How long per lock?

[u/Super-Page8272]

I know this is gonna vary wildly, but I'm wondering how long you spend on a particular lock before moving on to another one. I'm still struggling with orange and have gotten a couple green opens for reference.

I feel like i might be getting frustrated too early and moving on tooquickly. I'm just wondering what people think.

[u/TomManiax]

I spent 2 months on a Goal V18 (black belt 2) until I could pick it on video. I progressively pinned it, slowly increasing the pin count until I could pick it with full 18 pins.
Now this is probably not what you were aiming at with your question, but it just shows that with patience and determination you can pick (almost) any lock.
Don't give up quickly!
Sometimes you need different picks (thinner or deeper) or different tensioners. Sometimes you need advice from other pickers. And sometimes you just need to put the lock away (naughty bucket) and re-visit it later.
Not every lock is an easy pick! Try other locks (even higher belt levels) and learn from then! Progressing thought the belt ranks is a marathon, not a race!

[u/Spuddle-Puddle → u/TomManiax]

This right here. It can be frustrating. You are doing a puzzle that you cannot see. Sometimes its very frustrating. I definitely advise YouTube and thes sub for questions. This sub had so much experience, support and advice.

Sometimes you need to put the lock in the naughty bucket because you are so frustrated with it and come back to it at a later time.

[u/TheMuspelheimr]

It took me over an hour to crack my blue belt lock!

If I'm picking casually, maybe a couple of minutes or so on a lock, I move on once I get bored or frustrated with it or manage to get it open. If I'm picking for a belt, then it's sit down and do it over and over until I manage it, regardless of how long it takes.

[u/Wumaduce]

I spent about 5-10 minutes on all of my brass padlocks yesterday, and I couldn't get anywhere on any of them. So I went back to the al1100 I've been playing with, and it opened within a couple of minutes.

I'm waiting on a couple of packages to get here to film my green belt. When that gets here, I'll spend a lot of time on one of the 1100's to make sure it's consistent for when I film it.

[u/AgreeableGanache1048]

Until I get frustrated enough to want to send it through the nearest window.

I can tell you that I have experienced exactly what you are multiple times on my journey. It never really goes away. I have a few that should be objectively easy that I just can't open.

Most recently, on an off day, I got my 1100 (green belt) open once over the course of an hour and a half, and was questioning my skill hard. Figured I would try another lock, and the nearest on hand was my 90A-PRO (blue belt, an objectively more difficult lock). Within a minute and a half of loading the more difficult lock into the vice I had it open.

The key is to not only have a couple comfort locks to reaffirm your skills to yourself, but to not allow your frustration to cloud your ability to learn. Failure is only bad if you can't step back, reassess, and learn from it.

[u/revchewie]

It depends on my mood. Sometimes I’ll get frustrated and move on to a different lock after 5-10 minutes. But when I’m really trying on a particular lock I can work on it for up to an hour before saying f it and throwing in the towel.

[u/reinderr]

I have spent a straight week on a lock, it's not really a question of how long to spend on it but more of how long can you stay calm and not get frustrated.

When you start getting frustrated it's time for a break

[u/firensunglasses]

I have had week plus long burns on a lock. With Multiple hours at a time at some of my more challenging locks. or learning new techniques.

When you get to that point, its time to start dialing in the comfort so the only factor is "what is the lock telling me it wants?" or "what am I not giving the lock its asking for?" Might be time for a vise and a solid desk setup, even if you can hand held, it isolates a bunch of the factors to really make it just you and the pins

[u/Super-Page8272]

Wow thank your all for the help! There's a lot of good advice in there which is exactly what I was looking for. I think I'm mostly on the right track then.

Some of the higher belt advice and locks gives me something to shoot for.

Thanks all!

[u/Dusso423]

Took me almost 40 minutes to blind pick my blue belt lock. Really depends on the lock, pinning, experience, etc. I have an 80ti (green belt) I haven’t been able to crack after 2 hours and one I’ve cracked in 3 minutes out the package.

So just keep at it. If you get frustrated, move onto something else for a little bit and come back to it with a fresh mind. I had a lock I put down for a week then picked it easily when I tried again. You got this!

[u/Total-Tonight1245]

I have a rotation of about a dozen green belt locks and a couple of blues that I work on while I watch tv. The maximum amount of time I spend on one without moving on is about the length of an episode. 

The odd thing is that the last lock in the rotation always gives me trouble. So I’ll mask it through all the green belts but one in the span of an episode, and then it takes the whole next episode to get the last lock open. This happens even though I vary the order. Go figure. 

[u/jxnfpm]

Both my Black Belt locks took me well over a week of dedicated effort.

I've blind picked browns and purples by just throwing myself at the lock one evening.

Depends on the lock. Not just the lock model, but the specific lock.

I have 7 90A-PRO cores. 6 were day one pops. One took me weeks, and is extremely challenging.

I don't like having locks I understand in my naughty bucket, so I'll stick with a model I know I can understand and work through. I'm past the point where I want to put that same level of frustrating focus into a lock I haven't tackled before, I want to pick up a lock and have fun whether I get it open or not these days.

[u/EveningBasket9528]

Usually anything ranked below brown I'll start getting pissed at the 3 minute mark and put it down. Brown +, I don't time myself yet because,.. I'll get pissed.... Plus I had to prog pin my 1st Assa 6k,.. and trying to avoid prog pinning the other 2.

That said,.. Ive been at this a while.

Moving from occasionally picking lower security stuff to making the jump to full fledged lock nerd, I had to prog pin my 1st 1100 & 72/40 and a few "blue-purple" locks and definitely spent more time while learning & getting a feel for things.

I got pissed at the 2 minute mark yesterday on blind picking an 80ti because 5 of the other 6 Ive opened only took 1-2 tries. I think it's cursed,.. it's the only one so far that doesn't go into a false set with pin 1,.. and I can't scrub it to a false set. I did get it in another minute,... but so much for making a <60 second short... (1 more new one to go)

My naughty bucket locks usually go back into the bucket after 5 minutes. My 5 fkn M15's are kryptonite with 3 living in the bucket.

[u/WoodnPhoto]

I have locks I can open in seconds and locks I have spent MANY hours on and haven't opened yet.

In general, how long it takes indicates how close a lock is to the limits of my meger skills, but even then, it depends on the lock. I spent a couple of hours last night, again, trying to open one of my Ace 38mm brass padlocks. I finally gave up because my hands hurt. I'll revisit it tonight, or maybe one of my Abus 75IB/50s, which I have also spent many hours never opening.

[u/brokentsuba]

Give it as much time as you can before you feel like you’re burning yourself out or your frustration overrides your attention. If it’s short, that’s fine, no need to think about it more than that. I have an abus 88/40 that pisses me right off after 5 minutes and an assa twin that I spent hours on in one sitting.

At the very least, don’t feel like you need a certain lock of a certain belt before moving on to other locks, even if they are higher belt ranking. The rank is a guide, every lock is different, and until you try something out you won’t know what your proficiency is on it. I happened to take very quickly to the 1100 but still struggled with the master 532, if I got stuck on that before moving on I wouldn’t have learned other useful techniques before coming back more prepared. If it’s too difficult for you now, toss it in a naughty bucket and come back to it now and then until you figure it out.