The Basics of Picking a Lock
The ability to pick a lock is very easy to learn. Once you understand the mechanism of most locks and how you can crack it, you will be surprised that you will be able to learn how to pick a lock in no time. Some of the things that you are going to need, include the following: patience, practice, an old lock, and some lock picking tools.Before going through the ways of picking a lock, you need to know first about the basic lock picking tools. You have the tension wrench and the pick. Tension wrench is a small piece of steel shaped like an L, while the pick is a long piece of steel. However, you can use paperclips as a good alternative to the tension wrench and the pick.
To make a pick out of paperclips, get a standard-sized one then flatten the end of the paperclip using a rock or a heavy object. Meanwhile, to make a tension wrench out of paperclips you need to make a 90 degrees bend to form the letter L.
Process of picking a lock
Now that you know the tools that you are going to need, here are several ways that can teach you how to pick a lock:
- 1. Understand the type of lock that you are dealing with. Know as much as you can about the different types of lock in the market. Most padlocks and household locks are called pin-and-tumbler models. Meaning, they have cylinders in them that can rotate and held by couple of pins.
- 2. Using a wrench, insert it into the bottom part of the keyhole and observe which way the cylinder rotates and which way the lock is supposed to open. If you turn it in one side and the stop is hard, it means that it is the wrong way. Try the other direction.
- 3. Once you know the right direction, apply light pressure on the wrench and turn it towards the direction of the lock and hold.
- 4. Use the pick and insert it in the upper part of the keyhole and try to push the pins to unlock them one by one.
- 5. To know if the pins are unlocked, you should hear a click each time you push them. This means that the pin has already released the cylinder.;
- 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until you have unlocked all the pins.
- 7. Once you have released all the pins, the lock should unbolt.
Remember, knowing how to pick a lock should be used responsibly.
