Opening padlocks with picks

To start, you have to have the right tool.  The must is a tension wrench, these are those "L" shaped tools used in lock picking to turn the lock cylinder once the lock has been picked.  Next, you have to decide the picking tool you are going to use.  The two main picking tools I use is the half diamond and the saw rake.  I personally choose the the saw rake as the better one as I have more success with it, but the half diamond works almost just as well for opening padlocks.

Now, using the saw rake and my medium experience, I have opened 7 different kinds of padlocks.  By that I mean 7 different brand names, some being Garrison and Dudley.

Also with the saw rake I can open any Garrison lock 23 times in 5 minutes, and Dudley locks at 10 to 12 times in 5 minutes.  But the half diamond works about 80 percent as well at least.

Now to open a padlock with a saw rake, start by inserting the tension wrench into the padlock key hole, position that the tension wrench in the lock is on the opposite side of the wall of the lock pins.  Now the important thing to remember that almost every padlock cylinder opens going clockwise that means if you put the locks key into the hole, then you would turn the key clockwise.  So now that the tension wrench is in the padlock key hole, give it the lightest and ever so lightest push clockwise, so that when the pins are in place from picking, the lock will open.

Now insert the pick you've chosen.  The one i have chosen is the saw rake.  When the rake is in the key slot, make sure that the rough edge of the pick is on the pins in the lock, this way you can pick them.

Now, instead of taking the pick and sliding it in and out of the lock, also known as "raking", take the pick and stick it in until it reaches the last pin in the lock.  Now take the pick and "rock" it back and forth so that the pick comes in contact with the last pins, then rock the pick so the beginning of the pick end is in contact with the first pins.  Keep doing so in the right way and the lock will open in a matter of seconds.

A couple tips are when you have "rocked" the pick for a little while, and you suddenly feel the cylinder move clockwise about 2 millimeters, enough that it is noticeable, let go of the tension wrench and restart the pins in their original position.  I don't know why this is so, but if you did not reset the pins, you would keep on trying to open the lock with no success, until you have reset the pins.

The practice takes a while but in the end it is worth it.  What  I usually do every night is take a padlock and pick it open about 20 times, just so that I can get more experience.

Good luck!  For those who don't know what a saw rake or a half diamond is or a tension wrench is, just look it up in Google images or the internet.  

Farewell!!