Any locksport hobiests out there?

[Marco321]

Nice work crazyfreak0075, i like the idea of the rivet to keep them together. I never tempered my picks, i just kept them cool while making them and they seemed to work fine for me.

[crazyfreak0075]

Sorry i kinda worded that wrong what i meant by tempered was i let the metal get too hot without cooling and it got brittle. Yeah u dont wanna temper picks.

[Counterstriker]

I have been picking locks for 2 years. Go to WWW[dot]southord[dot]com.
Its a great site.

[Marco321]

@Crazyfreak0075 Oh ok cool
Hey Counterstrike, my commercial picks are southord, i got the 5 pc slimlines and the fiberglass jackknife.

[Big-mac]

[MisterSteve124]

I've always wanted to make lock picks thanks for bringing this up it reminded me that I just got a grinder so now I can. What styles do you guys recommend that I can use on a lot of locks and are pretty easy to make? Can I get by with just making like 2 or 3 or do I need a whole set?

[integral]

Hook, half diamond and a snake rake. All you need to start off with.

[Marco321]

Yeah, integral is right, hook, half diamond, snake rake and tension wrench. Once you have made them, you will find you will use one of them most. But its always good to have them.
Here are some templates of picks, its also a very good site for learning about the skills.
http://www.lockpicking101.com/viewtopic.php?t=17326[/url]

[MisterSteve124]

Ok so looking at this



The 5th or 6th one down. The 9th or 10th one down and The 14th one down.

ooo just found these Just these right?

[integral]

Thats fine mate. The best thing about making your own picks is that they are specific to you, the user. I would use the templates to get a rough idea, but shape it to your own custom tip.

I swear by the hook, and use quite a pointed one because it gives me the best feedback, although I know people that wouldn't touch it over the half diamond. Make both and see which one you prefer.

[bassmaster1228]

i use a hook and a half diamond pics there my favorate but i also have the other ones like s rakes andball tips and some others i dont even know the name of. i made all of mine from hack saw blades. its easy once you understand it. this thread right here is what got me started on picking locks. ive only been picking for little less than 24 hours and i can already pick three difernt locks in under a min. i like it, its fun.

[MisterSteve124]

Just so you guys know I went to Homedepot and got some Hacksaw blades there they had stainless steel 12" ones in a 2 pack for $2.27 and the Junior Hacksaw blades to make tension wrenches were only $1.99 for 6 of them. Just incase anyone else wants to make some I made a word document of some of the templates I used. They're already to scale too for ya 8)

O and one more question. I got 12" blades but in the video he breaks them into 3 peices which would make 3 4" lock picks but all the templates I see have lock picks that are like 4.75" long. Should I just forget that and still make them 4" long or just make 2 out of each blade?

[integral]

Just make sure that the pick shaft is long enough to reach the last pin of a 7-pin tumbler. Just get a 7-pin key and line it up. All my picks have roughly a 2in shaft, but I recommend that 2in is a minimum. Stainless steel blades are ok, but they aren't really necessary. Carbon steel are cheaper and scrub up nicely too. If your worrying about rust, carbon steel doesn't rust that bad with normal use, but just give them a polish/sand and wipe them with some oil. I use a polymer polish used for automobiles and they hardly rust at all. Nice smooth glossy feel too

[DYI]

I recently tried my hand at picking a pair of 4-pin Home Hardware padlocks which I'd lost the keys for, using this guide as my initial reference. I made a small hook pick from baling wire using a file, and modified one of the more mysterious parts of my multitool into a functioning torsion wrench. This worked quite well, and I could pick both of these padlocks by the end of the day.

I then started reading on lp101, and was given two other padlocks to practice on: a Master No. 1, and a Webley Bohannan 9 series (which apparently has a very high MACS...). I can open all of them in less than two minutes pretty consistently now, and am still using just that one small hook.

I'm by no means competent at it - I still have trouble identifying overset pins and applying the correct torque, although I suspect the latter has a lot to do with the inappropriate pick material - a common spring steel pick could withstand something like four times the force I can currently apply without plastic deformation.

This is a strangely entertaining passtime, one that I hope to better my skill at. I can't see myself spending a whole lot of time on it though, considering the other things I'm working on right now

[Labtecpower]

Good thing you kicked this up!
I think I can have a lot of fun with peeling open some old locks