Welcome everyone to Lockpicking 101. My name is Dr. Tran. I'm a member of TOOL, the open
organization of lockpickers. We run these events across different conferences where
we bring tools, we bring practice locks for all of you guys to pick up on this new hobby.
So a quick show of hands, who here has never picked a lock before? Oh wow, okay, great.
Most of this room. That is very good. So I am going to change that. I'm going to show
you how lockpicking is a very easy skill to pick up. After today's session, you're going
to know when you see bullshit in Hollywood in terms of lockpicking. You'll see lockpicking
that someone just jams a paper clip in a lock and it just pops open magically. It doesn't
work that way, but it is almost that easy. So after today, you'll be able to pick locks
like a pro. So before we start, I want to start off with some rules. Because, of course,
anything good comes with rules.
There are two golden rules of lockpicking. As long as you follow these two rules, you
will stay out of trouble 99% of the time. Rule number one is do not pick someone else's
locks. You should only be picking locks that you own or you have explicit permission from
the owner to pick. When you're in the lockpick village, you don't own those locks, but the
lockpick tool, we own them and we're giving you permission to pick them. When I talk about
the ownership of that lock or owning it, you have to own it. Just because you have
permission to a lock does not mean you own that lock. It only means you have permission
to use it. So your apartment, you don't own that lock. Your landlord owns that lock. In
your office, your company owns that lock. You only have permission to use it. So be
mindful of that.
Rule number two, do not pick locks that you actually rely on, meaning your front door
lock. Even though it is rare, it is possible to break a lock while picking it. And if you
break your front door lock, A, you may have just locked yourself. B, you may have just
locked yourself out permanently. Or B, you have just compromised part of your personal
physical security. So again, don't pick someone else's locks and do not pick locks that you
rely on. Follow these two rules and you will stay out of trouble 99% of the time.
So as I mentioned, lockpicking is a very easy skill to pick up. Specifically today, I'm
going to talk about pin tumbler locks. Many of you have probably heard of that term, pin
tumbler locks.
Pin tumblers are locks found in the United States. However, the concepts that you learn
here will translate and apply to different styles of locks, like circular locks or wafer
locks and so on. You'll find pin tumbler locks in everything from doorknobs to pad
locks, all the way to deadbolts. And in fact, if you actually look into the keyway here
a little bit, you can kind of see part of a pin. That's where that name, pin tumbler,
comes from.
So before we go into picking locks, we need to first start with the keyway. The keyway
is where you literally lock a key in a small circle. The keyway is actually where you
Let's talk about a lock's anatomy. We're going to talk about the anatomy of a lock,
how it operates and how it works.
So when you look at a lock, you can see here in this diagram here, this larger round part
here is the casing or the housing. This is the piece of metal that holds everything together.
Then inside that smaller circle, that's the plug. When you insert the key and you turn
the lock, that's the part that rotates. It's called the plug. Then there's this little slot
here where the key goes in called the keyway. And if you look inside the keyway, you'll actually
see a little bit of that pin tumbler that you hear about. What you may not see or realize is that
it's not a single pin, but it is actually a pin stack. So denoted here in red is the key pin.
It's called the key pin because it interacts with the key. Then you have here in blue called the
driver pin. And then you have a spring that sets, that keeps the key pin and the driver pin in kind
of its reset position. Then this line here between the housing and the plug is called the shear line.
You'll notice that the driver pin is blocking that shear line, preventing that plug from turning.
That is when a lock is locked. Now you notice that I don't call it top pin or bottom pin. And
that's important because the key pin,
in this case, in this orientation, is at the bottom. But that is only the case in the United
States where locks are mounted in this orientation. If you go overseas, locks are mounted in different
orientations. In Europe, they are mounted 180 degrees. So top pin and bottom pin, we avoid
those terminology because it changes depending on where you are in the world.
So as I mentioned, if you try to turn that plug or operate that lock without the proper key,
that driver pin is locked.
It's blocking that shear line, preventing the mechanism from turning. When you insert the
proper key, those cuts in the key will raise the pin stack to the proper height to line up with that
shear line, which then in turn allows that plug to turn. Pretty straightforward so far.
