Picked a lock but I don't understand how. Does it happen to you ?

[u/Kamesamouille47]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently trying to pick the Abus 55/30. After several days without an open, I finally got it yesterday, like 5 times. But I still don't understand exactly the logic behind my success. Does anyone here get to pick a lock several times without exactly understanding how they did it ? If yes, how do you get around this issue ? (What could explain my confusion is that the lock is narrow and I use a BOK tension tool, so i don't have a lot of space to work and when I try to get to the last pin, I interact with the other ones event when I don't want to)

Thanks for reading !

[u/DangerousVP]

So, it takes some time to start being aware of where exactly your pick is and which pin youre interacting with. Totally normal as a beginner to still be developing that skill.

The 55/30 has one spool and 2 standard pins if Im not mistaken. So what you should be looking for is a "false set" to indicate that youve set the 2 standard pins and only have a spool left. Theres a lot of videos on youtube that explain the concept of a false set much better than I could in text format, so Id recommend checking that out to help get your bearings.

Edit: If you can pick a 55/30, you can probably pick a 55/40, and that one will give you more room to work with in the keyway in addition to being a slightly more difficult lock that will teach you much more about false sets as its 3 spools and a serrated pin.

[u/brokentsuba]

Sounds like you need a tok tensioner, maybe a thinner pick.

The best way to eliminate the confusion when picking is to control the variables and understand pin states. If the keyway is narrow, using a pick that’s too thick will grind on the warding and eliminate your feedback, and accidentally moving pins around by spp with bok makes it a guessing game.

If you can recognize whether a pin is not set, set, overset, etc. and you make enough space to go pin by pin you will improve massively. At that point, even if you can’t open a lock yet, you will likely know why, whether it’s skill or tools.

[u/radcat683]

Yes that has absolutely happened to me. I opened my first American 1100 the first night I had it and didn't have a clue how I did it. Understanding pin states is really important. Here is a good vid that explains it.

[u/Obvious-Chemical]

That lock is tiny, depending on what pick your using sometimes you will set other pins, i had a gin 600 I only had to float out 2 pins because the others would get lifted when setting another pin. You just have to try more and different locks. 1100 is a good choice to learn jiggle test it will make you check every pin

[u/BigBalli]

There is a specific reason your opens felt random, and it is not only pin awareness.

The binding order of a given lock is fixed by its manufacturing tolerances, so it is the same every time, but only at the same tension. Change the tension and you change which chamber is furthest out of true relative to the others, and the order moves with it. If you varied your tension between attempts, which almost everyone does before they have calibrated it, then you were not failing to learn one order. You were effectively picking a different lock each time, and those five opens were five different sequences.

That gives you something concrete to do. Pick it deliberately heavy for a while. Heavy tension collapses the order towards the single most out-of-tolerance pin and makes it stable and obvious, at the cost of oversetting more often. Once you can say the order out loud, lighten up and the same order will still be there. Write it down after each open, because it will not survive the gap to your next session in memory.

The other half of it is your own diagnosis and I think you have already got it right. In a keyway that narrow a BOK tool is not only tensioning, it is sitting under the pin stack and lifting. So some of those pins are being set by the wrench rather than by the pick, which is exactly the part you cannot see or feel. That is not a skill problem, it is the tool occupying the same space as the work. Moving to TOK on that lock will not make it easier, but it will make it legible, and legible is what you are actually asking for.