What Inspired You?

[m0ose]

Hard to say when I was first inspired. My dad, who clearly wasn't running for Parent of the Year, bought me my first set of picks when I was 13~ish. Told me to "stay out of trouble". I must have seen picking in the movies and thought that was pretty damn cool. I really didn't have any idea what I was doing, but made a real effort to try and understand how locks worked and how they were picked. The seed had been planted.

Years go by. Interests change. Picking was something I only got better at when a crisis forced me to remember. I had bought a few different sets just to have around, but it wasn't until about a year ago that I really got the bug and started buying locks and making picks. Started getting really good with what I had and started feeling pretty good about it too.

I recently found that 17 years after getting my first set, an entire lockpicking community has sprung up right under my nose. Reading forums like this one and watching people like Wiz on youtube have probably been more inspiring than when I was a kid. The amount of information available today is simply incredible.

My brain has been flooded with techniques and templates, and videos, and diagrams, and cutaways, and the infinite discussions on every lock imaginable. All of these realizations suddenly synergized into one shining divine epiphany:
I am terrible and need a lot more practice

Thanks for the humble pie. I'll eat it in the corner, thank you.

Edit: I also save babies and puppies in my spare time

Oh, you poor bastard...you've got it bad, don't you?

That's how it starts...you begin comparing techniques with other pickers and then it becomes an all consuming compulsion to improve. You MUST open that lock...NOW...you need to hear that comforting click of the lock when it pops open... Everywhere you look...locks....padlocks..tubular locks..car locks ....What kind are they? Warded? Pin Tumbler? Everywhere, locks...looking at you...No! Wait, they're laughing at you! The damn locks are laughing AT YOU!

Scoffing, smirking at you as walk past...daring you to open it...if YOU CAN!

"BASTARDS! I will open as many locks as I possibly can! FROM THE PITS OF HELL I STAB AT THEE, DAMN LOCK!" you scream to yourself as you reel in dizzying horror.

But hey, that's just me. A tender, delicate, waif-like creature.

That's why I'm thinking about taking up online banking. It such a fucking tease!

[Jinglesanator]

ok, well it all started when I was a little lad playing in the back yard of my friends house and all of a sudden we herd this very loud sirens racing down
the street to the corner house.... We were quite interested so naturally we ran over to the scene. We noticed that the house was on fire by all the smoke coming out from under neath the door jam. By the way, this house is no ordinary house with windows and doors, all this odd house had was a little latch secured by a mul-t lock, a bi-lock and schlage primus. (also the majority of the house is underground. Thats why it looks so weird). The
fire department called a lock smith because they couldn't find a way in, so when the locksmith arrived he bolted across the street with a pick set in hand. I believe they were hpc's. So not even looking to see if a car is
comming he got hit by a chevy pickup going about 30 mph. I ran over to him as fast as I could to see if he was all right. He was in terrible condition and was clinging to life, but with his last bit of energy and last breath he grab my shirt and said to me, "use the off set diamond for the primus and don't forget about the side-bar and use a snake for everything else...." And just like that he let go of my shirt and died. After about 20secs of trying to comprehend when just happened I suddenly got a burst of energy and ran across the street( looking at both sides before I crossed) and picks all the locks in about a minute lol.... No joke. Once the latch opened I rushed inside to see If there was anyone inside. There was a group of people hidding under desks. I pontes out witch way to go to escape, but one person fell and broke both legs so with all my strength I picked him up over my shoulders and tried to make my way to the exit, there were explosions going off everywhere but I managed to continue with my pace only to find about 5 fire fighters looking for more people, let told them that I had the last person and suddenly a fire fighter tripped over a gas pipe only to make a tiny crack in the pipe so was all ran as fast as we could out of there, to saftey, and once I got about 40 feet away from the lethal house, it made a massive explosion from the gas leak. About a day later my mom told me I got a letter from the white house thanking me for my heroic deeds and it contained some kind of metal and a tons of lock picks. So thats where I started.


..........actually none of that is true, I really got started by watching peoples vids in youtube.

fuck, I read all that. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Same here

[Wozzlock]

I can remember being fascinated trying to figure out the combo lock on my bike when I was a kid. The buzz of being able to do something I shouldn't I guess?

I read and got influenced by a book called `A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born` who was into lock picking.

Years later I come across a vid on Metacafe showing how to pick a lock with a paper clip, did it and was amazed, which led me to finding Tempature1's (what happened to him?) vids on Youtube. Bought a bunch of cheap locks and a basic Southord pick set. Failed miserably on those locks and thought `fuck this` haha! Tried again a few months later and picked all but one (still can't open that dam thing!).

Came across wiz, dour, frantic on Youtube... got more inspired and have been buying and picking locks on a regular basis since then. Wiz told me to come here... the end.

[Josh]

which led me to finding Tempature1's (what happened to him?) vids on Youtube.

good old videos. not sure where he is, but i know he taught piano. my guess is he went to college to get his music credentials. i remember talking to him about a year ago and him mentioning something about music & college.

which led me to finding Tempature1's (what happened to him?) vids on Youtube.

good old videos. not sure where he is, but i know he taught piano. my guess is he went to college to get his music credentials. i remember talking to him about a year ago and him mentioning something about music & college.

