The Art of Lockpicking: A Complete Guide

Lockpicking is a powerful skill. Before you start learning how to become a master lockpicker, it's important to stress some of the do's and don'ts with your new skill. This lecture goes over the things your allowed to do and the things you should never do, as a lockpicker.

Pin-tumbler locks are the most commonly used locks in the world. This lecture goes over the different parts of a pin-tumbler cylinder and explains how they interact with each other to create the security feature of the lock. You will also see what happens inside the lock when you insert the right key and when you insert the wrong key.

This lecture explains the vulnerabilities in pin-tumbler locks as well as the basic principles we use to exploit them. Using the basic lockpicking tools - the pick and the tension wrench, we demonstrate what it means to set a pin, unset a pin and overset a pin, which are basic terms in lockpicking.

This lecture is an introduction to the tool of the trade:

• Tension wrench
• Pick tool
• Rake tool
• Pick gun
• Bump key

Throughout the course you will be learning how to use them to open any standard lock.

Picking a lock with a pick tool is considered the most classic method of lockpicking. Althought there are many different type of pick tools, their function is always the same: interacting with one pin at a time. In this lecture we show you step by step how to pick a lock with a pick tool. You will learn how to find the binding pin every time and how to know which pins you set as you go.

Rake tools is a name for a group of tools which are used to interact with many pins at once. This lecture shows you how the rake tool operates inside of the cylinder and how easy it can be to pick a lock in seconds with a rake tool. Raking is the best way to start when learning how to pick locks.

In this lecture we discuss the pick gun, which is another great, easy way to pick locks. The pick gun takes a different approach of lockpicking, somewhat combining raking and bumping at the same time. This lecture will teach you everything you need to know about the pick gun, including its different parts, and most importantly - how to use it effectively to pick any lock.

Bumping a lock is another extremely popular way of compromising a pin tumbler based lock, perhaps the easiest. Bumping requires hardly any skill and it very useful when you need to unlock a cylinder fast. This lecture gives you a thorough explanation of what is a bump key and how to use it as well as what actually happens inside of the cylinder when we bump it.

All you need for a successful bumping is:

• a bump key that will fit the cylinder
• a screwdriver (or any other tool you can hit the key with)

Sometimes, getting the right bump key can be a challenging task. Since you usually can't just walk into a store and buy one - we prepared this lecture. This lecture teaches you exactly how to create your own bump key from scratch, using an old key you don't need. The making of the key is shown in this video in real-time, so you can see it can take literally 5-6 minutes to create a functional bump key.