 Welcome to the Lockpick Village. We are the open organization of lock pickers and international nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching hobbyist lock picking, sometimes called lock sport. This is the tool introduction to lock picking talk, where we will teach you real lock picking over the course of the next 20 to 25 minutes. To begin with though, we have some rules. Because we are the good guys, the white hat hackers, ethical locksporters, we have two rules that we're very serious about. First, don't pick locks that you don't own, which includes the locks in your apartment or the other institutions that you're at. And also, don't pick locks upon which you rely. We want lock picking to improve your safety and improve your ability to control your surroundings, not damage the locks or damage your personal safety. So follow those two rules, help us improve the impression of lock pickers and help yourself stay out of trouble. The type of lock picking we're talking about today is pin tumbler lock picking. And it has two tools involved, not one, not three or more. It's two hands with two different tools doing two different tasks inside the lock. In Hollywood, you'll see them stick any old thing, a piece of chewing gum, a pen inside the lock. And what do you know, it just falls open. In the real world though, picking this type of lock takes two different tools with two different tasks. I show you this slide here so that you can see it at least once right before we talk about how it's actually done. As for the type of lock, that pin tumbler lock, well that's the famous lock profile that you've seen just about every day if you're in North America and many places outside of North America. Whether you see that shape in a deadbolt or a padlock or any time that you see that familiar curvy shape, that's the pin tumbler lock. And since about 1865, it has been what we mean when we say lock in North America. You're used to seeing it from the outside, which are probably less used to seeing is the inside. Let's go past that front face and look behind it. Here's your X-ray view and some vocabulary terms. There's a lot of terms here. The one I want you to focus on is that one right in middle, that blue pin, which we call the driver pin. Obviously they're not red and blue in real life and we can't really refer to them as one pin, two pin, red pin, blue pin. Nor can we refer to them as top and bottom pin because in Europe when they have these types of locks, they can often be inverted. And since they've been doing this longer than we have, they win, we don't call them top and bottom, we give them functional names. And the driver pin, the driver pin's job is to push down on that key pin. The key pin holds the driver pin up and the spring makes sure that gravity doesn't affect what happens with those pins. If you wanna think about it, the driver pin is the lock because it's the piece that's half in and half out of that plug, that yellow plug that turns. If the driver pin sits right there, then the lock stays locked and the spring and the key pin are just there to make sure that unless and until the proper key is entered, that driver pin is in the way. We talk about the driver pin being in the way. What we mean is it's at this dotted line called the shear line. The shear line isn't a part of a lock, it's a place or it's really an absence of thing, which is the separation between again, the plug that turns and the housing that doesn't. As long as there's something at that shear line, usually the driver pin, the lock is locked, won't turn and won't open. Here's what it looks like when you try to turn the lock with the driver pin still in place. It wobbles a little bit, but it doesn't open. Think of that driver pin as saying, no, no, still no, try again, I'm locked. The way to change that is with a key. All the keys job is to displace, fill up that space so that the key pin rises up, which in turn pushes the driver pin up. And as soon as the driver pin is past that shear line and there is nothing at the shear line, i.e. the key pin is all the way in and the driver pin is all the way out, there's nothing blocking the plug, the plug can turn and the lock can open. If you take multiple driver pins, multiple key pins and multiple springs and you all put those in a lock body, you have a real honest to goodness bought it at the hardware store lock. This is the lock at rest, a few things you'll notice about it. First, the driver pins are all in line at the shear line and they're all identical. Also the springs are all identical up here, even though they look like they're different sizes, they're just doing what springs do in filling up space. The key pins are where the difference comes in. Key pins, some are short, some are tall. That's where the variation lock to lock comes from and by definition, the key for that lock is the reciprocal of each of those key pins. Notice that the pin don't fall all the way down to the bottom of the lock because the hole that each pin is drilled into is just the right size to make sure that even though this area down here looks like it's just empty space, it's actually a little notch so the pins don't fall all the way down to the bottom and that there's room for the key. Now, if you have the right key for the lock, it slides in, you'll watch the driver pins go up and down, the key pins go up and down, and when it's finished, there's a nice clear shear line. You pull the key back out, everything returns to its resting state and the lock is locked again. One