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I'm alright so we're gonna get started
here with a quick like this is this is
like a brief intro to pin tumbler lock
functionality and picking and after that
after this I think we're gonna open it
up and people can have a go at all the
locks that we have and we also have a
more in-depth presentation that we might
do at some point later on to covering
some of the things that we actually do
have here locks with security pins and
stuff like that but this will be just
like the basics like the people that
have never lockpick before or they have
played around and they don't know what
all the things that cold and stuff like
that so first of all I want to give a
huge shout out to tool the US division
so the open organization of lock Pickers
so they provide these slides and have
been super helpful to me and a lot of
lock-picking endeavors so mad props to
those guys and especially max from tool
Boston so this is this is the
presentation of theirs I modified a
little bit but mostly it's the
presentation of theirs that they give
for make a make affairs and sort of like
less security focus places so it's
really intrusive thing but tools like
super interested in all kinds of
lock-picking and impression and just
like super lock nerds so they have this
presentation making making it run
excited about lock picking it's fun fun
fun and I'm gonna cover their rules out
of respect for their organization and
also to be informative so the tool rules
only two rules which are don't pick
blocks that you don't own because that's
not neighborly and don't pick your own
locks if they are locks that you rely on
for your security
because picking does slightly damaged
locks right pick what the act of picking
wears down the pins and eventually your
key will not work so you know by
practice locks locks unless they're
high-security a cheap and there's sort
of three types of you know lock opening
without a key lock picking which is what
we're doing quick and dirty lock opening
like cutting locks for example and then
covert and high-tech lock opening so
lock picking is what we're doing quick
and dirty is what criminals do and
coverton hi-tech is what spies do and
again this claim of a tool tool provides
the knowledge and the means for lock
picking the knowledge about what
criminals do but that doesn't encourage
the other give means and nothing about
what spies do so lock picking at least
getting started is really easy the two
basic tools for pin tumbler locks are
visible in that image so you have a
atten tool sometimes also called a talk
a talk tool which is for turning the
lock and then the pic itself which gets
inserted in and manipulates the pins and
it works on doorknobs works on padlocks
works on dead bolts these are all
standard locks that use what's called a
pin tumbler mechanism so Meccan is the
same in all of them if you cut away that
face what you see is a spring a top pin
and a bottom pin and when it's in its
normal locked configuration like this
the bottom pin is all the way down and
the top pin is down so that the plug
which is that yellow the daka yellow
part cannot turn because it's being
blocked by the top pin and the spring is
pushing it down so if you attempt to
stick a screwdriver or something in that
lock and turn it what's going to happen
is that top pin is going to jam it and
it can't turn when you put the key in
the key raises the top pin which raises
both pins
the pin stack exactly the right amount
so that the gap between the top pin and
the bottom pin which is called the shear
line lines up with the circumference of
the plug so the plug can rotate so if we
look at it from the side most locks have
more than one pin we actually do have a
one pin lock here so you can practice
just picking one pin but it's easy they
have a stack of varying depth you'll
typically account encounter four to
seven pins in a stack and if you stick a
key in the key is cut to different
depths that line up with each of those
individual pins and the the way the key
is cut to match those pins so the shear
line perfectly lines up is called the
bidding of the key so when you put it
all the way in and push it through and
everything lines up perfectly and you
can turn that plug and if your key is a
little bit messed up
for example after you've used the key a
lot and maybe it's worn down a little
bit so now it's one bidding too low you
can see that one pin doesn't line up to
the shear line and it's gonna jam and
the key won't work anymore similarly if
you're cutting a key and you
accidentally don't cut it deep enough
you've got one bidding too high again
the shear line doesn't line up perfectly
and the key does not work so what we
want to do using a lock pick is we want
to manipulate those pins in order to
make them all line up at the shear line
and so what you do is you insert the
talk tool or the turning tool and one of
those pins is gonna bind up and stick
and then using if you're doing single
pin picking you're gonna use your pick
to find the one that's sticking and push
it up until it doesn't stick anymore and
then you repeat that process for all of
the pins and I guess we might have left
it as well let this animation go through
because once again mad props to deviant
aalam from tool who did all these
animated gifs they're really nice
demonstration of what's happening
you can sort of see what's going on here
on the on the animation but I also I
laser cut a little demo thing of a
single pin stack here and so you can
manipulate this and you can see you can
push up let's hop in the bottom pin just
