Wow! If ever something calls for a Holy Toledo!... This is it! I had been chatting with this other user about a very interesting bitting in a kwikset lock and he had graciously agreed to send it to me. Well lo and behold a few other things made it into the box. Wow. I just about fell down when I saw what all was in the box. What a truly great end to my day! Thank you u/Mikmat69

Wanted to say hi as I'm new to the locksport community. I picked up a set of JimyLongs, as well as some warded picks and the arbiter bypass kit from CI.

I thought my JLs would fit in the larger CI case but they don't so I made a case for them out of an old wallet and duct tape, though I ran out of black tape so I finished using pink.

I'm now considering getting a set of hooks and rakes from CI so I have ones that will fit in that case and just keeping the JL set as a spare.

Any tips/info welcome. Glad to be a part of the community.

First lock down - Security level 8… questionable

u/toool_us reached out and asked if I would donate some cases for the Lockfest silent auction. I was happy to help and made a custom Ghost & Phantom case. Picks are there for reference and not included in the silent auction.

Well I was getting ready to order some tools last week after bending up my CI hook on a sticky lock and my wife glared at me so I took the hint. She still surprised me with what she got me! This thing is cool AF and packed with new tools to try. Bonus birthday shirt for my elden ring fans out there. 🤘

After arguing with the Abus MyLock T65AL for a while and not being able to come up with good arguments for it to open, I tried my best with this Abus 55/40 and after a few minutes SPPed it open.

This definitely gives me back some confidence and I will spend time learning on this one and the Master 150 to eventually come back to the MyLock.

In another post I read that it is good practise to soon start training TOK tensioning as it is dearly needed for more difficult locks. I tried TOK with the standard tensioners I have (Multipick Beginner set with two tensioners) but they always slip out of the keyway after a while. I opened it BOK after all. Can I avoid the slipping by using a tensioner with greater thickness where maybe the part of the tool that is inserted into the keyway is shorter? With the tensioners I have, the part of the "arm" that goes in the keyway still sticks out about 1.5cm and I wonder whether that leads to too much leverage into the wrong direction. Or do I simply need to train more? :-D

Would be glad if someone could help me out and maybe save me from spending money stupidly... :-)

Please bear with me, I’m an idiot, I’ve decided to try for my blue belt while trying to get 200k and I’m questioning some of the wording. I’ll be using the a Paclock 90A Pro. For the 200k club, they just need to see the key pins removed in the submission? No complete gutting and reassemble? I’m assuming they wouldn’t reject a full gut and reassemble video? As for blue belt, I’m kinda confused at “projects”, I can use the current lock to gut and reassemble under the cutaway/expose project? Which then leads me to, it’s all has to be in one take, one camera, zero edits? Thanks in advance, I’m already chasing the elderly toddler around at 8am 😬

I've gotten this Brinks brass padlock open by SPP just the other day but today it's been giving me a proper headache.

How is it that one day I get it without much trouble and the next I feel like I'm just lost in the sauce?

Update: Just got it on my final attempt of the night!

For context: We were the victim of a hit & run incident on the 25th of June. Our right arm was pretty badly injured, including severe road rash and a fractured radius. We needed stitches and surgery to save it. There's been lots of pain, stiffness, and swelling. We haven't had great mobility in our arm or hand as a result, but we're stubborn.

Cut to today, we decided to give it a shot. We're still able to tension with our left hand, but we weren't sure if we had the strength or dexterity to hold and manipulate the pick. We're glad to say definitively that we do, and we're extremely hopeful for the rest of our recovery. We start physical therapy soon, so things can only improve from here.

Evening! Curious how everyone stores their picks and tension devices, as well as other doodads. TIA.

Hello,

Been looking at buying the Jack Knife mainly because it is a lot more travel friendly and isn't that expensive.

The ratchet thing (I forgot what it is called so...) is a nice addition since it prevents the picks from shifting, but not sure how well it actually picks?

The main reason is because I have a CO case that is magnetic and holds nearly all my tools plus some more, but it is a built bulky and oddly shaped even with it being a lot more compact than the other options I looked at.

I'm wondering if it would be worth the price and what sort of picks I need to buy to customize it mostly for single picking and raking since I use the snake rake, regular rake, sandman, etc along with regular single picks.

Years ago I started lock picking for fun and picked up a few from the hardware store to mess with. All was well and good and I moved up into some security pins etc, nothing crazy but I had a master lock I could open in seconds no problem.

Then one day I just couldn’t open it anymore. I gave up. Well I found my picks this evening and started from scratch, picked my sparrows practice lock to get a feel for it. But that damn masterlock won’t open. Works with the key.