more time, the springs give way and then they push everything back down to its new resting state with a clear shear line. If you have a key that is almost right, you have a lock that is almost locked. In this case, this key is right in the first position, third, fourth, and fifth position, but the second position, it doesn't lift the key pin quite high enough, which means the driver pin isn't lifted quite high enough and there is still one driver pin at the shear line. This lock is almost open, but almost is not good enough, it's still locked. You can have the alternate problem, where now we have a key that is a little too high in that second position, which means to push that key pin up above the shear line, key pins are just as happy as driver pins to block the shear line and prevent that lock from opening. But of course, where we're going, we don't need keys. So if you came here just to learn about keys, then you can go, you know everything there is to know about pin tumbler keys. If you wanna learn about lockpicking, then kick your brain into overdrive because this is the complicated part here. In a perfect world, lockpicking would not be possible. Now that wouldn't be a perfect world for all of us that love teaching lockpicking and love doing lockpicking. But when I say a perfect world, I mean, mathematically perfect where things roll off the production line exactly the way they were designed. Here is a schematic view of a lock. We've taken that plug, you've taken all the springs, key pins, and driver pins out of it and we're just looking at the holes that they go into. You'll notice that those holes are perfectly in line, which means when you try to give that plug a turn after you filled it with springs, driver pins, and key pins, each one of those driver pins that is right on the shear line, every single one of them says together and in unison, no, stop, go no further, the right key isn't in here, this lock will remain locked. And they agree on that. And that would be great if such a lock existed because it would be unpickable, reason being the only way to open the lock would be to lift each and every one to the right height at the right time. And if you can do that, then you have what's called a key. In the real world, however, no lock is perfect. So what you see here is the downsides of mass production, cheap locks, not bad locks, just inexpensive locks built with different priorities in mind, cost effectiveness being one of them. So here you see the chipping, the marring, the misalignments, the rusting that comes from a real world piece of equipment. As a result, if you put key pins into it, then you'll see that they don't all align. In fact, up here at the top, the holes have drifted fairly far to the left and down here at the bottom, the holes have begun to drift to the right. Of these one, two, three, four, five, six pins, only about one of them is in the center where it's intended to be. All the rest of them wobble a little bit. So here's what it looks like in the real world. We've taken this plug again and we've redrawn it to be schematic of what you'd see in a real lock in the real world. It was manufactured off a real manufacturing line. And you'll see that all the holes are still there, but now they wander a little bit. We put this dotted line here to make it a little bit more obvious. And you can see that the one, two, three, fourth pin here is the most out of line. If they are not perfectly in line, then by definition, one of them has to be the most out of line. In this case, in this particular example of a lock, it's the fourth pin that is the furthest to the right, which means if we were to give that plug a turn, well, it wouldn't open because it's not that bad, but what it would do is it would stop on the one and only one driver pin that is actually in the way, which is the one furthest to the right. So you can think of it as five pins, but now instead of agreeing whether the lock should stay closed, four of them are silent. They don't even notice the plug is being turned. One and only one of them is saying, stop, go no further. In other words, you've paid for five pins worth of security and you're only getting this one pin worth of security right now because of manufacturing tolerances in the lock. So it stands to reason that if this is the one and only one pin that is blocking your progress, if you could reach inside the lock with some sort of lock pick and lift up on that key pin, it would lift up on the driver pin. And if you managed to get that driver pin above the shear line, then nothing would be stopping the lock from turning and it would turn. How far would it turn? Not a lot, just until it stopped at the next pin that was in the way. On this diagram, it might be the first one. You have to figure that out for yourself. Lock by lock, pin by pin. Remember, these are not intentional. These are manufacturing defects or manufacturing tolerances, but that's the nature of hacking. Given an inch or given a fraction of a millimeter, we will take a mile. This allows us to pick each pin individually using only one lock pick. So let's go look back at that attempt without a key. If you turn the plug, the plug turns a little bit and then stops on that driver pin. We call that the binding pin. If you can find the binding pin, then your job is solve the binding pin, lift up on it just enough such that the key pin pushes the driver pin above that shear line and watch what happens something magical. The plug turns under the driver pin and the driver pin can't