Now, of course, in the real world, you're not just going to have one pin stack. You're going
to have multiple pin stacks. The number of pin stacks will range and depend on the application
for residential.
It will range anywhere from four to five, commercial five to six. And there are even some companies
that make seven and eight pin locks, but your key starts to look like a sword or a dagger.
And then there are even some manufacturers that have 17 pins, two rows of seven side by side.
And so it gets pretty crazy with the designs. But at the end of the day, as you'll learn,
it doesn't matter.
So here's an animation of the operation of a key. When you insert that key, those cuts or the
bidding on the key will be changed. So that's a little bit of an animation. But if you're going to
insert that key, those cuts or the bidding on the key will raise all the pin stacks to line up with
that shear line, which then allows that plug to turn.
If you have...
Sorry, this is the wrong animation, I believe.
Using a key...
Okay, so using lock picks.
So what you're doing when you're using a lock pick is that you are attacking the lock.
You're individually looking for pin stacks to go after.
When you're thinking about a lock pick, you're going to want to make sure that you're not
using a key with a different bit. You're almost thinking, oh, this is like a password,
where you have to get all the characters correct for it to work.
However, in a lock, there's a difference between a lock and a password.
When you type in a password on a computer, the computer is not going to tell you which character
you have incorrect. However, a lock will tell you because of microscopic manufacturing tolerances.
If you were to imagine, in a perfect way, that you have a key with a different bit,
in a computer diagram, if you were to try to turn that plug without the proper key,
all of those pin stacks should bash into the side of the housing or the plug all at once,
or bind at the same time.
However, in the real world, where there are manufacturing tolerances, when you try to turn
that plug, that actually does not happen. There's one pin stack that will bind before any of the
other ones. And when you're picking locks, you are basically looking for the binding pin stack.
The way you can tell,
is by inserting this turning tool, which you're applying some type of force or torque on the plug,
causing one pin stack to bind before the other ones. You're then reaching in there with a pick
to hunt for that binding pin stack. The way you can tell the difference is, if you notice in the
animations, when you're lifting on a pin stack that is not binding, you will feel the spring
push back on your tool. Once you've found that binding pin stack, the sensation or the feeling
is actually different. You will feel resistance and drag.
That's when you know that is the binding pin stack.
Then all you do is continue to lift that binding pin stack.
Eventually, from lifting, you will reach the shear line of that pin stack.
Once you hit that shear line, that pin stack is no longer binding.
Another one is binding.
If this was a 5-pin lock, you reduce it down to a 4-pin lock.
As long as you're applying torque to that plug, you're probably wondering, why aren't those driver pins falling back in.
áo
down. Because of those microscopic tolerances, you're creating a microscopic lip on the plug
that the driver pin sits on top of, so it won't fall back down. So you'll watch again
here. Once you reach the fourth pin stack and you've lifted it up to the shear line,
you've set that pin stack. That is not going to fall back down because you've created a
microscopic lip for it to sit on top of. And then the other ones, you just go through and look for
the next binding pin stack. So I'll pause there real quick because I know this is a lot of
conceptual things that you're trying to process. Question? You said something about the feeling of
a normal versus a binding pin stack. Yes. How do I, what's the feeling difference? Sure. Sorry,
the question was, what is the difference between a binding pin stack and a non-binding pin stack?
The feeling, yeah. So with a binding pin stack,
as you're lifting it, you will feel resistance because the pin is basically scraping against the
side of the plug. With a pin stack that's not binding, you won't have that drag or resistance,
but you will also feel the spring want to push this pin stack back in its reset position. So
they're two very distinct feelings. Yes, question? So you basically have to keep the force of the
turning tool. Yeah. The turning tool at all times, not even, you can release it between the
spring and the pin stack.
Correct, yes. You have to apply constant torque or tension or pressure onto the turning tool that
causes that torque on the plug because as soon as you release it, all of those pin stacks will
fall back down from the spring pressure and you'll have to start all over again.
Great. Any other questions? Does everyone kind of understand, you know, what you're looking for
in terms of binding versus non-binding? Okay, great.
So I talked a little bit about this. I want to go through some more diagrams to kind of walk you
through step by step again. So why is lock picking possible? So I talked about the manufacturing
tolerances. While in a perfect world, if you try to turn that plug, all of them should theoretically
block, but they don't because of manufacturing. You notice here, this is a picture from a brand
new lock where we've taken it apart.
