Best Locks for Beginners - Lock Picking Tips

Welcome to my video on what locks are great for beginners who are just getting into lock picking. I consider myself a relatively new lock picker as far as single pin picking goes. There's tons of ways to defeat a lock as far as gaining entry to it. And as a professional locksmith, I just haven't really needed to use single pin picking out in the field too often. Usually there's another method that gets me in quicker and I usually go with that method. Now as a hobby, I've really grown to enjoy learning how to lock pick one pin at a time. And the first thing I will go over is what picks I have liked the most. Now there's tons of different picks that I own and there's tons of different picks on the market, but so far I've enjoyed these half diamond lock picks. So this one right here, let's see if you can see it right there. It's a nice pointy half diamond. Now I have another one that's very similar, but it feels different in the lock and it's made by Sparrows. This one's Peterson, this one's Sparrows, and it's got a little bit rounded point to it. So it's not quite as sharp going through the lock. I use these interchangeably and they both have been very successful. On certain locks I will use top to keyway tension. I think as a beginner, maybe the bottom of the keyway tension is probably gonna be a bit easier. It may be one of those things that are a preference. So far I've found the most success on these beginner locks using this tension. So this is bottom of the keyway tension. Now we should go over some of these locks and why they're easy to pick. I think that not only are they easy to pick due to the lack of security put into them, but I believe that you get really good feedback. You get some nice strong clicks on them and the keyways are not too small and restricted. They're very basic and it gives you freedom to move your pick around and get nice feel. So the first lock that we're gonna go over is the Master Lock 140. These come in many different shapes and sizes, but they all pick relatively the same. I'm gonna clamp this up in the vice now and we are going to use bottom of the keyway tension. And I think the pick that I'm gonna go with is going to be the more rounded Sparrows pick. So when picking these, it's often best to use very heavy tension as you can do so on these cheaper locks. Nothing on one. Click on two. One is binding. And trying to get my pick towards the back. Nothing on three. Four was the last one and we picked it very easily. I don't know if the microphone that I'm using is gonna be able to pick up those clicks, but the clicks in these locks are really strong and they give good feedback. I do highly recommend using heavy tension on these locks and that will also allow you to get very loud, strong clicks which give you a better feel of what's going on inside the lock. We got another one here, same lock, just pink. Let's go through and see if we can pick this one. Nothing on one, nothing on two, nothing on three. Click on four, nothing on three, nothing on two. One is binding, let's get that pin up there. There we go. And just like that, we've picked that one. So these are super easy to pick. In fact, I might have accidentally set two or three just by going through, but for the most part, I only really had to pick spaces four and one. So those are super good locks to start off. Next one we're gonna move on to is the Bunker Hill. Now these are a Harbor Freight lock. They say that they're pick resistant and we know that most locks that say they're pick resistant really don't have that much security in there to offer any real resistance to picking. These ones are kind of a joke. They are super easy to pick, but you can get a really good feedback on these. I think these are great locks. I think this one comes in at a price point of like 6.99 at Harbor Freight. So we're gonna go through, we're gonna start on one, two, again, we're using heavy tension, four, click out of four, nothing on three, nothing, oh, two is binding. And we really didn't even have to pick every space in that lock either. So really strong clicks out of that one. I think this one has probably the best feedback and the keyway is not restrictive at all. Lots of space in there to move around your pick. This one right here is a Tough Bros lock. I don't think I've ever heard of the Tough Bros brand. I did see this at a gas station and I thought the brand was funny, so I figured I would buy it and give it a go. So we're gonna do lots of wiggle room in the keyway as you can see. We're gonna use bottom of the keyway tension and we're gonna use our Sparrows half diamond. We're gonna go through and start on space one, binding out of one, nothing on two, three is binding, click on three, two is binding, and two was the last one. Super easy lock as well. Great for beginners though. So this one is a Brinks. This one can be a little bit more challenging, I suppose, than these other ones, but this one is also great when you're just starting off as a lock picker. Again, we're gonna use bottom of the tension keyway. Start on one, nothing on one, two is binding. Let off tension a little bit to get my pick back. Three is still binding. Let's lift that up a little higher. Click on three. Go ahead and reset that. I think I overset that pin. Nothing on one, nothing on two. Click on three. Can't quite get my pick under four here. Gotta let off tension. Click on four, nothing on three. Two seems to be binding. Lift that up a little bit. I think there is security pins in this lock. Click on three, and just like that, we've picked a lock. Like I said, this one can be a little bit more challenging, but these Brinks locks are also easily defeatable even as a beginner. So I appreciate you guys watching my video. Again, these locks are for the very beginning of the row of lock pickers. It wasn't too long ago that I was just starting off with my single pin lock picking journey. So if you guys wanna continue along with me as I kind of learn this lock picking hobby, go ahead and subscribe to my channel. I'm gonna be posting more videos like this.