hello again it's lock noob and this is
going to be one of my biggest ever lock
picking tutorial videos we're going to
learn to pick all of the most common and
accessible types of lock including
standard pin tumblers
disc detainer locks
warded locks
cross key locks
smiley dimple locks dial combination
locks tubular locks
dimple locks wafer locks
lever padlocks mortar sleeve locks and
curtain lever locks
given that there's an almost countless
number of lock mechanism types some of
which are in combination we're going to
avoid a few of the more complex ones for
now such as safe dial combinations
slider side bar locks and
exotica which is in categories of its
own
for each of the lock types we're going
to look at we're going to see how the
lock works what tools you need how to
pick it and then a demonstration right
let's get on with it
before we get into lock picking let's
start with some pin tumbler basics which
will be useful throughout this entire
video so how does a normal lock like
this work well you normally put your key
in and you turn the lock without the key
of course you can't turn
the barrel around
but what's happening inside
if we take away the front of the lock
you'll see inside we have two rows of
pins
we have one pin down here in the keyway
which is the key pin
that pin
interacts with the cuts on a key and is
lifted to
either a greater or lesser height
the other pin here which is sat between
the core and the body of the lock is
what we call a driver pin this is what
is preventing
the lock turning when we don't have the
correct key inside and you normally have
between four and six of those in a
standard pin tumbler lock all in a row
down the middle and you'll see that in
this one here where you can see
that we have key pins at the bottom
and driver pins at the top but we have
six of them all in a row when the
correct key is put into the keyway every
single key pin in every single position
will be lifted to the correct height
pushing the driver pin out of the way of
that shear line
and allowing the core to turn like this
so this line here is the shear line
between the core and the body that's the
drive pin has been pushed out of the way
and that represents the key pin being
lifted to
the height corresponding to the correct
cut on the key without the correct key
being inserted and all the pins
lifted to the right height
you cannot turn the lock because that
driver pin is in the way
as we saw earlier in this cutaway lock
we can see the rows of key pins and
driver pins and when we put the correct
key in
with all those different heights of key
cut
when they all
go to the correct key pin you can see
that the driver pins are all pushed out
of the way to the shear line and that
allows the lock to move freely
so first up let's learn how to pick a
classic pin tumbler lock like this here
is a see-through lock you can see that
the driver pin is pushed out of the way
by the key pins when the correct key is
inserted you can then rotate the core of
the lock and it opens up your padlock
with the absence of a key you're going
to need to do the two things that a key
does
your needs are going to have to apply a
turning force
using a tool like this we call them
turning tools or tension tools and
you'll need some form of lock pick to
push the key pins to the correct height
so you're doing the two things as key
does turn the core
push the pins up
the tools you'll need for this are
tools that you find in pretty much any
lock pick set like this designed for pin
tumblers
when we apply a turning force to the
lock without a key of course you trap
those driver pins but you don't trap
them all in turn
due to
there being
bigger or smaller holes cut into the
lock body
bigger or smaller key pins due to
manufacturing differences or maybe
different hole placements
left and right along the keyway
some of those pins are going to bind
first and some of them i'm going to bind
last
and here's a demonstration of the driver
pins binding in turn as we apply
turning force to the core of the lock so
i put in a turning tool i turn the core
and of course it can't turn around
because one or more of these driver pins
are now
stopping the lock from opening
because they're trapped between the core
and the body of the lock i put in a hook
pick like this and i'm feeling for
the pins which aren't springy which is
actually pin number one so i lift it
with the hook
under turning force to the right height
that means that that's not the right
height it's not binding so one of these
other pins must now be stuck between
the core and the body of the lock so it
won't be springy
ah it's pin two now lift it up there we
go little movement and that's now what
we call set it's above the shear line so
go back in i'm trying to find any
non-springy pins it's now pin three lift
it up
go back through pin four now and i
believe yeah all those pins are now at
their shear line
without having to use the key so all i'm
doing to pick this lock is i'm going
along and i'm trying to feel for which
pin in turn is springy and which one
isn't and pushing up the non-springy
pins
in turn until they're all above the
sheer line and the lock will open
another way to pick one of these locks
open is to interact with more than one
pin at a time using something called a
rake this goes in and as you can see it
can
move
these drop key pins and their driver
pins up and down
in turn just by scrubbing back and forth
there are lots of techniques but just
scrubbing back and forth under light
tension is one of the quickest ways to
get a lock open so i'm going to just
keep a little bit of tension on scrub
back and forth and once
randomly those driver pins all get to
the shear line the whole thing will turn
let's see an example of picking and
raking in a
simple but common lock
first of all single pin picking where
we're going to use a hook to find the
binding pins and push them to the shear
line and leaving the springy pins alone
until all of those pins are at the shear
line and the lock will open we need to
add the turning force as if we were
turning the lock
using a key and use a hook to find those
binding pins so i'm just going along i
feel pin four is binding i lifted it up
three was
two you can hear that click as it hits
the shear line and one go back through
out pin four we have an open
so i just found the pins which are
giving me some resistance push them to
the shear line and eventually we'll get
an open
with raking we do the same we apply a
turning force
in absence of the key
nice and light and we put our rake in
and we scrub those pins back and forth
at different heights
and
eventually we'll get that open
