If anyone is wondering, everywhere the guide mentions "sheer force" and "sheer line", that should be "shear force" and "shear line". It's like "wind shear".<p>"Sheer" doesn't even make any sense in this context: "sheer force" would be twisting the tumbler so hard you break all the pins, and that would not exactly be considered "lock picking"!<p>What's interesting to me is how pervasive this misspelling has become. A Google search for "lock picking sheer force" finds 17,500,000 matches, but "lock picking shear force" finds only 205,000. I wonder if all these misspellings originated from this MIT guide, or if there was something else before that?
On a legal note;<p>IANAL, but I did a little research before getting started in lock picking a while back. iirc, there are no federal laws against having picks. However, states often have laws against "possession of burglary tools". In my jurisdiction, if they can establish intent to burglarize -- ie, you're also carrying an empty duffel bag, a crowbar, and a map with the bank circled on it -- its a class II felony.<p>I repeat; I am not a lawyer.
Why does most of the world continue to use the pin tumbler locks, when the disc tumbler lock (invented in 1907) is almost impossible to pick?<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_tumbler_lock" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_tumbler_lock</a><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_tumbler_lock" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_tumbler_lock</a>
I believe one of the more famous Richards were
mentioned in this everlasting classic:<p>Richard P Feynman, who, on having picked a certain
lock, complained that "[t]he trouble with playing
a trick on a highly intelligent man like Mr.
Teller[0] is that the time it takes him to figure
out from the moment that he sees there is something
wrong till he understands exactly what happened is
too damn small to give you any pleasure!"<p>The volume »Surley, You're Joking Mr Feynman!«[1]
contains many, at times only seemingly so, light-hearted
reminiscences in similar spirit.<p>[0] Edward Teller (1908, Budapest – 2003),
a Hungarian-US nuclear physicist known colloquially
as "the father of the hydrogen bomb"; see
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller</a><p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Feynman" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surely_You%27re_Joking,_Mr._Fe...</a>!
A really invaluable skill. Picking locks has saved me on multiple occasions, to get into my own property. It has also made me rethink the way I secure my valuable goods. If only for this second reason, I think basic picking skills should be learned by everyone.
There is a guy on youtube called bosnianbill, his channel: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/bosnianbill" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/user/bosnianbill</a> is full of useful information.<p>You can also find Mike Gibson's "Lock Picking: Detail Overkill" which is a great book for starters!
<a href="http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.lysator.liu.se/mit-guide/MITLockGuide.pdf</a><p>PDF Version for anyone interested.
After I saw this guide a while ago, I got really interested in lock picking and ended up buy a kit. There a decent subreddit and it's a good resource to get started. I purchased the kit they recommend PXS-14, and it works great. I remember I picked my first lock in about 5 minutes and then spend another hour trying to do it again. It takes a while to feel right and become consistent.<p>Subreddit:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking</a><p>Plus there getting starting guide:<p><a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking/comments/bzq80/where_do_you_start_start_here/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking/comments/bzq80/where_do_...</a><p>PXS-14 Kit:<p><a href="http://www.lockpickshop.com/PXS-14.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.lockpickshop.com/PXS-14.html</a>
The goal of your [physical?] security shouldn't be to be uncrackable, but to delay the would-be criminal long enough to be detected and, hopefully, apprehended. "Yes, the lock can be picked in a week, but by then, your employees should have returned to the office and noticed the burglar picking away at it."<p>It's easier to just walk into the open bank, masked, and make demands. And there's still a chance to get away with it. A chance, however slim.
I remember reading this as a teenager and buying my first keychain lockpick set. One of my favorite sayings is that, "In order for a locksmith to fix a lock, he must first understand it's inner workings. Just like a locksmith, before we can understand X, we must understand how it works first."<p>I fell out of practice, but whenever I cruise by a hacker space with a lockpick area I will try and take the time to test my abilities. These days lock technology makes some locks very difficult (double-mushroom pins, etc), so I usually can only do the medium difficulty locks.<p>I had amassed a huge collection of lock/key templates and even some stuff about safecracking, but unfortunately had a hdd crash and lost most of it.<p>The bottom line with lockpicking, like other things, is that nothing beats practice.
I still don't see why this was "renamed" or why it's being posted at other sites -- was it originally taken down from MIT or moved or not maintained or what?
Funny thing but my only real life experience of lock picking and none of those techniques were used. It was a combination lock with 4 wheels and it was easy to figure out the combination with a little piece of plastic wedged between each wheel and the lock face.
Are there any successful, self-taught lockpickers here? I have tried to learn a few times, and I think I understand the theory, but it is hard to put into practice. Every time I need to open a lock I don't have a key for, I still grab a drill.