go home again. One more time, once the driver pin goes above the shear line, the door closes behind it and it traps it up there. In other words, it's mechanical auto-save. It's like a ratchet mechanism, not designed that way. It's an effect of the manufacturing tolerances and we're going to exploit the heck out of it to allow us to set multiple pins in a row until there are no more to set and the lock falls open. Here's what it looks like in practice. We're first going to tension the lock. If there's no tension, then you're not picking the lock, you're just lifting up pins and they'll fall right back down. You need to tension the lock to create that bind in the first place. Once you've created the bind, your next job, find the bind. Go through the pins sequentially, lift up on each one, so you find one that has a little bit of a grind, crunch, creak, something, anything other than the squishiness that says it's not the binding pin, it's just the spring. This may take a little bit of practice, keeping track of where you are on the lock and learning how to feel the subtle differences between the pins, that's the skill of lock picking. But as you get better at it, you'll be able to find each binding pin pushed up just the right amount, get the click, get the feedback, get the little bit of turn of the lock that tells you it's set and then you go on to the next one. Do that for as many pins as there are in the lock and the lock will just fall open. This is not like a big safe lock where you gotta chump it open at the end because you've been turning since the very beginning and taking away each and every obstacle to the turning. So if you just put the tension in, start turning that same constant steady pressure will serve you all the way through the end and every time you set a pin, the lock will turn just a little bit more until when you've removed all the pins in the way, it will just fall open. Now let's take a look at one of the most common problems in lock picking that will stop you cold, especially if you don't know to be able to look out for it. We call it overlifting and that's when you replace one problem with another by putting the key pin up above the shear line where the driver pin normally is. You see this person picking along had a short one in the fourth position and another short one in the third position which means when it comes time to pick the last one with a little bit taller key pin, they lift it too high and it gets bound above the shear line. The only way to get out of this position is to release your tension down here, shake the edge of sketch and lose all your progress. So just like getting a haircut or salting the soup you can always go back and do more it's very hard to go back and do less. So, light hands, small movements, remember how small these pieces are and avoid overlifting will save yourself a lot of trouble. And of course, if you do get stuck, that's okay. Shake it out, shake your hands up, shake the lock out, start over, you'll do better next time. We've talked a lot about what this hand is doing using the lock pick, but let's talk about the unsung hero, the turning tool. A lot of very intelligent pickers will tell you very seriously that in all practicality the turning tool is what picks the lock because the turning tool is responsible for putting that all important, constant steady pressure on the lock. As far as how to apply that pressure, well, first we like using that big finger, the precision digit, and put it far out on the turning tool so that you can use leverage and amplify any feedback you get. Next question, how much turning pressure? And I will tell you honestly, there is good reasons to do light pressure and there's good reasons to do heavy pressure. And someone who tells you one or the other isn't wrong, they're weighing different things. We at the lock pick village tend to tell novice lock pickers start off with light pressure. That has a lot more to do with not damaging the locks or the equipment than it does with being the most effective way to pick locks. A lot of very good lock pickers tend to use quite heavy tension, but very carefully modulated heavy tension. They use the right amount of tension to get the feedback from the lock. So experiment with the tension levels, but most importantly, don't put on more than you can confidently, comfortably, and safely use. As for the type of picks, you'll probably have a lot of picks in your kit. We call this one the hook. We call this one the half diamond because apparently triangle is too hard to say. This is sometimes called a rake, a snake rake. There's lots of varieties of cool little wiggly ones. When you're just starting off, we recommend starting with these two, either the half diamond or the hook, because they tend to promote the best practice and give you the most accuracy in picking one pin at a time. Now, as you're starting off, there's a tendency to figure out how you want to lift in the lock. You could put it against the bottom, you could put it against your finger, you could float it in midair. Whatever works for you, mindful of the task that you're trying to do, which is feel very small things in a lock and get it to turn. So don't add any more friction to the lock than you need to and don't rub up against the sides or other material in the lock more than you need to. But mostly it's a matter of personal choice. Accept that if you're doing something like this rocking lifting, I want you to make sure that lifting doesn't turn into crowbarring. These are precision