let's next have a look at disk detainer
locks you'll know them by that strange
square like keyway
and
the strange
square-like keys with those little cuts
out of them
how do they work well they don't work
the same as a standard pin tumbler lock
here is a see-through version of one of
the disc detainer locks and you can see
that it has quite a few interesting
parts
you can see that there are these discs
on the inside and
here is one of them just there for you
that's on the inside of the lock and
there are multiple of them a bit like
you'd have key pins that interact with
the key
then if you can just make it out here
there is a little bar
and that bar sits between
the body of the padlock itself and the
outer part
of the core which is the bits you can
see
here
and that bar is literally a bar
like this the reason why
this lock won't turn
and open up unless the key is inserted
all the way in
is because
that bar which is sat there between the
body and the outer core
is
literally
blocking the outer core from moving
until all those discs are rotated by the
key to a certain angle and those cuts on
the key
can signify how much those discs on the
inside turn let me show you so
you can see that
if there is no cut
the key
turns the disc
straight away
if there is a deep cut the key has to
move quite far before it engages with
the disc so straight away
that's rotates quite far and then
rotates a disc so as you can tell
depending on how deep the cut is you're
rotating each of the discs in turn by a
certain degree
you'll also notice these discs which are
turned inside the lock have a little
groove if all of the discs along the
entire length of the lock
are aligned so that groove is available
for the bar the bar will drop into it as
opposed to riding the top of the disc so
it'll drop down inside
moving out of the way
from the outer body of the lock into
the space between the outer core and the
disc
and that'll allow the outer core to turn
because it's no longer trapped up in the
body of the lock let me show you that
with the key inserted you'll see that
the discs are turning
and they're turning a different amount
depending on the cut on the key
and then once
all of those disks are turned to the
right amount and you can see
that they turn by different amount
because of this little nub on each of
the disks is in a different position
and as i turn it you'll see on the other
side that's right that bar
has sunk into
the groove on each of the discs which
now turn to the correct position so how
do we go about picking one of these well
clearly we need a tool which will turn
the disks
and we also need to be able to apply
some turning force to the outer core how
do we do that well if we look here when
i put the correct key in and turn
all the disks to their correct position
some
of the disks have that little nub
which is all the way over to this right
hand side here so this this this disc
this disc and this disc in particular
the ones at the bottom ones at the top
and what we can do is we can turn these
discs all the way around clockwise
and that will provide a turning force on
the outer core essentially tensioning it
we do that using a tool like this where
the tip will turn the first disk or two
all the way
and allow that
outer core
to
tension while this tip can go along and
turn each of the discs in turn
so let's try picking this see-through
lock so we can see what's happening
i've got my picking tool it has
the turning picking tip and it also has
a tensioning tip here
the picking tip will just put all the
way down keyway and the tensioning tip
will turn and you can see right there
that
these first two discs are turned all the
way clockwise until they bind with this
outer core
i can then use the picking tip
by keeping tension on to find some of
those
discs on the inside and feel for whether
they're binding they're loose like this
we can leave them alone if they're
binding like this one
then we turn it until it stops into
its position that means that it's
interacting with the sidebar
so that disc now needs to be set then
next one
wiggle down through the lock
just try to get find any binding discs
and what we're trying to do is move each
disc around until
the cut out in that disc
is
going to be the correct height
to
interact with the oh there we go
the sidebar and let it drop down on the
inside and you can see the sidebar there
has dropped down
essentially the discs are turned till
everyone's the right position to receive
that sidebar like this
onto warded locks which are also
recognizable by
strange keyways and very jagged looking
keys
if we look inside a watered lock we'll
see that the key corresponds to
some of the
internal sections of the lock sticking
out
that means that the key has to pass
through those sections like this
if the sections are in different places
the key will have a different pattern
like this
but all we're really doing
is releasing a latch on the shackle so
put this key in you'll see that it
interacts by pulling aside
the latch
at the top you see it's springing
that's all it's doing
and this brings you onto the skeleton
key
these two keys were exactly the same
apart from this key has had
all of the notches cut off because they
just don't matter
that means that it can bypass all the
warding on the inside all of these bits
that stick out and just interact with
the latch at the top retract it and open
the lock and there are skeleton keys
specifically designed for these warded
locks close it up
you can see how there is warding
here and here but we bypass all of that
reach up to the top
pull back that latch and we are open
now let's try our skeleton key on a
commercial warded lock
and there we go that's simple
and here's another one
and another one
simple as that
so let's now talk about tubular locks
why they call tubular locks well the key
is basically a tube
you see that these locks have an up post
in the middle you can see some pins
around the edge and some kind of little
locating notch at the top which guides
the key into the correct position like
this
if you notice that unlike a standard pin
tumbler
the cuts on the
key or what we call the bitting are
around the top diameter of the edge
of the key itself some are deep some are
not so deep just like on a normal key so
i put this in like this
push down if it's the correct key all
the key pins we push to the correct
height moving the driver pins to the
shear line and opening the lock
we can actually see that
inside a cutaway version of one of these
locks where yes you actually have look
key pins and driver pins the driver pins
sit between the inside and the outside
of the lock as you can see