like you would with a lockpick and this
piece it's turns it's a little hard no
it's not the smoothest mechanism here so
if I can call for a volunteer from the
audience here maybe maybe tucks so you
know why does this even work right
because you've got this stack of pins
and why is one of them sticking in the
perfect world everything would line up
exactly so and when you turned the lock
they would all stick at the same time
and all those pins would bind and you
wouldn't get any ability to go one by
one through the pins but in the real
world the holes look like this in the in
the plug you know you can't drill
exactly perfectly in the same spot the
pins have deformities to them too and so
what really happens is we get one you
know sometimes a couple of pins binding
when we talk the talk of the plug so
what's happening from the front view
here is when we lift that pin with
torque on the plug the plug actually
moves a little bit and so you can feel
it it's really you know pick lock
picking is partly a kind of a haptic
activity or you know sort of something
that you can do with your eyes closed
because you're doing it by feel
and when that happens you'll feel it
click into place and you'll also notice
that once it once it snaps in there
the bottom pin the key pian can still
move so it'll become loose and you can
just you can notice it just wiggling in
there when you touch it with the pic so
this is that same animation we already
showed won't run it through again but
doing the pins one after the other one
thing though to pay attention to is the
fact that you can over lift a pin so
what that means pretty self-explanatory
is that you pushed the pin stack up so
that the the shear line is above the
line where the plug rotates and now it's
basically permanently jammed because
you're putting torque on it that's
stopping that bottom pin from falling
back down again so I think it's the last
pin here that it happens to there's the
over lift and it's it's jammed there
because you're tuning the plug so that's
very common to happen when you're
picking a lock you eventually get better
at not doing it but if you think that
might have happened if you've been
picking for a while and you're not
getting anywhere it's very very common
to back off your attention a little bit
and you'll hear it click click click
click click you'll usually even be able
to count the number of pins just with
your by listening to it how many was set
and they'll all drop back down again and
you and you start again but you'll see
when people when people are picking
they'll back off a little bit and let
everything settle back down and start
again in case they have an over lifted
pin some types of padlocks you can
actually pick them by over lifting all
the pins because the space above where
the spring is is really long as really
long because of the way the padlocks are
manufactured so that's really common
with yeah probably these these cutaways
you can do it too
but like so that one there that's in
front of Joe you can you could totally
pick that and they make picks that are
called comb picks so they have a whole
bunch of fingers like a comb and you
just push all the pins above the shell
line and it's open the padlock it's
great instant gratification
so here's here's some other tools so the
the pic that was in all those animations
was a hook pic right so just a single
little finger there's also a type of
thing called a rake so it's got a wiggly
piece to it and then we also have some
other rakes here that you can play with
that called L rakes that have kind of a
lot of teeth to them and what happens
here you talk the lock and then you
stick your rake in and you're just
basically wiggling all those pins and as
they line up to the shear it opens and
so that this works well on cheap crappy
padlocks and things like that but don't
have security pins in them which is
something we're not going to cover in
this quick intro but security pins are
designed to make the make the plug bind
at places where the lock won't open so
it's a thought lock picking the half
diamond is the one in the middle here
totally lives up to the name it's just
got a sort of diamond shape point and so
this is a nice multi-purpose pick and
for years before I really knew anything
about lock picking you know when I was
just kind of messing around
I used the half diamond for everything
because you can do everything with it so
you can lift individual pins you can
push it forward and back and you can do
rating and shoveling with it and then a
cool thing you can do with it is you can
use the flat underside to lift all the
pins and then pull the thing back slowly
to count the pin stack so if you have a
lock and you don't know how many pins
it's got you use the back of your half
diamond and you pull it back slowly and
you'll listen for the pins to click back
down and then you know how many pins are
in the lock so just a few quick words on
technique the amount of tension you use
on the tension tool is really important
and most beginners tend to talk the lock
way too much they'll push way too hard
on it
that actually makes your life really
difficult because you're binding a pin
but you still need to move it right so
if you put in cranking in tons of
tension on the lock you can't move that
pin up and down too
you needed to go so it's recommended not
to pull the tension tool like that with
your thumb because it's harder to
calibrate the tension you put on it's
much better to push from the side there
so that's rotating trying to rotate the
plug in a clockwise from this point of
