Manual Lock Picking – I

When you search on Google for something like ‘Locksmithing’, you will get tens of thousands of links which will teach you how to pick locks! It is truly amazing to see how many people are really interested in picking locks, and they even make dozens of videos of themselves picking locks (we will bring to you the best public videos from that genre on this blog starting from next week)!

That is probably the single largest reason why people are interested in locksmithing. Now, don’t think that everyone who is interested in picking locks has a thieving streak in him. It is human tendency that we try and do something out of the ordinary to look cool, and picking locks is near the top of that list! There are hundreds of amateur lock picking clubs in the USA, and all over the world, and they meet regularly either online or offline and discuss strategies. Now, it is more of a hobby than anything else, as someone who is looking at picking locks for a profit will not come out into the public and showcase his talent to everyone, right?

Anyway, lock picking has been around for many many years – even since the invention of locking systems thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt, and some of the earliest locksmiths were all in reality more of lock breakers than lock makers! It is like the Fosters Ad (which is embedded below) where the lady calls a locksmith because she is locked out of the house. In the earlier days, a majority of calls for locksmiths used to be for breaking locks, and if the lock has been made by a locksmith, he would be called again and again to pick the lock! With machines taking over the lock making process, today’s locksmiths are called more than even to pick locks – of homes, offices, and a lot of automobiles!

As we go along on this blog, we will bring to you simple ways through which you can ensure that you can pick a lock if needed – for your personal emergency use of course. We will focus on home locks and automobile locks, but the best option would be to keep a spare key somewhere common to everyone in the family – not necessarily next door.

Coming back to what we were talking about, manual lock picking is an art that requires a lot of patience and tremendous practice.

But the secret is that most of the locks don’t really need to be picked. We can get around locks using simple tools like a drill, bolt cutters, a bump key, or hydraulic jacks. Why unnecessarily render the lock useless if we can get around it, right? There are commonly a set of lock picking tools (here is a picture of a common lock picking tools set) which include two torsion wrenches and six blade-tools of different shapes and sizes. The picks which are commonly used in them are

• Half Diamond Pick
• Hook Pick
• Rake Pick, and
• Warded Pick

Depending on the kind of lock to be picked, these are used in combination, or separately. If you have been pursuing lock picking as a hobby, you will probably say that the easiest way to pick a lock is by using a Lock Pick Gun; but since we are talking about manual lock picking here, we will not go there (that is content for another article).

One word of caution – check the statutes of your region. In many states in the USA and several countries in the world, possession of lock picking tools is the equivalent of intention to steal and can be punished! In some more states, unless the intent is proven, carrying or possession of these tools does not make it a crime. Better be safe than sorry, right? Just check them out online.

Of all the tools used in manual lock picking, none is as important as the torsion wrench. Unless the wrench is used right, it is almost impossible to open a good lock. There might be a few cheap ones which don’t require tools at all, but we’re not worried about those!

There’s a lot more to talk about, but that is for tomorrow. Stay tuned, or bookmark this page so you can come back easily.

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