You can see that there are microscopic imperfections. The bores are not perfectly
round. They're not even perfectly lined up. And this is from a brand new lock from the hardware
store. Even the pins, there are microscopic imperfections on the surface. They're not
perfectly smooth around. So as I mentioned, when you try to turn that plug, one pin stack will bind
before all the other ones. And here's another view of it. Oops, sorry. So while you're applying
torque, you're lifting that pin stack. You reach, eventually hit that shear line. The plug will turn
a tiny bit. It won't open because there's still other pin stacks binding or blocking the shear
line. But then, as I mentioned, you'll notice that there is a tiny microscopic ledge that that
driver pin sits on top of. That's what's keeping that driver pin set. And you've reduced a multi-pin
lock down by one pin. Does that make sense? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't
know. Does that make sense after seeing the diagram a little bit? So this is the same diagram
again with the picking, where you apply torque to the plug, causing one pin stack to bind. Then
reaching in there with the tool, you're feeling for each pin stack on what it feels like. These
are springy. You feel resistance. You feel the spring pushing back. But in this one, you feel
drag. Then you continue lifting, and then you'll feel or hear a click.
That's when you know that that pin stack is set. And then now, you're just hunting around,
looking for the next binding pin stack. Yes? Question?
If the pin stack and the hole could be manufactured with perfect precision,
is there anything with perfect precision in the manufacturing world?
Are there locks that advertise as being more precision and therefore more lock pick resistant?
Right. The question here is about precision.
So yes, the locks, you get what you pay for in terms of manufacturing. Going to a hardware
store and buying a $20 lock, the manufacturing tolerances would be very different from a $300
lock. In the U.S. market, it's more about how cheap it is. So you generally do not find high
quality locks at hardware stores. While you go over into places like Europe, where there are
actually formal rating systems for the locks. I mean, the cheapest lock you can buy,
probably in Switzerland, it's going to be well over $100 just for a basic lock. While that
equivalent, what most people would buy in the U.S., it's going to maybe be $20, $40. So it varies
from market to market. But the more expensive lock it is, you generally pay for those better
tolerances. Correct. Yes, this relies on manufacturing tolerances.
It's not a backdoor. He made the comment about this is a physical backdoor. It's not really a
backdoor. It's because a backdoor is something someone installs to get around it. This is not
intentional. It is just manufacturing tolerances. Because when you are mass producing pieces of
metal like this, drill bits wear out. When you have like maybe four drill bits drilling down
on a circular round surface, there's a little bit of jiggle that the bits will not go perfectly
through. You're talking sometimes down to microns. So it's not possible to manufacture something
that's perfect. So this is not a backdoor that they're installing. It's just the reality of
manufacturing physical goods. So your question about the jagged pieces, what do you mean? Like
the keyway? No, there's all different tools in the lock.
The lock picks up. Oh, you're talking about the tools? I'm going to go into the tools a little bit
soon. Yeah. Great. So something to be aware of as a beginner, one of the things to be aware of is
overlifting. I talked about how when you are lifting that binding pin stack, all you want to
do is lift it up to the shear line and you will feel it click or set. There is a possibility that
you're using too much lifting force. You can actually lift the key pin.
Past the shear line. So pin number three and four, if you set properly, but then number five,
you notice you've lifted too far up. What you've just done here is you've caused the key pin to
bind in the shear line. There's no way of recovering from this except for resetting by
releasing the pressure and letting all the pin stacks reset. So you have to start from scratch
again. So be mindful of that, of not using too much lifting force.
You'll basically feel that the pins, the question is, is there anything you'll feel if you're
overlifting? Not always, but one telltale sign is that you've basically lifted a pin stack as high
as it will go and it doesn't feel like it's been set yet. That's a pretty good indicator that
you've overlifted. So now we're going to go into a little bit about the tools. There seems to be a
lot of interest on the various tools. Hopefully you guys haven't been tricked into buying these
gigantic sets of like a hundred lock picks or whatever you want to call them. So if you're
you'll learn that 99% of those are not necessary. You really only need a handful of tools to be
successful. Where the difference is and where different tools come in handy are really more
about the different size of the tools based on the key way that you're going after. So far I've
been talking about picks, which are tools that have a single point for you to manipulate individual
pin stacks.