tools. And if you're really digging, especially if you're using really heavy tension and you start getting really firm binds, there's a tendency to start crowbarring and the pick starts to bend, which means it's no good for anyone. If these are your tools, then that's too bad because you're out of tool. If there are tools, it's almost worse because then not only can we use it, but no one else can use it either. And it makes it harder to put on lock pick villages like we love to do. So as you're picking, be gentle. Remember that these are precision tools. I put up a picture of the bunny here, not because I think you're children, but because I know I've thrown a lot of complex information at you. And if I show you a picture of a crying bunny, you'll remember be gentle, ease up, use the tools with precision. Now, if you're just starting lock picking, there's a great activity that everyone would benefit from. And that's this. Pull the turning tool out of lock. Just for this one time, don't try to pick the lock. What I want you to do is feel the tension. Think of this as a tension taste test, or as a springiness taste test. Reach into the lock with the pick of your choice and on that one pin, just lift up on that pin. This is especially great if you have a lock. There's taken all the other pins out and there's just one to focus on. But you can do it with other locks too with a little bit of cleverness. Just lift up on that pin and feel what a springy pin feels like without any tension. Then, and only then, add the turning tool so that you have a little bit of tension. And now, if there's only one pin in the lock, you've created a binding pin. Now go in and try that one on for size. Feel that binding, grinding, crunching, scraping. Characterize it however you want, but being able to tell the difference between that binding pin and the unbinding pin without tension is the essence of lock picking and zeroing in on that feeling will make you a much better lock pick. Of course, the most important part of lock picking is practicing and a tool we've gone to a lot of effort to create practice locks specifically designed for learning lock picking. If you're at one of our lock pick villages, we have multiple locks that have some of the pins pulled out of them. So you can go from a one pin lock all the way up to a six pin lock and learn as you go. But you don't need tool locks to practice. You can get locks at your hardware store. You might find padlocks like this, they work fine. They're cheap locks, but they'll teach you enough about lock picking. You can also find just regular door deadbolt locks. It doesn't matter what type of locks that you get as long as you sit down with them, you practice with them and you have enough of them that you have the variety. So you're not learning how to pick a particular lock, you're learning how to pick locks in general. Because you're at home, I wanted to run you through some frequently asked questions that we often hear, see if we can get you set up on the right path. Preston, how do you hold the lock? What we like to do is turn the lock so the top part is deep in the web of your hand and then you can close these two knuckles here over the lock, holds it fairly gently, but securely. And then if you stick out that index finger, the turning tool will just rest right against that index finger giving you the right amount of pressure. How do I hold the pick? Well, thinking that like a scalpel, this is a surgical tool. So hold it like a scalpel that pencil grip works great. This one doesn't work so good because you've got a little bit too much grip and people tend to start digging too hard. And then of course, holding it like a shiv is right out, that's dangerous and weird, avoid that. And if you happen to have locks that are out of their housing, so that you can see the back of the lock which people don't typically see, we wanna make sure that you know that the pick goes in this part, this shiny silver front. If you can see the back that looks like that, that's the wrong end of the lock, go in the front. You'll have a lot more locked. Now lock picking, not supposed to be easy. This is new, this is a skill-based exercise that evolution has done nothing to prepare you to. So I wanna make sure that as you're doing this, be nice to yourself, relax if you wanna have a beer, talk to somebody, that's all part of the fun. That's what we do when we're doing tool meetups. We sit around, we chat with each other, we relax, we have fun with it. And if you don't know what that animal is, now you have seen a baby wombat in your day is better. And then traditionally in lock sport, no matter what the lock is, whether it's a practice lock or it's a project lock that you've been working on for weeks, when you get it open, say open. Own it, celebrate it, all locks you open are worth celebrating and we want you to have fun with it. Lastly, if this sounds like fun to you, we are a membership organization. We have members all over the United States, Canada, UK, Australia and many other countries. We would love you to join, be a part of the organization from your home or in person as soon as we can. So go check out members.tool.us. And of course, if you can't wait to get lock picking, you wanna get your hands on lock picking gear as soon as you can, then tool.us slash equipment has exactly the gear that we like to train people on and we'd love you to get started on it too. So happy lock picking, practice, be gentle, celebrate your wins and we'll see you at the next lock pick village.