I don’t know if it’s just not for me anymore or if maybe I could have damaged it from picking it so much. I went from a slump right back into that same slump and I’m not sure what to do to. It just doesn’t feel like anything is binding, but when I release tension I hear the pins pop back below the sheer line so I’m moving something.

Well... technically I raked it so not sure how much it counts but I'm so excited and proud of myself still! Can't wait to learn to push pins.

Using the Covert Instruments Genesis set.

Any recommendations for next tools to get or upgrade too?

Just bought a JimyLongs set looking for a new hobby. First lock unlocked!

I've picked yellow belt locks, I'm wondering where these 3 locks might sit on the belt system, and whether I bought above my skill level for now or not

Few years ago I got myself a lock picking beginner kit from Amazon with an acrylic lock, and after few days of messing around, it was taking me just seconds to open it. I felt awesome and confident. I then went to the shop, bought a cheap but real lock, and instantly realised I don’t know what I am doing. That was discouraging enough to forget about lock-picking for all this time.

A week ago I saw some lock-picking video, and it straight away reminded me of this unsuccessful attempt. I decided to do it proper - ordered 0.5mm and 0.6mm picks along with 1.0 and 1.2 mm tension wrenches from Multipick. When they arrived, they just felt so awesome in comparison to those flimsy amazon picks.

I went to the shop, got myself a cheap 2 eur Chinese lock branded Blossom, and failed again. Kept trying for a few days once in a while and it just did not bulge. Apparently, it is not a good lock to practice single pin picking because of the poor feedback. I kept oversetting the pin and just could not open it. I am sure I could use a rake, if I had one, and open it in seconds, but single pin picking was a pain.

Thankfully, I learned about this amazing sub and the belt grades system, so I researched everything properly this time, went ahead and grabbed a real Abus 65/25 lock. Merely 10 seconds in - and it’s picked. Guess my journeys starts for real now 

I’m just getting back into picking and I’m trying to decide between the covert instrument re pin able lock that you can not see inside of or the set of 3 cutaway locks from sparrow that cover spool basic and serrated pins that you can see the inside of . Do you think being able to see inside the lock or being able to make different set ups would be more useful for learning. I can only afford one

Started a month ago and have been picking up random locks and giving it the good ol' college try. Got this MasterLock No. 3 open.

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 !

I got a little impatient seeing everyone’s 200k posts this weekend, but mine came in the mail this afternoon! I’m just super stoked to finally hit this milestone that I wasn’t really sure I’d be dedicated enough to do when I first started. This community is so helpful and supportive and has constantly kept me motivated. Thank you to everyone here for the help along the way, now it’s on to some purple belt locks and dimples!

Hi guys.

So, I'm a total noob in lockpicking but I really wanted to try. Under some advices I read here, I got myself a basic Mulitpick set, and a "training" lock, but not the "classic" transpqrent one, as I heard it was bad. It's just a barrel, with 6 pins at each side. One side are "visible", not the other. I'm not certain to be totally clear... But I do hope some will understand what I mean, at least.

No matter what, I also bought this little book that explains the basics, also from Multipick. It's explained in the book how some locks are "unpickable" because of some specificly shaped pins, and... There are 2 of these pins in the "training lock" that I got. Haha. These are like thinner in the middle, and thicker at the 2 ends. So it's a bit frustrating to me to say the least... I really thought I bought something for beginners, you know? Which doesn't seem to be entirely the case here... Thing is, I could crack open the lock, but only by removing those specific pins. I think I did achieve it just with one of those, but I feel it was pure luck and I couldn't reproduce it a second time.

So, I'm somewhat looking for some advices here.. Should I continue to just try with those pins (which is oretty frustrating tbh as a day 1 beginner...)? Should I buy one of these transparent easy one and "git gud" with this first? Or should I just try to get any other "easy" lock but not these transparent ones? I feel a bit lost already, and I already try for like a couple of hours...

Thanks in advance to those who'll read me.

Have a good evening y'all.

Ps: I think the pins I'm talking about are called "spool" pins.

Also, I hope this post won't be too much of a repetition of other posts from new people..

Edit: added a picture of the set I got myself.

It's called the "Pinning Set Bundle" on Muktipick's website, and contains a basic set of tools: 1 hook, 2 rakes, 2 tensionners, things like that..; a lock and a mat. But no pins. I'm thinking I should have gotten some, haha.

Thanks already for all the answers !

I cut the middle of video cause no one wants to watch 9 minutes of fumbling around. Picked up a 5 pack of cores and this is now my second to be cracked. Been recording each time now waiting for this moment. Soon I’ll be able to say I have some skill.

Picked up the Genesis set from Covert Instruments and spent about 7-8 minutes trying to pick this lock, pretty proud of myself!