and with the correct key with the
correct key cuts
if you locate it properly you'll push
down on the pins
like this until they all reach the
correct height
so you push down see the pins move
they go and you can turn it just like a
standard lock and when you let go the
the driver pins which are silver move
back between the two halves of the lock
stop it from turning they've all got to
be the sheer line
to turn the lock
so how do you pick one of these tubular
locks well just like a standard pin
tumbler you need a turning tool to apply
torque to the lock and this one has two
parts
the tension tip and something which just
holds it in the keyway so if i put it in
this notch here you'll see that i can
turn the core
that way if i want to turn it back
anti-clockwise i can put it in the other
way around
so we're going to pick this lock
clockwise how do i pick it well i can
use anything um a hairpin a probe i'm
going to use this little hook and i'm
going to directly push down on these
pins in turn like this and try to find
the ones which are binding
and it could be in any order and if it
is i'll push it down so it's this one at
the bottom that's picked now
and i'll just push down on any pins that
feel like they're that's stuck
and need to be set
these locks can take a little bit of
time to pick for two reasons one there's
usually at least seven of these pins
which all need to be uh picked and they
bind in any order
and two because to open up a lock fully
you might need to pick the pins more
than
uh
once
so
i can feel we're almost there with this
and we're once it opens it will rotate
to
um
the right clockwise so
and here we go you see that will rotate
to pick it another position you just
keep going around around applying
tension if you want to pick it back then
you need to swap the tension over
like this
and then start to pick backwards
another interesting tool to use on
tubular locks are these
self-impressioning tools
and what these do is quite clever there
are little fingers which move in and out
like this
you see i'm pulling these down
and these
are around the
circumference
of the uh tool
they engage with the pins inside a lock
so we'll show you how they align
with the pins and what happens with this
is that you push down
and you turn the lock
like this and anything any key pin which
is binding
um will force these pins up
as you
wriggle it side by side and as i do that
you'll see that these fingers are moving
out they will settle at the position
where all the pins
are no longer binding which means that
the driver pins will be at shear and the
lock will open let's actually look at
that for real uh with that tuber lock we
looked at earlier
so the first thing to do is make sure
all these fingers are
reset so you put the plunger down and
you push the
sets of fingers down until they're all
level with the outer
tip
of the tool
you would then
make sure that this collar isn't too
tight just just gently finger tight
align
the tool with each of the pins in the
lock
and gently
rotate round like this and sometimes you
can just sort of pump the lock
and what we're trying to do is
just get all of those
fingers
to the correct height and once they are
they go
it turns a lot fully and what you can do
is then tighten this collar even tighter
that will set all of these fingers at
the correct height there you go and that
is now essentially a new key for this
lock
there you go
cross key locks actually look formidable
because the key looks really interesting
you can see it's actually four
separate pin tumbler keys all in a cross
and if you look at a cross key lock this
see through one you can see that you
have
the key pins and driver pins in four
positions it's essentially four pin
tumbler locks all in one
usually you have to locate the key
to one position one of these will be a
bit thicker than the others and you put
that at the top
and then you should just be able to turn
the lock and you can see the tops of the
key pins as i turn and the driver pins
at each position
all at their shear line
so a cross key lock is essentially four
pin tumbler locks on four different axes
operated by one single key that has to
be orientated in one direction the
easiest way i've found to open these
locks is
get a small turning tool like this you
can buy the commercial you can make them
out of
bicycle spokes and spare wiper blade
insert or even a hairpin and apply some
turning force you'll see that um
the
driver pins on each axis will bind
on the core i see every single axes and
then i'll use a snake rake so called
because it's got a little profile looks
a bit like a snake
and just scrub under light tension or
turning force
each of the
sides of the lock in turn trying to set
the driver pins on each axis
to their shear point
once all the drive pins are
no longer blocking the core so they're
not sat between the core and the outer
body of course the whole lock will turn
like this
so and if you want to turn it more you
turn to the next position and keep
picking and picking and picking you can
of course use a hook to single pick
those pins just like a standard pin
tumbler
it will just take a bit longer
here's me trying to single pick this
lock same method i just put tension in
and trying to push down on all of the
pins
on each axis trying to find any of the
bind
push them
out of the way
so that the driver pins reach the uh
shear line in the lock and the problem
is with this you've got to get each of
the pins which can be up to 16 pins in
these types of locks
all to the correct shear line
on every axis before the whole thing
will open or not
so that's what takes the time and that's
why raking
where you're interacting with
multiple pins at the same time
can just be a little bit faster
i feel almost there
trying to find any last binding pins and
set them
that was a really nice strong sound
so can't be too far away from
there we go opening the lock
of course there are tools
like this
that have four different picking tips
that are designed to be able to rake
every single axes at the same time and
a tip here to tension
with these prongs
uh the core of the lock and that works
pretty effectively
so since we picked and rate the
see-through lock let's get a real one
and use this special
raking tool to see if we can get an open
so pop that in i've plunged the pick
tips into the lock i apply a little bit
of tension
and i just plunge back and forth
under light tension
on the inside of the lock
and trying to essentially rake all those
pins until we have an open and you can
see the lock turning now
and that is just a tool raking all four
axes at once
smiley dimple locks act a little bit
