Mon Feb 02, 2015 3:15 pm
Howdy from the PNW
Hello everyone and thanks for having this community! The members here write tremendously detailed and interesting posts, I've really enjoyed reading Oldfast's posts on Americans and Slaymakers and JimyLong's slide deck on making Bogotas.
I've been able to pick at the Master #3/#5/#1/Kwikset level for several years now but back in October I was at a regional security conference and me and my partner dropped in to the lockpick village some friends had set up where I had pretty good luck opening a number of the locks they had there which planted the seed -- "I could be pretty good at this if I practice a bit more" -- and around the start of the year (having spent December working over the picking-designated masters, KWs, chinese no-names and a stray wafer lock) I decided to challenge myself a bit more. I got myself a couple cheap used Bests (one looks to be a well worn and nice and open
), an American and most recently a lot of 6 Sargent and 6 Corbin Russwin keyless mortise cylinders to do some progressive pinning experiments (without care for keeping track of bitting). I may get out to the local TOOOL meeting again one of these days...
At the moment security pins can still confound me. I can open a Master 140 SPP but not with consistency (incidentally my partner "accidentally" re-discovered the viability of bypass with these locks while probing around aggressively with a hook! That lock has never been the same since, but I cautiously probed into this lock with a tungsten carbide cutter to produce a savage cutaway to see how that technique was working, so it was a worthwhile sacrifice.) There's also this dang "Chinrose" that I got open within mere seconds from first picking it up, but never since. So that's what I'm working on, skill-wise.
Now that I'm starting to get a better feel for what tools work for me I'm starting to experiment with making my own tools and have been working on a TOK tensioner from some ground-out bike spokes.
Anyhow, glad to be on here and maybe some time I'll post some of my SWL recordings to the CQ DX subforum. Thanks for the great posts everyone!
I've been able to pick at the Master #3/#5/#1/Kwikset level for several years now but back in October I was at a regional security conference and me and my partner dropped in to the lockpick village some friends had set up where I had pretty good luck opening a number of the locks they had there which planted the seed -- "I could be pretty good at this if I practice a bit more" -- and around the start of the year (having spent December working over the picking-designated masters, KWs, chinese no-names and a stray wafer lock) I decided to challenge myself a bit more. I got myself a couple cheap used Bests (one looks to be a well worn and nice and open
), an American and most recently a lot of 6 Sargent and 6 Corbin Russwin keyless mortise cylinders to do some progressive pinning experiments (without care for keeping track of bitting). I may get out to the local TOOOL meeting again one of these days...At the moment security pins can still confound me. I can open a Master 140 SPP but not with consistency (incidentally my partner "accidentally" re-discovered the viability of bypass with these locks while probing around aggressively with a hook! That lock has never been the same since, but I cautiously probed into this lock with a tungsten carbide cutter to produce a savage cutaway to see how that technique was working, so it was a worthwhile sacrifice.) There's also this dang "Chinrose" that I got open within mere seconds from first picking it up, but never since. So that's what I'm working on, skill-wise.
Now that I'm starting to get a better feel for what tools work for me I'm starting to experiment with making my own tools and have been working on a TOK tensioner from some ground-out bike spokes.
Anyhow, glad to be on here and maybe some time I'll post some of my SWL recordings to the CQ DX subforum. Thanks for the great posts everyone!