This is a tool, which is pictured here, which is called a snake or rake. You've seen this as kind of a squiggly line or sometimes it's just flat with some jagged ridges.
While picking is very methodical while you're hunting for the individual pin stack, raking is almost cheating. You're not individually picking pin stacks.
Instead you're randomly jostling all the pin stacks hoping they fall and pop into place. This type of technique and tool works on a
surprising number of locks. However, you don't truly learn what lock picking is. The analogy that
some of us like to make is that it's the difference between an automatic car and a manual transmission. If you learn to drive in a manual you can drive pretty much any car. If you drive an automatic and you never learn to drive manual and then somehow you get into a situation with a manual transmission you're kind of screwed. So we always recommend that people learn with a pick, not a rake, because you really understand the differences between how the pin stacks work and how the lock picks work.
feel when they're binding or not binding.
So I talked about raking where it's very much random.
So the way you use a rake is basically
you're just jamming the tool in and out,
varying the pitch in the hopes
that it jostles the pin stacks into position
while applying torque,
just like if you were picking a lock.
This works, again, on a surprising number of locks,
but we don't recommend beginners
start off with this technique.
So we talked about the pick.
On the left here, where there's a single point
for you to manipulate specific pin stacks,
then we also talked about the rake or snake on the right,
which is for a raking technique.
But then there's a third tool called the half diamond.
It's called a half diamond
because obviously it's just a triangle.
It's half of a diamond.
We get questions whether it's just for picking
or it's just for raking.
The answer is yes.
It's a very versatile tool
that you can actually use for both.
You can pick, of course,
because it has a single point,
so you can manipulate
individual pin stacks if you wanted to.
Or because of its ramp shape,
the half diamond shape,
you can use it as a rake.
You use it the same way as a normal rake.
What's also unique about the half diamond
from any other tool in your kit
is that you can use this as a reconnaissance tool.
So there's a question before the beginning of the talk
about how do you figure out how many pins there are.
Well, if you don't know
and you have a half diamond,
you can flip the half diamond upside down
because it's the only tool that has a flat side,
lift,
all the pin stacks,
slowly retract,
and count the number of clicks you hear.
You've just figured out
how many pin stacks are in that lock.
So this is a very versatile tool
that many people like to use.
It's their go-to default
before even going to a pick.
So for those who have those big sets,
all you really need is a half diamond.
It's the most versatile tool out there.
So now, since I've gone over
the actual tools for picking,
I want to talk a little bit about the turning tools.
That you use to apply torque
or force onto the plug.
The turning tool,
or how you use the turning tool,
is more important than the actual picking.
Because at the end of the day,
with the picks, or rake, or half diamond,
all you're doing is manipulating the pin stacks.
The turning tool is what's actually opening the lock.
And also giving you the feedback
and creating the binding sensation
so that way you know which pin stacks to attack.
So what we recommend against
is using a pulling technique on the turning tool.
Pulling techniques tend to be more brute force.
You're just not allowed dexterity.
And you're also,
when most people are using a pulling technique,
they're somehow using their thumb
because of how you hold the lock.
The thumb doesn't have a lot of dexterity
or fine motor control compared to your other fingers.
So we don't recommend using your thumb.
Instead, we recommend using more of a pushing,
and in fact, the further out you can put your finger out on the tool,
the finer control you have
and more of the ability to vary the amount of torque
on the tool as well.
And then also, in terms of the amount of pressure
or torque that you're using,
it's a surprisingly small amount that you need.
A good way of telling whether you have a good amount of pressure
or too much pressure
is looking at the tip of your finger.
If the tip of your finger is still flesh-colored,
kind of pinkish,
whatever your normal skin tone is on your hand,
that is a good amount of pressure.
Once your finger starts to turn white,
you're basically squeezing the blood out of the tip of your finger,
that is way too much pressure.
Pressure is important
because if you apply too much pressure
or too much torque on that plug,
a couple things can happen.
One, you can cause the pinstacks to bind so hard
that it is almost impossible to lift
or manipulate the pinstacks.