like a standard pin tumbler albeit the
keyway is
horizontal rather than vertical and it
doesn't contain driver pins the way that
this lock works is evers a side
different
so you can see that the key is also flat
there is a bitting just like in a
standard pin tumbler but it's a lot more
shallow and it runs on the center of the
key like this it still lifts key pins to
a specific height however
so what is actually going on inside of
these driverless smiley dimple locks
well let's take the core from one of
them
and actually have a look
here is the key here is the bitting
you can see the key pins on the inside
of that lock
and if we put the key in
all the way to its correct position
you'll see that the whole thing turns as
you'd expect the inner core turns
inside the outer core if you look here
though you'll also see something
different there is a little springy bar
when the key is inserted and all the key
pins are lifted to the right height that
bar is
able to be pushed into the inner core
from its position between the inner and
the outer look at that
so what's happening there let's take the
key out
push this little core out and you'll see
in a bit more detail
so
there is a groove on the inside of the
outer core you can just see the end
there
that corresponds with where this side
bar sits and without the key it doesn't
retract fully into the inner core so you
can imagine it's partially in the outer
court and partly on the inner core if i
then push the
key pins to the correct height by
applying the key you'll see that then it
retracts completely
inside completely inside
the
inner core and allows it to turn
how's that happening well each of these
key pins
has a notch inside so let's try and tip
one out for you
anyone will do
here's two
and you'll see that each of these key
pins has a little cut out in it
at a different position
those cutouts correspond with
this bar here
and what's actually happening
is that
once these key pins are lifted to the
correct height like that then that bar
can
recess into the cutouts in the pins
just like that
so that's what what's happening you push
it up and yes it can fall in once all
the key pins at every position i lift it
to the correct height
all of those cutouts will be the same
alignment and that'll allow that sidebar
to slot in
and retract and allow the inner core to
rotate on the inside of the outer core
so how do we go about picking one of
these well we can do it the same way as
we do a standard pin tumbler either lift
these pins in turn under tension
so that they bind
in turn you find the ones which are
binding and pick those or you can use a
rake and rake multiple pins at the same
time let's do both so with the vertical
keyway you can use standard lock picks
like this hook pick because you've got a
lot of room in that vertical keyway to
maneuver your pick and push up or down
on these key pins with a horizontal key
where you don't have the same amount of
room and these hooks are just too big
even a small one like this to really be
effective inside that keyway what you
need instead is specialized dimple
picks
and what these are are flags we call
them dimple flags and they look like
little flags and instead of pushing up
on pins like this you rotate the flag
tip
up and down to push the pins on the
inside of the lock up
to tension the locks you have two
options really one is something like
this
a two prong tension tool you can buy
commercially and that can go in either
side of the keyway and you can turn the
inner core
or you can use something like one of
these pry bars
put that in the keyway like this and
then pull up
on the pry bar like that so it's pulling
the inner core around
what that does is
of course it
forces the sidebar
as you're turning the lock it forces the
sidebar
into the pack of pins
binding one or more of those pins you'll
feel which one is
sticking you push that up once that's to
the shear line what that means is that
the sidebar is pushed into the gap in
the pins then you go on to the next
binding pin next binding pin next binder
ping tool all of the
pins are set and you can open the lock
right let's have a go at picking this so
apply turning force
bind those key pins against the sidebar
and let's see if there is anything which
i need to lift it feels like pin
two
so not one
the pin two might need to be turned
now one
two is one binding again
one two
three four
five six
that's the
beginning one
two
three four
trying to find pin
five at the back
go back through the keyway
oh and we just hit pin two there
and the call turned
let's try one
two
pin three is
doesn't need picking i don't think
need just ford i think
try to find pin five at the back
and we picked pin three there
only have one more pin to go i think
there we go and we have it open
just like standard pin tumbler locks you
can actually rake these dimple locks too
using rakes like this these are
automotive
lock rakes designed for wafers but can
also be used on dimple locks they go
down inside the keyway like this you can
apply tension i'm going to be pulling on
the side of the keyway like this
and then we're going to be um just
scrubbing and raking on the inside of
the lock
trying to lift all those
uh
key pins the right height and once they
are there you go you have an open and
you can turn that keyway freely look at
this
dial combination locks come in lots of
different formats these being the most
common and i'll show you the
easiest way to decode these locks
although there are other techniques so
how do these locks work well there's an
interaction between the dials and
something which the dials interact with
on the inside of the lock which keeps it
shut
in the case of
these padlocks
the dials interact with the
shackle so the shackle runs all the way
through these styles
in the case of these chain locks it's
pretty much the same
but you can see what the piece is that
interacts with the dials
imagine that is the padlock shackle it's
just the same
it runs all the way down through these
uh dials and it's a piece of metal with
some teeth in like that that's all it is
how does it work well
each dial has a gap in it at the correct
position so all of these zeros line up
to this gap if i turn one of them you
can see the gap close
open
close it will do the same one for the
next dial and the next style and the
next style
so what's happening is that
as i insert this down on the inside and
turn these dials i'm closing the gap
around these cut outs
that means these little stick up bars
here
trap
this part of the lock inside
the dials so if i turn it just one dial
close like that i can't open it up
this type lock represents the most
