[Music]
[Music]
about a year and a half ago I taught
myself how to pick locks I did it out of
necessity I actually needed to get
inside of a automatic coffee machine
that was doing a shitty job of brewing
the coffee the internal temperature was
set to low for safety reasons and it was
annoying to my coworkers since then I've
taught about a dozen people to pick
locks and lock kicking basics are
actually very simple but I've noticed
the same sorts of problems coming up
over and over again and I also remember
all the misconceptions that I had about
picking locks before I started so I
wanted to clear those things up first
thing I wanted to clear up is what I
would call the Hollywood lock pick
you're trying to pick a lock and you
just go in and out and in and out this
is just a lack of basic knowledge and
it's nothing to be ashamed of I had this
misconception myself as a kid think
about this if you take a key and you put
it in a lock and you pull it in and out
in and out in and out nothing happens
and the reason why is because the lock
is opened by applying torque to the
cylinder so the first misconception I
want to clear up is that there is no
lock picking without being able to apply
torque and most lock picking torque is
achieved with something called a tension
wrench now tension wrench sounds really
magical but this is just a piece of
strip deal from a windshield wiper now
do you need to run out and get yourself
a windshield wiper in order to become a
lock picker absolutely not
you can find metal tines from a street
sweeper on the road you can go to a
hobby shop where they sell pieces to
make model airplanes and buy stuff like
this or you can even grind a wrench
shape out of a feeler gauge which is
available at any automotive store in all
seriousness the thickness of this is not
critical the lane
that just needs to be long enough for
your finger to get over on it and it
should be springy if you can help it but
you can use non springy things as well
in fact you can use a bobby pin for a
tension Ridge the important thing about
the tension wrench is that it applies
that rotation to the cylinder you can
see that cylinder rotating without that
rotation you're never going to make this
lock open you can see it here too on
this practice lock that if I put the
tension wrench here in the cylinder that
I can get this little bit of rotation on
the lock and that's the fundamental
thing you need to start picking so the
second thing I wanted to address was
that when I had you know found all these
lock picking guides online the famous
MIT guide to lock picking which by the
way it's not as good as the no-bullshit
guide to lock picking
I was very hung up about how perfect
were these shapes like if I print them
on my printer are they a little too
small are they a little too big will
they not work as though picks had some
kind of sacred dimensionality that made
them very special and in fact these
three picks which are called standard
hooks are pretty much all the same thing
I mean they vary a little bit in their
tip geometry they're made all three of
these are made from slightly different
materials but ultimately the size shaped
length and angle of these things is not
very critical essentially you need
something with a little bit of a lift at
end so that the shape is like that and
the reason for that is because you're
going to push up on the pins with it so
the second misconception I want to clear
up is that that there's anything really
special about these tool shapes they
don't need to be perfect they don't need
to be exactly the right size you just
need a little finger that you can put
inside the lock and push on individual
pins and depending on the lock you may
have to change the tool to actually make
these pins move so don't get too hung up
on the exact size and shape of your
picks and don't worry about buying
expensive picks either in my experience
for learning the very cheapest picks
will do and in fact homemade stuff works
just about as well I do think there's
value in buying one pre-made set of
picks if only just
to get a feeling for the right size and
shape I'm going to pick this practice
lock to show something I often see from
beginner Pickers when I'm teaching them
they go in and they can they can feel
the pins moving up and down like you can
see these ones moving up and down and
they think that the goal of picking is
to jam all the pick all the pins all the
way up so they'll go in and they'll work
really hard to get all the pins stuck in
the upward position and if they feel any
down that they feel like they haven't
gotten it yet but what you can see is if
they take that approach some of the pins
end up above the shear line I'm not
going to address the shear line the
cylinder the torque depends all those
things are really well addressed in the
videos of Bosnian build a lock-picking
lawyer and a whole bunch of other people
on YouTube which I'll link below the
important thing to know is it's not
about getting the pins all the way up in
fact it's just about getting the pins to
pop just above the shear line and to
make a little click
there was one I'm going to reset it I
don't know if you heard that I'm going
to try it again that was a pin being set
right there you're just looking for a
little quick when the pin pops over the
shear line and that's it it's not about
getting the pins all the way up it's
about getting them to the right place
just about anyone can pick one of these
locks and I think that's a great thing
also just about anyone can pick one of
these locks and I think maybe that's
less of a great thing but what you learn
after going from this to something like
this to maybe some this is a cheesy lock
from Harbor Freight that actually is a
plastic cylinder when you go through all
these different kinds of locks what you
learn is that each lock is a unique
snowflake you don't know how to pick
locks you actually learn how to pick
individual locks first and then you
learn how to generalize those techniques
over lots of locks now I'd like to share
the method that I've been using to teach
all of my friends and co-workers when I