Well the last i heard is that he was working on something big so who knows

[Josh]

which led me to finding Tempature1's (what happened to him?) vids on Youtube.

good old videos. not sure where he is, but i know he taught piano. my guess is he went to college to get his music credentials. i remember talking to him about a year ago and him mentioning something about music & college.

Well the last i heard is that he was working on something big so who knows

yeah that was like almost a year ago though...

[DPSVDV]

I Really Want To Hear Wizwazzle's Story

[ODDity]

I Really Want To Hear Wizwazzle's Story

Wizwazzle certainly is an interesting guy. (we are thinking of the same chap right?) The kind of person you wouldn't mind having a pint, a good chat and a game of pool with I wouldn't doubt. Now let see you do that Brinks shrouded

The first experience I had of physical 'hacking' was when someone bought a bike lock in to work and had changed the combination. Messy fellow had forgotten the code but could remember the first out of four. Didn't take too long, (10mins?) pulling and feeling for the gates. So that sparked an interest.

Also tech hacking has become more of lifestyle choice than a road I wish to follow, and anyway I cant really afford it at the moment. Writing good simple code is my bag, not hacking in to the exponential flaws in Windows, even if exposing potential security risks helps consumers and companies alike. I'm keeping up though, and occasionally find things and make sure the right people know. I use Linux anyway.

Now its locks.

Be good,

ODDity

[ODDity]

@SpaceyStacey This could turn in to a whoooooole new thread so I sent you a PM. Hope thats OK.

For those wondering I use Slackware for servers and Ubuntu when I cant be bothered configuring slackware any more.

[Kai]

[START HIJACK]

ODDity - which flavor linux do you use? I am thinking of checking out ubuntu for my home laptop. I really love AIX and open BSD, and then Redhat for linux.
[END HIJACK]

There are some great live Linux distributions you can run right from a CD if you wanted to play around with them before a full install. I like Backtrack (Formerly Whax) but its a security build. Great link here to just about all of them:

http://www.frozentech.com/content/livecd.php

er uh... [END HIJACK]

[Master David Goodmen]

Greetings All,

My story is RFB (Really Fucking Boring) compared to the preceding, but here goes:
At about six years old, maybe earlier!, I developed an interest in locks and keys. I collected what I could, but naturally, they didn't match.
A friend of My mom's gave Me a disk-tumbler ILCO padlock, the kind with the "embossed" ILCO oval on the front. She said, "It's easy to pick." When i asked, she said "Don't worry about it." I played with it for hours.
Going down the freezer aisle in a now-defunct (Hagstrom's) supermarket, I dropped the lock. It exploded, seemingly, with parts flying everywhere! I put the lock back together, and thought, "Ah ha! Something interesting...!"

I eventually got some Master warded locks, 22s, a 500, and a couple of 105s. The 22, especially, has a springiness when the key is turned. I tried to make a master key, but it didn't work. The key wouldn't work the 500, either.
I bought a Master 77, because I liked the lion on it. This was two stamped steel pieces riveted together. It had an M1 cylinder in it.
There were smaller locks which looked the same. These had two-(I believe it was)-lever mechanisms. The 66 was smaller than the 77, the 55 smaller than the 66, and the 44 was the smallest. I could get these open, but I was not sure how I did it. I do not recall opening one of them to see what was inside. The 44, 55, 66, and 77 aren't made anymore.

A year or two later, I went to live with My father. He had a master key for 22s on his key ring. I recognized it as soon as I saw it. Ah-ha! That is what I did wrong!

As I grew up, My lock-picking skill increased modestly at best. I was interested from the "what's inside?" point of view, rather than opening them. I did enjoy eyeballing the cuts and getting a key made which worked.

In nineteen eighty-two, I got a contract to install master-keyed deadbolt locks in the student apartments in which I lived. I collected a lot of lock parts and supplies, but almost all of it was stolen from storage when I lived in San Francisco.
Also, while I was in SF, I collected locks from the street, garbage(!), left on street-side boxes, and from second-hand stores. These are in storage two states away.
I found two American 1105s in the same garbage. I occasionally look for 1105 info in the internet. A youtube program on opening the 1105 with a bent wire got My attention!
Sometime, I hope to find some real videos so that I can study them. So, I am looking to learn to pick locks, not just re-key them.

MDG

[m0ose]

Greetings All,

My story is RFB (Really Fucking Boring) compared to the preceding, but here goes:
At about six years old, maybe earlier!, I developed an interest in locks and keys. I collected what I could, but naturally, they didn't match.
A friend of My mom's gave Me a disk-tumbler ILCO padlock, the kind with the "embossed" ILCO oval on the front. She said, "It's easy to pick." When i asked, she said "Don't worry about it." I played with it for hours.
Going down the freezer aisle in a now-defunct (Hagstrom's) supermarket, I dropped the lock. It exploded, seemingly, with parts flying everywhere! I put the lock back together, and thought, "Ah ha! Something interesting...!"

