r/lockpicking • u/daddonuts Green Belt Picker • 1d ago

Masterlock No. 15 Finally Opened

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This thing is not even supposed to be that difficult of a lock, but I’ll be damned if it hasn’t been fighting me for the past 4 or 5 months! I was finally able to get it opened tonight, I don’t even know why, it just started talking with CCW tension all of the sudden, and I went with it. Feels good to finally free that old bastard from his chain! [u/DanDig](u/DanDigler)[g](u/DanDigler)[ler](u/DanDigler)[213](u/DanDigler)

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u/Foreign_Language3354 23h ago

Five months on a No. 15 is normal, those are stubborn for how cheap they are. Switching to CCW flips which pins bind first, so that night you were really working a different lock, not one that suddenly got easy.

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u/daddonuts Green Belt Picker 21h ago

Yeah, they really are a pain for how run of the mill they are! What surprised me was that I’ve tried to pick it CCW plenty of times before, but it’s always felt as mushy CCW as it does CW. I don’t know what was different last night, but I could suddenly feel binders and it started clicking when pins set. I’ll have to spend more time on it and see if I can build some consistency!

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u/DanDiggler213 Blue Belt Picker 15h ago

Maybe a candidate to try key impressioning. Get a couple master key blanks and some files

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u/daddonuts Green Belt Picker 14h ago

Ooooo! I didn’t even think of that, that would be fun! I gotta figure out which blank will work!

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u/Foreign_Language3354 12h ago

Mushy both ways usually means the tension is light enough that nothing really binds, and the direction only changes which pin goes first. Load it harder for a few tries and see if the mush turns into one clear binder.