simple form of dial combination lock
some of the locks don't just have one
gap they got true gaps and false gaps
what do i mean well let's take apart one
of these dial combination locks and i'll
show you
so let's take off the outside
take out the spring
and the bit of metal which
means that the dars click
and you'll see here that i have
my dials
and my shackle
on this
the outer dials can come away from the
inner dials
and that's how you can set these outer
dies to different numbers
but we're not really interested in the
combinations let's just have a look
if i remove all of these things off
at the shackle and you'll see that the
shackle indeed
has
teeth on the inside
and there we go and what are those teeth
interacting with
well they're interacting with those
inner dials here
and what you can see on the inside if i
get it to focus for you is there are
true gaps or true gates as we call them
where this can slip through like that
can you see
that tooth there
is able to slip through
at that position all the way down
but we also have these little notches on
the inside
can you see there's a notch there
there's a notch there
these and a notch there these are called
foal skates
what will happen is that
when you've got the um
the
shackle being
pulled down on
it can those teeth can fall into those
false gates like that
so when you're trying to pick the lock
you have to discern between the true
gate which is the true gap which will
allow the shackle to go through
and these little notches on the inside
called false gates
let's pick both the more simple type of
lock and a lock with false gates and
we'll see how you pick both of them with
a simple lock like this once again we
need to bind something there are no pins
in this there are no discs in this what
we can do is we can pull the
internal part of the lock
against the dials and what we can do is
we can find out which one of these
feels like it's binding the strongest
which means which one's hardest to turn
that means that the teeth on one of
these styles is being pushed against
that dial
harder than the other ones so i'm
pulling these apart
forcing the teeth to push against the
inside of the dials it has to be this
dial which is really stiff and what i'm
doing is i'm trying to feel
until it goes sort of loose
and it's or and or harder to then turn
that means that the teeth are now inside
the gap in that dial i can't turn it
anymore i'm going to assume it's that
then i find the next binding wheel
and it feels like this one actually is
the hardest one no that's quite easy
this one no
yeah it's that one and i can't turn any
more than there
so oh yeah that's binding now so let's
turn that one i'm keeping the pressure
on
pressure pressure
pressure
and you've got to keep
if
it aren't
and they go
that feels now that those zeros all set
and then i've got this style here
and i'll turn it the other way around
and what should happen is that
it will
open when it gets to
the final number
which is that and quite violently as it
happens
so those are quite easy because all
you're trying to do is find the binding
wheel the wheel which is um being
uh
pulled against the most
um against that
wheel internal wheel and you keep
turning it until you feel it go loose
um and or you can't turn it anymore
because what happens is that the edge of
that tooth enters the gap in the wheel
and that means that you have to turn the
next dial on the next on the next style
so there are no false gates in this you
just find the true gate each time by
pulling
um the inside of the lock against the
wheels on the inside of the dials
this lock has false gates
so if i pull the shackle with my finger
and push against the body with my thumb
you can feel there are sort of clicks
and then it might stop
it might stop and it might stop so what
happens is how do we tell whether i'm a
true gate or a false gate two things one
you might feel the shackle actually move
um
deeper when you get a true gate and also
true gates tend to have more rotation
um
between positions so i can usually move
the dial further
when i'm in a true gate
also if i'm in a true gate it normally
means that one of the other dials binds
more solid so let's have a mix this up
and we'll have a go so pull the shackle
we'll try to find the wheel which is
binding the most
and it does feel like it's this one so
get all of the dials into
what feels like a gate and then turn
this one
until
ah i actually heard a click there did
you hear that click
and there's a lot of movement
so i reckon that that is the true gate
that's
binding more as well the middle one so
again let's try this one now turn
i'm in a gate but is that true or not i
don't know keep going
that feels loose keep going
and i find it hard to move now
and there's a lot of movement so i think
that whatever it is
it must be this wheel now
ah now
see that's definitely
i think in a true gate or a false gate
the shackle moved but i don't know if
it's the right number so i'm just going
to keep turning and again it's in a
false gate i've got movement but it's
not too loose
let's turn this one again
in a false gate lots movement there
though
ah and there we go we have an open
that's also zeros
so again all you're doing is you are
trying to find where
you have the most movement
when you're in what you think is a true
or false gate if it has the most
movement compared to the other gates
it's probably true gate you might feel
the shackle pull out
you might hear a big click and that's
usually a sign and you also might feel
that one of the other dials is binding
more heavily if it is then stopping that
number you can always go back to it and
try the
next most heavily binding wheel
again go through the false gates true
gate try to discern whether it has
greater movement or has a big click or
shackle movement when you're on the
right number and see whether the next
dial is more stiff if it is it's a good
sign that is also a true gate and then
try the next style in turn and keep
going going going whether you've got
three four or five dials until the whole
thing is open
although this video is largely about
picking and decoding locks it's worth
mentioning a very very common bypass for
this type of combination lock
as you see it's fully locked up if you
have a special decoding knife like this
insert it between the wheels at a
slightly downward angle
gently support it with your fingers and
push down on the shackle
and then lift you should feel a spring
against a um
the locking bar on the inside you can
see that if i let go it springs back up
that's what you want to feel for if you
can't feel the spring then um obviously