I eventually got some Master warded locks, 22s, a 500, and a couple of 105s. The 22, especially, has a springiness when the key is turned. I tried to make a master key, but it didn't work. The key wouldn't work the 500, either.
I bought a Master 77, because I liked the lion on it. This was two stamped steel pieces riveted together. It had an M1 cylinder in it.
There were smaller locks which looked the same. These had two-(I believe it was)-lever mechanisms. The 66 was smaller than the 77, the 55 smaller than the 66, and the 44 was the smallest. I could get these open, but I was not sure how I did it. I do not recall opening one of them to see what was inside. The 44, 55, 66, and 77 aren't made anymore.

A year or two later, I went to live with My father. He had a master key for 22s on his key ring. I recognized it as soon as I saw it. Ah-ha! That is what I did wrong!

As I grew up, My lock-picking skill increased modestly at best. I was interested from the "what's inside?" point of view, rather than opening them. I did enjoy eyeballing the cuts and getting a key made which worked.

In nineteen eighty-two, I got a contract to install master-keyed deadbolt locks in the student apartments in which I lived. I collected a lot of lock parts and supplies, but almost all of it was stolen from storage when I lived in San Francisco.
Also, while I was in SF, I collected locks from the street, garbage(!), left on street-side boxes, and from second-hand stores. These are in storage two states away.
I found two American 1105s in the same garbage. I occasionally look for 1105 info in the internet. A youtube program on opening the 1105 with a bent wire got My attention!
Sometime, I hope to find some real videos so that I can study them. So, I am looking to learn to pick locks, not just re-key them.

MDG

That was a good story man! Glad to see you boppin' around the forums. If ya ever be needin' anything, shoot me a line and I'll see what I can do.

[Rytanfan93]

Good topic. Well for me it must have been about 1986. I was thumbing the classified section of Popular Science (classifieds were the source back then,esp. Pop Science, Solder of Fortune, etc.) and came across and ad for "The Amazing Lockaid Tool" open any lock in seconds! I noticed they changed that now to: wide variety of residential locks. Actually here is the ad, WOW... http://www.lockpickshop.com/LOCKAID.html. Anyway, it was like 89.00 dollars with shipping from some Florida Co.?. So I saved my money and faithfully sent a money order to the company in Florida. It took a long ass time. I kept thinking I got scammed until finally it arrived- 8 months later! They claimed a manufacturing shortage was responsible. The instructions were pathetic and I knew zero about how pin tumbler locks worked. I envisioned using this amazing device to open cars, doors, or anything with a lock. This was going to be the envy of all my friends and the coolest thing ever. Well, the first lock I tried to open, thankfully, was a Kwickset knob on my house. This was on my house THEN, not the one I'm in now in case you're wondering:) The first time I used it, the needle broke and thankfully, it came with a spare. I quickly replaced it and soon enough I was able to turn the shearline with the crude little tension tool that came with it. At first I thought I broke the lock when the plug spun freely. Hilarious. Then when I rotated it to open, I was amazed. Soon I moved on to Master padlocks with reverse keyways. I then made a snap pick and some tension tools for the smaller keyways, but I'll never forget that Lock Aid and how it inspired me to eventually become a locksmith.

[m0ose]

Good topic. Well for me it must have been about 1986. I was thumbing the classified section of Popular Science (classifieds were the source back then,esp. Pop Science, Solder of Fortune, etc.) and came across and ad for "The Amazing Lockaid Tool" open any lock in seconds! I noticed they changed that now to: wide variety of residential locks. Actually here is the ad, WOW... http://www.lockpickshop.com/LOCKAID.html. Anyway, it was like 89.00 dollars with shipping from some Florida Co.?. So I saved my money and faithfully sent a money order to the company in Florida. It took a long ass time. I kept thinking I got scammed until finally it arrived- 8 months later! They claimed a manufacturing shortage was responsible. The instructions were pathetic and I knew zero about how pin tumbler locks worked. I envisioned using this amazing device to open cars, doors, or anything with a lock. This was going to be the envy of all my friends and the coolest thing ever. Well, the first lock I tried to open, thankfully, was a Kwickset knob on my house. This was on my house THEN, not the one I'm in now in case you're wondering:) The first time I used it, the needle broke and thankfully, it came with a spare. I quickly replaced it and soon enough I was able to turn the shearline with the crude little tension tool that came with it. At first I thought I broke the lock when the plug spun freely. Hilarious. Then when I rotated it to open, I was amazed. Soon I moved on to Master padlocks with reverse keyways. I then made a snap pick and some tension tools for the smaller keyways, but I'll never forget that Lock Aid and how it inspired me to eventually become a locksmith.

That was a great read! Glad to see how far you've come from a little ol' ad.

[snakey]

I left my toolbox key at home so i picked the wafer lock on it with a split pin. I the wanted to learn how to doing it on other locks in case i got locked out. so i made a set of picks out of wiper blades and now its become a full blown hobby who new.