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Hi guys

I was talking with my uncle about lock picking the other day and he gave me this old ABLOY padlock.

He reckons it cost quite a bit when he bought it many years ago. I google the lock and found this info on it

"ABLOY Model 3015-3018 Brass padlock with long shackle. This lock uses the Classic keyway design.
These older padlocks are difficult to find and will make a great addition to your lock collection. ABLOY locks are from Finland and are known for their quality and resistance to the cold and wet weather of Scandinavian countries.
Unlike regular pin tumbler locks, w the key lifts pins in order to open the lock, ABLOY Classic locks use round discs which are stacked inside the lock and the angled cuts on the keys push against each disc turning it a certain number of degrees. If the key and discs match, once rotation of the key begins, a sidebar drops into a groove on the outside edge of the discs and the lock turns all they way until the shackle can be pulled up. This process was invented in 1907. These locks cannot be picked with regular lock picks."

I don't know how accurate this info is, if anyone can give me some tips on picking this it would be much appreciated

Well like the info you provided states, it's a disk detainer. You need a disk detainer pick, or decoding tool to pick these effectively. It's a completely different game from pin tumbler locks.

Solomon is a very knowledgeable guy when it comes to disk detainer locks, he also wrote a guide for them, if you do a KP search you should be able to find it.

Abloy locks are a step up in skill from regular disk locks aswell.

Thanks for the info Chris. I'm still getting to grips with pin tumblers so I don't think i'll be trying to tackle this lock for a while.

It's a nice looking lock though so it will be a good addition to my collection.

I have a NEW Abloy that's similar to the one you have, i think it's a 320 . yeah you definitely can't pick it with regular tools, but they are fun to play with

Making a 2 in 1 for those keyways is a pain in the ass because of the space limitation when moving between set discs, it needs to be able to slip through the smallest gap created by 2 discs at their extremes of rotation while at the same time being strong enough to hold up to regular use. There are only 2 picks for it on the market... the falle one, which is very expensive and restricted - and the knockoff from H&H, which supposedly doesn't work without modification.

As for picking with standard tools... it can be done but it's extremely fiddly trying to rotate the discs and is a very tedious process. Even picking the cheap ones this way is tricky, and abloy have tight tolerances aswell as false gates, so I wouldn't fancy my chances without the dedicated tool.

Thanks for the input soloman, What does a two and one mean? is it two tools in one, tension and pick?

I'm not sure if i should have put this thread in lockpicking, but i thought it was such an interesting little padlock that I'd put it in here.

That's exactly right mate

I've been searching for the H&H tool online and can't find anything? can anyone point me in the right direction and tell me what mod's this pick needs to work.

Also I have found this cheap Chinese tool, but I'm not keen on buying it unless anyone can tell me if it works on this, and similar locks effectively.

That pick is only suitable for locks with rectangular profile discs. It'd be a good idea to buy that and practice on cheaper locks anyway so you know what you're doing, that way you'll have a good idea of how to make a pick for the semi circular keyway.

Do you think it could be filed down to fit an abloy lock?

No mate. It'd need to be a specific size and shape, you couldn't modify that tool and keep the wire centred. Also you'd have to tension a specific disc whereas with cheap cylinders it doesn't matter. You need a different tool entirely.