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Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

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Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#71

Post by caprad »

pavpanchekha wrote: post #63
markdown wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Who is going to pick the lock on somebody's house to break in? Wait, why wouldn't this be better than smashing a window to get in?

Because it takes forever. Front door locks are admittedly not so strong, but it could still take a good pick-lock several minutes, while a window could be broken through in seconds. As for being stealthier… Windows can be cut stealthily, and crouching by a door for five minutes looks rather suspicious by itself.

A lot of doors are hidden from view by trees or fences. And then you have side and back doors. And the advantage to not make any noise or carrying around expensive tools (simple lock pick tools can be very cheap), make it not completely unreasonable.

Still, banning tools is not the greatest idea.

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#72

Post by entropy_ »

GuiA wrote: post #7

I taught myself how to pick locks my final year of high school - in France, high school students have to take the "baccalauréat", a set of exams that cover everything you've studied in high school, in all subjects. It spans the course of 2 weeks or so, and you get 1 week to prepare before it. I hadn't been doing so hot in high school (writing assembly for my TI-83's z80 was more fun than reading Shakespeare and doing…

Similar thing happened with my when I was ~14, except it was the family desktop -- laptops were way too expensive for us back then -- and they had a lock on a power switch that led up to the computer. Learned to pick locks and got extensively lectured about why I shouldn't do things just because I can. My parents eventually gave up on trying to lock my out of the PC(after trying BIOS passwords, OS-level passwords and combination locks).

Funnily enough, I learned C when I was supposed to be studying for the baccalauréat. I'd learned programming in BASIC for a casio calculator(mainly for making games and a few solvers for things that we were supposed to solve manually in exams but that were too tedious). A friend of mine linked me to http://siteduzero.com/ (apparently it's changed to http://fr.openclassrooms.com/ recently) and I ended up not studying. That really hurt me in History, Geography and Biology(which require a lot of memorization) but otherwise I breezed through everything else.

PS: I'm not in France but in a country where the french baccalauréat is considered equivalent to the state-mandated exams(Lebanon, used to be under French mandate).

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#73

Post by gknoy »

erock wrote: post #41
emhart wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

<3 PS1. In Ollie's seminal "Impressioning" he also used SEM to look at keys as they were impressioning locks.

oohh i'm going to have to dig to find the one on impressioning

I'm not sure if this is what he was talking about, but it seems like this is related:

DEFCON 19: "Key Impressioning" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8QnG5RHyq8

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#74

Post by FreeFull »

jheriko wrote: post #4

A much cheaper and easier approach that works for most locks is to get a coke bottle and tear a strip out of it, then use it to do the 'hollywood credit card trick'. unlike a credit card it doesn't snap or break very easily - the type of plastic will become softer when placed under pressure and is very flexible but strong - if you continue to force it in the right area it will work its way around hard corners and int…

I once broke into my own home when I forgot my keys using a broomstick and the letter hole in the door. I shoved the broomstick through, and pressed on the knob in such a way that it spun and opened the door.

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#75

Post by samstave »

I have been locksporting by myself for some time, and I make my own picks from street sweeper blades.

If you're at all interested in picking, do yourself a favor and get this practice lock for ~$40 it is amazing:

http://learnlockpicking.com/

Also, I highly recommend getting on the TOOOL email list for your area.

in the SF bay it is tooosf@googlegroups.com - great group and good list, although I mostly lurk.

Here are some of my picks.... ignore the lame embellishments; I am not very artistic :)

http://imgur.com/a/ug2wI#0

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#76

Post by samstave »

corin_ wrote: post #67
breischl wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I've managed to open a lot of unlocked doors Me too! My success rate is over 90% for unlocked doors. Locked ones are harder. ;)

Do you refer to yourself as skilled at opening unlocked doors? :)

http://i.imgur.com/Kcerv5S.jpg

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#78

Post by Schweigi »

It looks like most lock picking videos focus on the easy locks. How hard would it be to pick a lock with side pins or however they are called? For example the Kaba locks use them and most houses e.g. in Switzerland do have one of them.

http://www.kaba.sg/media/470570/v4/resized650x-1/mechanical-...

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#79

Post by [deleted] »

Schweigi wrote: post #78

It looks like most lock picking videos focus on the easy locks. How hard would it be to pick a lock with side pins or however they are called? For example the Kaba locks use them and most houses e.g. in Switzerland do have one of them. http://www.kaba.sg/media/470570/v4/resized650x-1/mechanical-...

[deleted]

Re: Lock Picking – A Basic Guide

#80

Post by [deleted] »

legohead wrote: post #50
herbig wrote: post #2

I was really into this back in high school but never got proficient in it. The concept is simple to understand but actually executing it takes a LOT of practice. Raking can open a lot of older locks pretty quickly, but that doesn't mean you're skilled. Also, just owning the tools is illegal in some states.

I decided to try it out since I have fidgety hands and I figured I could practice while I read articles and such. I was disappointed at how easy it ended up being. Every lock I purchased I could pick within a few seconds with a rake, or maybe 60 seconds with a hook, so I just gave it up. I splurged once and got one of the top brands meant for homes. It took more concentration and you couldn't just rake it, but I stil…

[deleted]
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