pins is the topic for another exercise. Walk before you run.
2) You'll need a small hook pick (or feeler pick). Ideally, this would be a purchased pick, such as one made by SouthOrd. You could use a homemade pick if you like, but please stay away from makeshift items such as paper clips or safety pins for this exercise. They will only frustrate your learning process.
3) You'll need a tension wrench
The Exercise
STAGE 1 Approx time, 20 minutes
To start, disassemble your lock removing all pin stacks but the first one (the stack closest to the front of the lock), leaving chambers 2, 3, 4, and 5 empty of all springs and pins. Reassemble the lock with just this one pin stack installed and you are ready to begin. You'll notice, of course, that by applying tension with the wrench and lifting this one pin, the lock will open. It is exceptionally easy to pick this lock in this configuration. But for this stage, what you need to learn is the difference in feel when a pin is binding and when it is not. With the plug in the locked position, use your pick to lift the pin while applying no tension at all. You will feel the pressure from the spring pushing back on the pin lightly. Do this several times so you can comfortably recognize this feeling later.
Next, apply light tension to the plug and use the hook again to lift the pin very slowly. Do not lift so high as to hit the shear line and open the lock. As you slowly lift the pin, notice how different the feel is. You will detect the resistance of the pin dragging across the sides of the chamber. This feeling is important, as it is precisely what you will be feeling for later when trying to find the binding pin. Get to know this feeling well. Try applying more tension and notice how the feeling will change as the resistance caused by your increased tension makes the binding more pronounced.
Don't move on until you can clearly distinguish the difference between a pin that is binding and a pin that is not.
All Credits to 'uklockpicker' from the Keypicking.com forum
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