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How Did You Get Started...

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vde

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Familiar Face

Posts: 45

Joined: Tue Mar 17, 2015 4:03 pm

Location: Austria

Post Sun Mar 13, 2016 3:49 pm

Re: How Did You Get Started...

Well it is a two part backwards story :D

A few years ago I found a "how to pick a lock" tutorial and watched a few lessons. Then forgot about it until I stumbled upon Bill's channel and then some memories surfaced:

back in time: when I was a kid I had fascination with keys I had (still have it actually) a collection of 30-40 keys, everything I could get my hands on during the late 80s early 90s.
I even remember my nan had a (by memory then and knowledge now) a warded lock which I actually picked with paper clip, but she didn't believe me when I told her so that was the end of the story.

fast forward until 2-3 years ago: After Bills channel I bought a pick set, some Chinese 7 bucks thingy which I replaced with a GOSO and as the matrix go "for a time it was good". Then I got the feel and need for locks and needed something better so I found the set I use now (HUK should anyone ask) and from that moment on..... well lets say 220 videos including tonight's. (and a threat from the wife not to spend too much money on locks or else... a serious or else) :)
Still happy picking and a big naughty box'o'locks.

cheers
Have fun with my channel - VDE on YouTube
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mrdeus

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Posts: 52

Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2016 6:26 am

Location: Sweden

Post Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:01 am

Re: How Did You Get Started...

I was interested in lock picking, secret compartments, hidden doors and such as a kid, but I never learned how to pick a lock. I only managed to open one pad lock that could be opened by inserting two straightened ends of a paperclip and twist it around a bit :).

This time around I saw a video that The Mythbusters' Facebook page posted which showed how to pick a pin tumbler lock with a bobby pin. I found it fascinating and gave it a go. I couldn't open the Abus lock I had at hand, so I went to the hardware store and bought the cheapest pad lock they had and managed to pick it open with two paper clips. After a lot of trial and error and watching videos about picking spools I managed to get the Abus open as well and decided to order some proper picks.

So far I'm keeping it up. It's fun to be completely unable to open a lock at first and then figuring out how to beat it.
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Kitteh_of_Dovrefjel

Newbie

Posts: 2

Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:40 am

Location: Iowa

Post Mon Mar 14, 2016 5:02 pm

Re: How Did You Get Started...

Act 1:
In high school I got to enjoy the tail end of BBSs and the earliest days of the web. One of the bits of digital detritus that drifted across my screen was...The Anarchist's Cookbook. I'll pause now for the chuckles, head shaking, eye rolling, and general amusement and scorn to subside. Anyhoo..... The section on sneakily gaining access to places one shouldn't properly be caught my attention and a bit of experimentation followed. The high point of this period was the day the librarian in charge of the computers forgot her keys at home and couldn't get into her desk. A few moments with a pair of paper clips and the old Hon was open. She immediately threw a fit about how I couldn't do that. So I locked her desk back up and wandered off to be a sullen and angst ridden teen somewhere with less screeching.... for all of ten minute until she came and found me and asked with surprising humility if I could open her desk back up. I walked away from the ordeal with one of the rarest of items in my school at the time. A laminated hall pass allowing me to basically wander as I saw fit. This led to a lucrative smuggling business for the rest of the semester. As it is wont to do time passed and interests shifted and my early fiddlings with paper clips and cheap, worn wafer locks were consigned to the dusty attics of memory.

Until......

Act 2:
Some twenty years and change have passed since I last used office supplies to open a desk. A friend calls and asks me if I'd be willing to help him out with the kids track he's overseeing as part of a one day cyber security conference at a local college. The plan is to teach kids a few basic hacker/maker skills while various speakers discuss social engineering and Russian worms. He's got rooms set up for cryptography, programming, soldering, and lock picking. All of the rooms are being run by competent folks who actually get paid to do this stuff on weekdays. But children being children he's assigning extra staff to the soldering area so that each pair of kids has a "responsible adult" making sure they don't brand satanic symbols into each others foreheads or write dirt limericks on the tables with the soldering pens. Apparently despite many years acquaintance my friend has decided I am a responsible adult and so I'm going to referee children with sizzling hot chunks of metal. Fun. Day of the event and as I'm dumping my bag in the soldering room and finding the fire extinguisher my friend asks if I know anything about picking locks. It seems his instructor for that room had bailed at the last minute. I spend the next hour watching the Youtube videos they had already found for the class and working feverishly with an Amazon special set of picks and a clear padlock. I might not have a clue but any adult that sounds like they know what they're talking about should be good enough for the day right? Right? Well, i managed to not make a complete hash of things. All the kids eventually managed to get an open on their lock, some of the parents did too. More than one parent asked if we really thought it was a good idea to teach kids how to "break into" locks. I got really good at explaining that it was a two pronged approach. We were teaching the kids that perception of security and reality were not always the same and in a world of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and a million other impossible to monitor channels of communication understanding what security really means was a good thing right? And if kids learned that physical security wasn't really available for $8US at Walmart and it saved their new bike that was a good thing too. Apparently that line was good enough to get one of the paid scribblers for the local paper to wander into my room for a bit and the next day's edition had me quoted and described as a "security systems expert". Not bad for a line cook. One of the outcomes of my new title was rekindling my interest in locks. A week and a few days later a Sparrow's Tuxedo landed on my doorstep, Youtube got a lot of hits, and all the old padlocks I had lying around got piled on a desk and mercilessly raked open.