it's it's not working and then if you
just gently pull
on the shackle once you've
lifted this locking bar up to the top it
will release if you don't have one of
these special tools then you can use
anything that's around four to seven
thousandths of an inch and that's thin
enough this is a
a stainless steel cable tie and that
should work on some locks just the same
although it is a little bit harder to
use because it's um just a little bit
thicker but again you can still do it um
if you use a pointy end and it's not too
thick and the lock has enough of a gap
between the wheels to allow you access
to the locking bar on the inside
now let's talk about dimple locks dimple
locks are
noticeable because they have this
horizontal keyway we talked about smiley
dimple locks earlier
but uh they're almost a different class
of their own
normal dimple locks are just like a
standard pin tumbler but the key way is
horizontal not vertical so horizontal
keyway vertical keyway
and the way they operate is actually
virtually identical you'll notice that
in this dimple lock you still have these
driver pins down here you can still see
the key pins all the way down keyway
there but the difference is in the key
in a standard pin tumbler like this with
a vertical keyway the key is fully
vertical and it operates a lot as you'd
expect a dimple lock key
um well it's called a dimple log because
the keys have dimples in if you look
down here
it looks like they've been drilled out
but you still have a bitting if i turn
it on its side and turn it slightly
towards the camera you'll see
that you have a biting very similar
to a standard pin tumbler but just along
the center of the key
and it's a little bit more shallow you
can't have quite as high ups and downs
on a key which is flat
but you do have the key cuts the bitting
as you would expect and it operates in
the lock as you'd expect too
so here's key pins all
at the correct height all the driver
pins are now at shear for remove the key
you'll see them
uh drop down between the
uh core and the body of the lock put the
key in again you'll see that it lifts
all keep into the correct time moving
the drive pins to shear and we have an
open
so how do we go about picking one of
these well very similar to the smiley
dimple locks
to pick a dimple lock you'll need some
tools and they come in broadly two
categories
unfinished cheaper
uh picks made in the east and
these are well pretty cool but needless
finishing off they come out quite thick
and square from the packet and you will
need to just file them and sand them
down until the shafts are round like
this
but you know that's that's the the
cheapest option or you can get
some
pre-finished picks which are already
well-rounded and there are multiple
manufacturers
for that
dimple picks broadly come in three
different categories uh left and
right-handed flags you'll see that they
are
rotated differently
for going in uh the key way either from
the left hand side of the right hand
side curved flags also left and right
for getting deeper into
some very
hard key ways and
flat flags which are
just flat and have no orientation
dimple lock pick sets also come with
these dimple lock tensioning tools which
uh mostly known as zed wrenches as head
bars and they're usually a bit thicker
and broader than standard pin tumbler
tensioning tools because they fit inside
the lock a bit differently i'll show you
so usually in these dimple locks you've
got a space where you can actually
insert something like this inside the
lock to
provide tension either anti-clockwise or
clockwise
so picking a dimple lock is very similar
in mechanics but fundamentally different
picking a standard pin tumbler locking
the vertical orientation
you put your tension tool down the side
of the keyway like this and you could
still access the key pins with your pick
these dimple flags are designed for
rotating down into the keyway
to access those pins so i go put it in
and i push down on the pins like that
so i'm rotating the pick
down into the pins
normally and for reasons i'll show you
in a minute you would either
apply torque anti-clockwise
and then rotate your pick clockwise or
then
the alternative would be
tensioning clockwise and then putting
the pick in the other way and rotating
anti-clockwise
we'll come into why we do that in a
second for now let's just put this uh in
a vise and i'll show you picking
the lock using rotation
and you can see on the inside
so hopefully you can see in here the row
of driver pins there
and the keyway
we will have to apply
tension so put
the turning tool inside the lock on the
right hand side and rotate it towards us
like that which means that we'll put the
pick in and rotate it away from us which
is clockwise and hopefully you'll see
these pins move as i move the pick in
the keyway
and rotate those down so i can already
feel pin one's binding so just going to
push down on that
until i hear it click and that's set
then the next pin
which is pin two let's do the same pin
three's binding now
pin four and five already is picked pin
six now
and then we just need to find pin
seven there's a seven pin lock
try and get on top of pin seven
there we go and we pick the lock
you see it all rotate round
nearly all dimple locks contain some
high security pins like these spool pins
named because they look like cotton
spools there are many different types of
security pins which we won't cover in
this video but it's worth mentioning
about sport pins because they're so
common in dimple locks and indeed a lot
of higher security standard pin tumblers
to show you how spool pins work inside a
lock and provide extra security i've
loaded one into this front cutaway and
you can see it here
with its thin section all the way down
there
when i apply
turning force to this
you'll actually see that the lock turns
into what we call a false set it'll turn
as if it's going to open but then
doesn't and what's happening here is
this spool pin
is
allowing the core to rotate quite far
in the
direction that i'm turning the lock to
counter at this i'll need to get
underneath the pin
and watch how the core turns as i force
the spool pin up
into its position
you get counter rotation the opposite
rotation to the way i'm turning the lock
let's show you again
the lock is being turned clockwise but
as i apply pressure to the pin
look how
the core then turns back here see that
counter rotation
as i'm setting that pin to shear and
then it'll turn around so bears in mind
when we go and demonstrate me picking a
high security dimple lock
so let's do a demonstration picking one
of my favorite dimple locks this is the