had co-workers how to pick locks and it
centers around this chinese-made
practice law
these practice locks are incredibly easy
to pick and some people would say that
that's that they're not a good place to
start for that reason that you won't
learn anything but what I found is that
showing somebody that they can pick one
of these maybe even on their first try
is a great way to build a ton of
confidence and to develop sense of
feeling for the pins so that they get
excited and move on to the next thing so
step one in Vice Chiefs four-step plan
to learn how to pick locks is by a
practice lock and there are many styles
and size of these I love these padlock
ones I've given away half a dozen of
these things they're great so I'm going
to put the tension wrench in the
cylinder see that I can rotate the
cylinder just a little bit and I'm just
going to lightly rest my finger here now
how hard do you push I'm pushing just
hard enough that if I pull my finger
away there's a dent in my skin I'm not
pushing real hard here this is pretty
gentle just enough to feel this bind up
and now I'm going to pick this this
practice lock and that's it that's all
there is to it I moved some of these
pins up to the shear line and it popped
open and now of course the next thing
you want to do is do it again because it
feels great the moment when that lock
opens is this great confidence booster
so I'm just going to go in and push on
the pins and I might have a false set
here but I'm just going to keep going
okay if you can't get it on the second
try just release let all those pins go
back to their main position and then try
it again
I've got one more there it is now this
is a very very easy lock but it's also
very very satisfying you get a lot of
feedback from it you can even look at
what you're doing and you quickly get to
a point where you can open this thing in
seconds I haven't touched this one in
years which is why that took me you know
all of 20 seconds to open the next thing
I recommend is getting a master lock
master locks are known for being
relatively easy to pick but they present
a much bigger challenge than a lock like
this I highly recommend starting with a
brand new lock the reason being if your
lock is old or gummy or filled up with
sand or whatever that's sitting outside
for 20 years it might be extremely
difficult or impossible to pick and it's
just going to frustrate you you're not
going to learn from it the idea is to
learn from it and to get better and
better at developing the feeling of
feeling the pins click and hearing the
pins click ok so let's look at how easy
it is to pick a master lock I just
randomly picked one of these 3 tools
these are all pretty good tools I'm
going to go in and set the pins
and there we go
I think that was maybe ten seconds to
set that master lock this is one of
their highest security models obviously
it's not very high secured against
picking but you can see how you can
quickly build confidence setting and
resetting and learning a lock like this
lock and there we go
here it locked back into place the next
thing that I do in my progression of
lock picking is I moved on to better
tools so I actually don't recommend that
you start with homemade tools unless you
have to buying a very basic set of picks
it's really worthwhile and I like them
that are fairly I like picks that are
fairly thin but this is not a bad place
to start if you have that practice lock
you can see if we can if it can be done
with these tools
so there we go with some homemade tools
but what I recommend is moving on to
better and better or more and different
tools so this is like a very inexpensive
lockpick set that used to be on Amazon
it's no longer the metal is very short
its chromed it's kind of thick which
means that it won't work for some locks
this is one that I really love this is
from my very first set and actually I
sanded these surfaces to make them
smoother and less gritty and then I put
heat shrink tubing on it because after a
while the metal handled was cutting into
my fingers eventually I got these very
nice locks from banggood or Aliexpress
or something like that which have smooth
handles with great feedback they're thin
they're light and likewise with the
tension wrench over time I've ended up
with tons of different lock-picking
tools and in truth I I use probably
these this one this one this one and
this little pile the most for my
singleton picking but that's another
step it's just to move on to better
tools now there are different mindsets
there's a community who are to teach
these things online and they're
fantastic they're called the lock sport
community but they ridicule master locks
and they're constantly moving further
and further up the chain into higher and
higher security locks it's kind of
fantastic to watch I mean these people
can pick a lock that's been engineered
with all kinds of tricks but for the
times in your life when you're likely to
actually need lock picking like you lost
the key to something that you own or
your friend has something they bought at
an auction and they want to get the lock
off whatever the case you don't need to
keep moving up and up and up into
fancier and fancier locks and developing
more and more and more outrageous skills
the best thing that I can recommend to
you is just to try a few different types
of locks like try your practice lock
try your master lock this lock is an
interesting one to me because the
cylinder is actually made of plastic
this is a lock sold at Harbor Freight so
it gives a very different feeling of
feedback when you're when you're picking
it in fact I find it rather challenging
to pick the
it's kind of kind of mushy for lack of a
better word so just try out a bunch of
different locks and then maybe try you
know dirty locks try old used locks try
house door locks try file cabinet locks
you can try all these different kinds of
locks rather than trying to pick an abus
or an American or some other lock that's
very very high-security train yourself
on just a few different varieties of
locks and that will make you a great
lock picker
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
you
[Music]