That was back in October.

Since then I've added a few picks, learned to SPP, entered a contest on Reddit, collected a few amusing locks, and found myself here.

In six months I've learned a lot. Mostly that I don't know a damned thing.

So....

Now to drop a siphon into the group's mind and drain all your smarts into my own head.
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Korver15

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Posts: 153

Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2015 4:29 pm

Location: Northwest Iowa

Post Tue Mar 15, 2016 7:21 am

Re: How Did You Get Started...

I had always had an interest in puzzles and the like, and I had always liked the idea of picking locks. It wasnt until I saw a post on Imgur about the southord 'Locksmith School in a Box', and I decided I would research lockpicking further. I then started watched a video about someone picking a lock with bobby pins. After a successfull open on a tiny master with 3 pins I was hooked. I started binge watching bills videos researching picks, locks, etc bought some southord picks and the ultimate challenge lock. Dropped an obscene amount of hours and hours and money into the hobby and now it has almost been a year and have picked assa, primus, medeco, MTL, and cannot get enough! Very recently started dappling with making youtube videos to show some lock picking and an attempt to help others.
A wise man once told me I was a unique person. Just like everyone else. Korver15 Channel
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Josh66

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Active Member

Posts: 308

Joined: Thu Aug 09, 2012 12:22 pm

Location: Columbus, OH, USA

Post Wed Mar 16, 2016 7:56 pm

Re: How Did You Get Started...

You know, I'm not even sure how I got started... I remember picking my first lock and making my first picks pretty clearly, but I have no idea now why I actually started.

Bored at work, probably. Me and a couple coworkers wanted to pick a lock for some reason, so I googled how to make lock picks, found the LSI Primer, then made a crappy half diamond out of a banding strap that was around a crate. And it worked. It was really soft metal though, so didn't last long. Being an aircraft mechanic, I work with metal all day and have access to all the steel and titanium I could ever need for making picks. My productivity has gone way down since then. LOL.
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Secureskies

Newbie

Posts: 2

Joined: Wed Mar 16, 2016 8:40 pm

Location: Indiana

Post Thu Mar 17, 2016 4:12 am

Re: How Did You Get Started...

Wow! This is my first post to the site so here goes. Many years ago a friend of mine gave me a pick set when I was in the SEAL Teams. It came in handy every once in awhile, but I didn't really get into the profession until about 30 years later. After my retirement from Law Enforcement I didn't have a lot to do with my extra time, and one day I was perusing a garage sale when I saw a rotisserie rack full of keys for sale. I asked the lady how much she was selling the keys for and she said $30. I left there without the keys. When I got home, I told my wife about the keys and said, "You know, I believe the Lord is speaking to my heart and wants me to buy some keys". She looked at me kind of funny and said, "If the Lord wants you to have those keys, then you'd better go buy them". If you knew my wife, you would know that she would never suggest me to buy anything, so I knew it was the Lords will... After purchasing the keys, I found a good used ILCO 044D for sale for $300. Then I got a lot of old Sergant rim cylinders from an auction for next to nothing and started picking them. I then took some great, self paced locksmithing courses and got my certification. And the rest is history as they say... We are now a full service locksmithing company. So much for retirement...lol!
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mastersmith

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Contributor
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Posts: 675

Joined: Wed May 25, 2011 4:16 pm

Location: Miami Township, Ohio

Post Thu Mar 17, 2016 7:45 pm

Re: How Did You Get Started...

Wow, such interesting stories! My own is so terribly mundane. I had graduated from high school that year, applied to college (and accepted) and planned on spending the summer bussing tales at a local restaurant. One evening I was at work clearing tables. In walks a friends parents who own a lock shop. His dad proceeds to tell me that he and his son have had a huge argument and the son joined the Navy! The argument was over the length of his hair, which I always thought to be humorous, because the Navy cut it all off! Anyway, he asked me if I would like to come and work for him. Two weeks later I worked my first day in a lock shop and I've worked in one ever since. That was September of 1973. I was fortunate to find a trade I really like, right out of the shoot!
"All ye who come this art to see / to handle anything must cautious be...." Benjamin Franklin
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