iseo r6 medium security six pins you see
the bitting there
a
high security
mechanism with dimple
pins
i'm going to use this flat
zed wrench tool to give
some tension on the lock or torque we're
going to lift it up like this to rotate
counterclockwise while picking clockwise
with this flag
so i'll be
to just using very light tension here
and we're gonna go in find those binding
pins and see if we can
pick anything so pin one
is binding so
a little click pin two is binding
pin three is not binding pin four is
binding a little bit
a little click off that pin five is
definitely binding now
gentle
gentle i picked that we went into a full
set so
that's probably a standard pin pin six
is now binding gently gently gently
counter rotate you'll see that as i'm
turning this against the spool pin
the whole core is turning against my
picking
make sure that that's fully picked there
we go
now go back through and find is any pins
left which need to be set
feels like pin three
pin three there back to pin
five
also
just drop in five
there we go and we have the open
let's go from a relatively high security
lock type to a lower security lock type
these are all wafer locks what is a
wafer lock well unlike pin tumblers they
don't have pins which go between the
core and the body of a lock they have
these wafers you'll see that they're
sticking up
in a notch in the body of the lock and
they can't rotate past a position
because they're all sticking up into
that little cutaway groove
how do we get these wafers and they
really are wafers let our pawn out for
you and show you they're little metal
wafers
look kind of squarish
have a slot in and
they always have a little ear just there
attached to a spring that's why they are
springy so put that in correctly you'll
see they bounce up and down how do we
get those wafers to a sheer line to
allow it to
rotate inside the lock body well we put
in a key in the key
well they're normally quite distinctive
quite often
double-sided like this and you would
insert the key into
the keyway and it would pull these
wafers down against the springs and
align them like that and that would then
be able to rotate within the lock
housing without the wafers catching in
the slots all wavelocks tend to be
distinct by the
key way here they're in different
formats but the keyways are often just
wide open you can see the tops of the
wafers here
the keys themselves can either be
single-sided or double-sided just like
that so we have a single-sided key here
and all double-sided
but it's a key way that really gives
them away picking away flock is often a
lot easier than picking a pin tumbler
because you're only dealing with uh
single wafers at the time rather than
keepings and driver pins in essence it's
a bit like a lock where you're
interacting with the driver pins alone
and not the key pins you apply tension
using a turning tool
and then you can use something like a
hook to then find those wafers
find which ones are binding in the lock
and if they feel like they're binding
you can push them up to their shear line
and you'll see that what happens is
the core will turn incrementally as you
pick each wafer
as i said they're often a little easier
to pick than a standard pin tumbler lock
so
you just have to be sort of patient and
go through
those wafers in turn and once all picked
you'll see that the
core will turn and the lock will open
just like a normal standard pin tumbler
and there you go
you can also rake
these wafer locks just the same way as
you would
any pin tumbler
and here is just a snake rake apply some
light tension
and just
just gently scrub the wafers and then
there you go you can usually open them
up that quickly
one last picking technique for these
wafer locks is using these wafer lock
rakes
often found in automotive picking sets
uh they're usually sprung and forked
like this and ideal for going into these
wafer lock keyways and giving them a
rake
so i'm just going to apply a small
amount of tension to the bottom of the
lock put in my
brake
and then
get it all the way to the back and give
it a little scrub
and then when it's open
it'll turn
oh yes and of course jiggler keys where
you'd try to find one of these pre-cut
blanks to try and jiggle open
your wafer locks
there we go
let's now depart from all the variants
of the standard pin tumbler wafer locks
and warded locks and go on to lever lock
starting with lever padlocks essentially
there isn't much difference between
lever padlocks and any other lever lock
apart from there often a little bit more
simple and a little bit more accessible
so you can tell a lever lock by the type
of keyway and the type of key where you
have something called the bolt step at
the
back and these lever steps at the front
and they just operate as you'd expect
this is an old english style padlock
with a cutaway view we can see even more
we can see that the shackle is held in
by
this part of the bolt assembly which is
attached all the way down
to
this bit here which is called a talon
it's like this v-shaped hook
here between here and here
right at the back of the lock when i
insert the key what you'll see is that
the tip
of the key known as that bolt step
engages with that bolt assembly
the steps on the key lift these levers
you'll see these levers lift up
out of the way
and once these
leaves have been lifted up you'll see
they go out of the way of the bolt
assembly which is able to slide across
and open up the lock
so to pick this we have to do two things
we have to tension
the bolt assembly against the pack of
levers using this talon
and also lift the leaves up to the
correct height allowing the lock to open
so what do we need to open up a lever
padlock well a lever padlock picking kit
you can either buy one of these there's
a few manufacturers or you can just make
your own
so you can see that all we've got here
is essentially a split nut and some
screws which go in either side of it
these are commercial pick wires here
but
you know what i've made my own out of a
bit of wire myself that wasn't too hard
you can also get
commercially made tips
or you can make your own out of key
blanks
the turning tool
actually just replicates the bolt step
of the key the last step which interacts
with the talon
the wire
itself
is going to lift the levers up and turn
just like the
key steps in the keyword
so let's see that's in action
here is our turning tool and that goes
in and engages with the talon at the
back and you'll see it gently pull that
bolt assembly into the lever pack
if i also bring in a picking wire
i can pop that in and i can turn it into
the lever pack to try and lift those
levers up in turn
so just pop that in
