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Locked out of your house in the middle of the night? Lost the key to the padlock on the shed?
Lost the only key to your bike lock ?Before you pay a locksmith to let you in or to open
something up, consider picking the lock yourself. Most locks around the home or office aresimple pin-and-tumbler locks and can be relatively easy to open using a pick and tension wrench,both of which can be improvised from common household items. While the process is simpleand can be mastered with practice, picking such a lock requires a great deal of patience.If
you’ve got some spare time and enjoy a challenge, though, why not give it a try?
Note: This article focuses on pin-and-tumbler locks. Other types of locks (wafer-tumbler,tubular, etc.) can also be picked, but require slightly different procedures. If you are familiar withthose techniques, feel free to edit this page and add your expertise.
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1.
Understand how your lock works
. The pin-and-tumbler lock consists of a cylinder that
can rotate within its housing (see illustrations below). When locked, the cylinder is keptin place by several pairs of pins. The top pin of each pair protrudes into both the cylinderand the housing, thus preventing the cylinder from turning. When the correct key isinserted, it pushes the pairs of pins up so that the top pins no longer enter the cylinder.When this happens, the cylinder can be turned and the lock will open.
o
Note the five pairs of pins. The blue pins enter both the cylinder and the (green)housing around it, thus preventing the cylinder from turning. The springs provideresistance to keep the pins in place.
o
When the key is inserted, the grooves and ridges on the key push the pins up tothe correct heights so that all the blue pins are completely out of the cylinder, thusallowing the cylinder to turn and the lock to open.2.
Get a pick and tension wrench
. Each pick is specialized for a different problem. Atension wrench, or torque wrench, is the device which you apply pressure with to turn the
lock cylinder. Professional-grade picks and tension wrenches can be purchased in sets(see picture), but many lockpicking hobbyists make good quality sets of their own. Seethe Things You'll Need section below for information on how to make your own picksand tension wrenches.3.
Place the tension wrench into the lower portion of the keyhole
.4.
Determine which way the cylinder must be turned to unlock the lock
. If youcommonly use the lock, you probably already know which way you turn the key to open
the lock. If you don’t know, use the tension wrench to apply torque to the cylinder, first
clockwise and then counterclockwise. The cylinder will only turn a fraction of an inchbefore it stops. Try to feel the firmness of the stop. If you turn the cylinder the wrongway, the stop should feel very firm and stiff. If you turn it the right way, there should be abit more give. Some locks, especially among padlocks,will open regardless of which way
the cylinder is turned.5.
Apply light torque to the tension wrench in the correct direction, and hold.
Therequired torque will vary from lock to lock and from pin to pin, so this may require sometrial and error. Start gently, though.6.
Picking the lock. The part labeled "plug" is the cylinder.
Insert the pick into the upper part of the keyhole and feel the pins.
With the pick inthe keyhole, you should be able to press up and feel the individual pins with the tip of thepick. You should be able to push them up and feel them spring back down when yourelease the pressure. Try to push each one all the way up. Identify which one is thehardest to push up. If they are all very easy to push up, turn your tension wrench more to
increase the torque. If one won’t go up at all, ease the torque until you c
an push it up.
Alternately, you may wish to “rake” the pins before this step (see Tips below).
7.
Push the stubborn pin up until it “sets.”
Press the stubborn pin with just enoughpressure to overcome the downward pressure of the spring. Remember, the pin is actuallya pair of pins. Your pick is pushing against the lower pin, which in turn pushes againstthe upper pin. Your goal is to push the upper pin completely out of the cylinder. Then,when you stop pushing, the lower pin will fall back down into the cylinder, but the torqueon the cylinder will result in a misalignment of the hole in the cylinder with the hole in
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