view and even better is to push all the
way out on the tip then you've got lots
of leverage and just small amounts of
change to your finger pressure contraint
you can dramatically change the amount
of tension you're putting on the plug a
good way to sort of you know if you're
starting off you're a beginner you like
well how do I know how much pressure to
put on it right one way is to sort of
just wiggle a pin and you know find it
sticking pin and see if you can move it
if you can't move it you're putting too
much tension on it but looking at the
tip of your finger when you're pressing
on the tension tool is a good way to do
it so if you look right at the fingertip
there you can see it's just slightly
turning a little bit white whereas too
much pressure you can see a big white
spot there on the tip of the fingers
you're sort of pushing the blood out of
your finger that's too much too much
pressure you'll normally with a typical
tension wrench put it down the bottom at
the very edge of the plug and push from
there and most of the turning tools
you'll see look like this usually just
an l-shape but sometimes you can get
ones that are have have a wheel to it to
make it sort of easier to get your hand
around it or ones that a double-ended
and so you'll have a usually a longer
part of the L at one end and a shorter
at the other end depending on how much
room there is in the keyway spacing the
keyway is important because if you're
turning from the edge of the plug there
and your your tension tools going a long
way in you only have this much space to
get your pick in and if you want to sort
of change the angle that you're picking
out and stuff like that then how far
that tension tool is protruding into the
keyway can affect it you also have to be
careful not to grind the tension tool
against the outside of the lock you just
only want to be turning that plug
you don't want to use friction against
BB applying friction against the outside
of the lock because that's just gonna
make it challenging to feel what's
happening in the lock and put the put
the right amount of tension on it you
can also get these flat turning tools
that allow you to turn from the center
of the plug so you're turning right in
the middle level with the pins and so
now you've got all this space underneath
to get a pick in under and move things
up but it depends on the lock one you
want to use and you'll notice the the
example here in this image has a very
simple key way right so the shape of the
key in cross-section is called the key
way and some locks have like a really
messed up key way that makes it hard to
get tension tools and picks into the
lock so sometimes you'll use a skinnier
tension tool because you've got a crazy
key way or sometimes you want to turn
from the center it really depends on the
lock another important thing is which
direction it depends on the lock so
padlocks generally go clockwise
doorknobs generally counter clockwise
except force legs which go clockwise and
then if you can counter a deadbolt well
which way you're going to turn it it
depends which side of the which side the
door opens on and which side of the door
that the dead-ball is installed on
because the key is always going to turn
in the direction that it's going to
mechanically retract the deadbolt so for
a left handed door you're going to turn
counterclockwise because the bolts gonna
go this way from your point of view
right-handed or clockwise because the
dead-ball comes back that way in general
but you could you can also design a
deadbolt to work the other way so you
just gotta see see how it goes this is
the tool slide so tool has these
practice locks which I'll show you we
don't have any of their locks so this
slide is not true for us we have
different locks that will turn in
different directions but some of our
locks work in both directions and so
that's basically it here's just a quick
image of what the tool practice look
look like you can order them online if
you decide that this is a lot of fun and
you want to get into this they have all
kinds of different difficulty levels and
then once with security pins and we have
padlocks and padlocks generally
clockwise opening just to get started
try lifting single pins with a hook and
seeing where that pin binds we do have
that one pin lock somewhere which tux
can tell you which one it is
and do that do some direct lifting do
some rocking lifting will you change the
angle of the pick try some raking we
have some rakes and now I think well we
have eight we have fifteen rakes I think
right something like that yeah so I mean
there's a lot of people here which is
awesome so we probably have I don't know
thirty or forty picks at least but we
may not have enough for everyone to
immediately get a pick in a lock so you
know split up into groups make make if
make a friend whatever but the two the
two most important things relax if
you're really grabbing everything in
your you know oh my god what's happening
here it won't you won't be as good at
picking so it's very zen activity just
like sort of chill out
small small tension small movements and
let people know when you open a lock
yell out open and you know let everyone
know that you're having some fun with it
so thanks you all you guys for watching
thanks again to tool for letting us use
their amazing materials here which is
all available on my website and I'll
plug them again continue can consider
signing up and joining them there
they're a fun bunch of people to hang
out with thanks
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