Or both.
B, you can cause more than one pinstack to bind
because metal is not a perfectly hard surface.
It is slightly malleable and elastic.
So you can cause multiple pinstacks to bind.
You may cause a pinstack to really bite
into the side of the housing or the plug
and then it's not going anywhere.
So you always have to be careful
with the amount of pressure you're using on the tool.
The analogy we like to make is
imagine the amount of pressure you need
on a laptop membrane keyboard
is about half the pressure needed.
So it's very little pressure needed.
The position of the turning tool
also plays into
maybe the style of locks that you're going after
and also different techniques you can use.
The normal kind of turning tool
you would use in what's called
the edge of the plug,
which is pictured here.
The edge of the plug
is away from the pins
inside the keyway.
There are some downsides.
There are some pros and there are some cons
to using the plug.
This technique.
With a standard turning tool,
you have a very large, long surface area
for it to go into the keyway.
So it's very hard for it to fall out or slip out.
However, you notice here that you're using up
some of your keyway space.
So by using a standard tool,
you are reducing the amount of space
you have in your keyway.
Usually it's not a problem,
but it's something to think about
if it's a small keyway you're going after.
And also,
you may unintentionally cause
additional resistance or friction
if you're dragging your turning tool
against the housing.
So some things to be aware of.
There's another style of turning tool,
which is called a flat style,
as opposed to a standard.
We generally don't recommend beginners
use it initially
because there's a smaller surface area
for it to bite into the keyway.
It's easier for it to fall out.
And if you haven't really gotten used
to the dexterity of holding a lock
and a turning tool
and picking at the keyway,
at the same time.
If your fingers slip,
that tool goes flying somewhere.
So we don't generally recommend
you start off with that necessarily.
But if you have questions about that style,
feel free to,
we can talk about that after the talk.
In terms of what direction
the lock should be rotated,
in the lockpick village for the locks
that are not mounted on anything,
so if you see a deadbolt lock
that's just kind of sitting on the table,
not mounted on a piece of wood
or not in a padlock,
those will go either direction
because it's not connected mechanically
connected to any mechanism.
If it's a padlock,
padlocks, 99% of the time,
will go clockwise.
So that's something to be aware of
when you are picking the practice locks.
Yep, question?
To get into the turning locks,
is there any different method
or is it the same pattern here?
What do you mean by turning locks?
The locks that have a little dial on it
to turn clockwise.
A deadbolt.
A deadbolt?
Yeah.
Oh, so the question is
a deadbolt lock,
which direction it turns.
The answer is it depends
on how it's mounted.
Generally, if the lock
is on the right side of the door
when you're facing the door,
it would go counterclockwise.
So imagine if there was a lever
coming out of the keyway
and if there was no lock
and it was just a lever,
which direction you would flip that lever
for it to retract the bolt.
That's kind of one way
of imagining it.
But it depends on if it's left-handed
or right-handed mounting on the door.
Great.
So I talked about either direction
on locks that aren't mounted.
So after seeing this,
who thinks that they want to give this a try
and who thinks that they can do this?
Okay, great.
That sounds great.
So in the Lockpick Village,
we have a bunch of tables
that have public locks
for everyone to use.
We also have public picks
on the tables as well
for you to give it a try
to see if you like it,
to see if you're able to do it.
We also have folks and staff
roaming around wearing tool shirts.
If you see anyone with a black tool shirt,
they're staff,
so feel free to ask them for any questions
or ask them for tips.
And then also every hour,
I think at 15 after,
we do another intro talk
similar to this
inside the village as well.
So before I kind of disperse the group,
does anyone remember
the two golden rules of lockpicking?
Who can call out the first rule?
Sir, what's the first rule of lockpicking?
Only pick your own locks
or ones you have approval for?
Correct.
So do not pick someone else's locks
unless you have permission.
Who has the second rule of lockpicking?
In the back there in the green shirt.
Don't pick a lock
that you're breaking
so you're locked out of your house.
Great.
Yeah, the second rule,
do not pick locks that you rely on
because you might break them
and you may get stuck
or compromise your own physical security.
Great.
So everyone,
thank you so much for the time.
Hopefully everyone enjoyed this.
Thank you.
And talk to you soon.