Lock picking
Lock picking is the art of unlocking a lock without its intended key. Locksmiths are trained in lock picking. The tools for lock picking are usually different for each type of lock and can sometimes be improvised from common items, such as hair pins or safety pins. Some people enjoy picking locks because it has hack value and doing so is fun to them.
Although it is often associated with criminal intent, lock picking is the ideal way of opening a lock without a key. Lock picking does not damage the lock, allowing it to be rekeyed for later use.
Usually it is possible to bypass a lock without picking it. Most common locks can be quickly and easily opened using a drill, bolt cutters, or a hydraulic jack, or the hasp, door, or fixture they are attached to can be cut or broken. A lock that offers high resistance to picking does not necessarily make unauthorized access more difficult, but it will make surreptitious unauthorized access more difficult. Locks are often used in combination with alarms to provide layered security.
Techniques to pick different types of locks
A tension wrench (or torque wrench) is used to apply a torque to the cylinder, while a lock pick (or picklock) is used to push individual pins up until they are flush with the shear line. As each pin is manipulated to its correct height, the cylinder will turn fractionally causing another pin to bind. The pins will not bind simultaneously because they will not be aligned perfectly with the axis of the cylinder. Once all of the pins are flush with the shear line, the tension wrench can be turned fully to open the lock.
Raking or scrubbing a pin tumbler lock is usually done before individual pins are pushed up. While applying torque with the tension wrench, a lock pick with a wide tip is placed at the back of the lock and quickly slid outwards with upward pressure so all the pins are pushed up. Raking may allow some of the pins to be flush with the shear line and can make the job easier.
Most of the simple pin tumbler automatic padlocks can be picked without a torque wrench using the so-called safety-pin-method. These padlocks allow the picker to open the lock while applying pressure to the side and raking at the same time - with the same tool (a bent wire in this case). Because the cylinder has to be turned only 1/8th of a full turn, and there are only 3 or sometimes just 2 pins to set, the lock simply jumps out of its place. Cheap and small padlocks may even open more easily with a safetypin than with a key.
Some pin tumbler locks have special security pins, with serrations, mushroom heads, or spool shapes, that make lock picking more difficult by causing the pins to bind in locations other than their correct ones.
Another technique, often the fastest, uses a vibration pick or gun, which sharply strikes all the bottom pins simultaneously while light torque is applied; like a cue ball, the energy is transmitted through to the top pins, which fly to the top of their well. This momentarily creates a large space between the two pins, and, given the right timing, the lock can be turned. The Pick Gun was initially developed for law enforcement, allowing officers who are not adept at lock picking to open a lock quickly and easily.
A refinement of this kinetic technique is the use of bump keys. These are keys with all the cuts at or slightly below the deepest level for a key made by the manufacturer, and a small amount of material removed at the tip, and, where applicable, at the shoulder - the part of the key that prevents the key from entering the lock too deeply. By sharply striking the bump key, it is possible to apply an even impact to each pin column, which then separates as if struck using a pick gun. Bump keys will work in many locks that pick gun needles will not fit into.
To defend against these attacks, high-security locks use a sidebar, which engages from another axis and also prevents the lock from turning. Medeco locks do this by requiring the pins to be rotated to a correct position, as well as moved to their correct height. Other brands put the sidebar cuts in the side of the key.
Pin tumbler locks are particularly suited to master keying, where each lock in the group can be opened by either a master key, which will open any lock in the group, or a specific change key, which will open only that one lock (or others identical to it). This is done by using pins with more than two parts, so that it will shear at more than one position. However, in poorly supervised areas, those who have access to a door that is unlocked or for which they have a legitimate key can remove the lock from the door and disassemble it to determine the master keying pattern.
Lever locks can be picked by putting a force on the bolt in the direction that withdraws it, then moving the levers up (and down again if necessary), generally one-by-one until the stump on the bolt has entered the gate of each lever, at which point the lock opens. This can be done with two wires, a two-in-one pick, or in the case of a lock with a curtain, a curtain pick.
Many lever locks use anti-picking notches on the stump and levers. These are the equivalent of security pins in a pin tumbler lock, and cause the picker to incorrectly believe that a lever is at the correct height.
Chubb's detector lock, which is no longer in general manufacture, could mechanically detect a lever being lifted too high, and would then refuse to open until the mechanism was released by turning the correct key (sometimes a special regulator key) in the lock as if to lock it further. This lock was difficult, but far from impossible to pick.
A sophisticated lever locks may use a detent, which ensures that the levers are locked into a particular position before the bolt stump can touch them. These locks cannot be picked with the usual tentative method.
Some very high-quality lever locks employ anti-pressure systems, which prevent a picker from pressing the bolt stump into the levers with more than a certain force. Applying too high a force causes the mechanism to jam. On most anti-pressure system locks, the system can be released without the key, but release involves allowing all the levers to fall, which undoes all picking effort. The mechanism's trigger force is usually so low that the picker finds it hard to determine which levers are correctly-, and which incorrectly set, and hence cannot even decode the lock by impressioning.
A tubular lock has the pins arranged in a circular pattern, and uses a tube shaped key. Tubular locks are commonly seen on vending machines and some bike locks.
A tubular lock pick is used to keep the pins from moving once they have been picked until all have been picked. These locks can be picked using a pin and a torsion tool, but using this method is far slower than using a tubular lock pick, and for many locks the process has to be repeated several times as the cylinder is rotated to open the lock.
It is possible to open many tubular pin tumbler locks by inserting a ring of soft material, such as cardboard, or even the tube from a ballpoint pen into them, and wiggling it while applying a constant gentle rotative force. The soft material deforms, allowing each pin to work its way into the picking tool until the pin is in the correct position, whereupon the pin no longer deforms the cardboard, or plastic etc. When all pins are correctly set, the lock opens. This is a form of impressioning
A double-sided pick can be used to keep the discs from moving once they have been picked until all have been picked.
Various methods can be used to open combination locks, none of which are technically picking. These methods are instead called bypassing.
Cheap combination padlocks can be opened using a thin metal piece slid between the body and shackle; the padlock shim technique can also work with non-combination padlocks.
Other combination locks require the opener to find the combination to the lock. The exact techniques differ and some manufacturers, such as Master Lock, make this process very time-consuming on their latest models.
With a warded pick, warded locks are probably one of the easiest locks to pick. Warded picks have basic shapes that fit many types of warded locks. They are inserted into the key hole and slowly turned until the lock opens.
Tool Sets
Lock Pick Kits can be purchased openly via the internet. Many different selections are present. 9-piece sets and a 32-piece set equipped with a Pick Gun for example differ in value and price greatly. However, many lockpickers state that for most locking devices, a basic set of 5 picks should be enough, therefore it is unnecessary even to carry around a wide variety of professional lockpicks.
Legal Status
In the United States, laws concerning possession of lockpicks vary from state to state.
In Columbia, it is strictly forbidden to possess lock-picking kits, and is considered felony.
Most countries of the EU don't regulate the possession of lockpicks. All responsibility concerning criminal or legal acts using the picks is taken by the owner of the lockpicks.
See also
External links
- A very detailed lesson of the art of lock picking with pictures and a video of an expert at work.
- Comunidad Lockpicking españolaLockpicking Spanish Community
- How lock-picking works at Howstuffworks.com
- alt.locksmithing Frequently Asked Questions
- The Document Which Used To Be Called The MIT Lockpicking Guide by 'Ted the Tool'
- TOOOL The Open Organisation of Lockpickers