give it a turn around there we go
and what we're doing is we're finding
which lever is binding against that bolt
assembly first
the springy oh that's lever two
that would move forwards
lever one and in this two lever lock we
now have an open
for residential lever locks like this
the same sorts of techniques are true
you can see the talon right at the back
and that's being
caught by the key when the levers are
lifted to the correct height
the bolt stump can pass through
the gating
in the lever pack
and allow the lock to open
so again you have on your key
bolt steps and key steps the bolt step
will engage as you can see here with
that talon
the lever steps will lift the levers
the levers lift to a height where the
bolt stump can pass through
and there we go it opens up so how do we
pick a residential non-curtain lever
lock like this well there are
two main ways one with wires and one
with specific tools if we're going to be
picking one of these residential lever
locks then we still need something to
turn the lock or pull the bolt stump
against the lever pack
and uh
that'll be this big thick wire you can
see that the whole bolt assembly will
move i've got the tip of the wire in the
talon and the bolt stump here is going
to be pushed against the gates in this
lever pack
i then need something to lift those
wires i've got a
commercial
wire here but you can make your own
again just out of some bicycle spoke or
some steel wire and we apply some
turning force pushing the bolt stump
against levers some will bind and turn
use a finger to rest the wire on we're
going to lift those levers up
in turn anything's binding
and see if we can
get
all of them to
ride up against that
bolt stump
and eventually
once it all at the correct height and i
can sort of see what i'm doing because
it's see-through
uh you'll see that the
whole bolt will shoot across
because there'll be a nice gap in the
there we go
gates in the lock there
for non-curtain leave locks you can also
purchase these tools which have a
picking tip and a turning tip all
included they're called two in one so
one will pull against the talon in the
bolt assembly and one tip will lift the
levers up to the correct height let's
look at that in action
so here's a very typical residential
non-curtained lever lock
and what we'll do is we'll take our two
in one tool
we'll put in the
turning tip
until we can feel
for the
bolt assembly and that's in the talon
then we're going to put the picking tip
in we're going to find any binding
levers one's body against the
the bolt
stump and lift them up to
slowly lift them up to the correct
height
and we should feel the sort of lock
incrementally
there we go
start to open until we get a full what
called bolt throw
and then we can remove our tool
and we can see that the lock is
fully open
and the very last lock type once covered
in this video teach you how to pick our
curtain leave locks we'll cover this
very briefly because they're not so
common across the world but they're
quite common here in the uk
what is a curtained lever lock well it's
a leave lock which actually has a
curtain this piece of metal here in the
keyway goes almost all the way around
it's attached to this
camera-like piece of metal at the back
why does it need that well
the key itself does contain lever steps
these steps which lift levers to the
correct height but it doesn't have a
bolt step on it
why not well
this cam like piece of metal attached to
that curtain
acts
on the bolt assembly in place of the key
interacting with it via a talon so as
you'll see the lever steps lift the
levers
and this
curtain pulls the bolt assembly and more
importantly this bolt stump through into
the lever pack like this
opening the lock
so how do we
replicate this and why do we have a
curtain in these locks well the curtain
is a security feature we can't access
the bolt assembly because the curtain
prevents a wire from being put into the
keyway pretty cool huh so what do we do
to
tension this lock well
you can either
make or buy these homemade tools made
out of keys so this is just a key a
split ring and some
thumb turn screws with a little grub
screw at the end and that can go in it's
been filed down flat you'll see that
allows a leave wire to be able to be
inserted go in and turn the curtain
which will then pull
you see there's a gap there between the
bolt stump and the lever pack it'll pull
those two together binding the levers
allowing you to pick the lock
you can also buy um some quite expensive
curtained lever lock turning tools like
this one as well
and of course you'll need a wire the
wire however needs to have a little kink
in the end so that it can reach over the
curtain i'll show you what i mean
so let's use the handmade tool we'll pop
that in
and then we'll get our pick wire with
that kink in the end and pop this into
the keyway
if we turn them together like that
you'll see that that bend in the corner
of the
pick tip allows
it to reach over the
metal shroud that curtain in the lock
you'll see that i can pull that
whole
bolt assembly into the lever pack and
bind them
um i can of course see what i'm doing in
this lock
but nevertheless
you see what we have to do then is we
use that
wire to find any binding levers
and lift them up to the correct height
and hopefully
go through and
around
the lock and lift them to all these
levers to the correct height
bear in mind that like i said i can see
what i'm doing in this lock which is
very unlike a
real-life situation
and once everything is to the correct
height
they can be a bit stiff
there we go the lock will turn
so there we go we've reached the end of
the video we've covered off how to pick
loads and loads of different types of
locks we've learned to pick standard pin
tumblers detained locks water locks
cross key locks smiley dimple locks dial
combination locks tubular locks dimple
locks wafer locks lever padlocks mortise
lever locks and curtain lever locks all
in one video i really hope you enjoyed
it
and although we haven't covered off
every possible type of lock mechanism or
combinations thereof i guarantee you if
you learn how to pick all of these
common lock types you're going to be
much better equipped to be able to learn
all the other
stranger and rarer
lock mechanisms that are out there
anyway if you like this video please
please do leave a like share the video
about let people know about it
comment below as well i read all the
comments and reply to as many as i can
and of course if you like content like
this then please do consider subscribing
because it really helps me out
thank you very much for watching and
i'll see you all next time
you