Friday, May 19, 2023

Potential crime didn't pay

 

There are many skills I'd love to aquire - ventriloquism, riding a unicycle properly (I can wobble about on one) and picking locks. 

There's no real plan for that last one, I don't see myself as Raffles, the gentleman cat burglar in the future. I'm just curious. There is a lock-pick set in my tools, and I sort of understand the basic concepts, but aquiring skills requires practise. 

A handy tool for this is a transparent lock, and I thought I'd found on in an antique shop recently. 8 quid, it looked like a bargin. 

What it was, is not a lot of money. Far from a bargain though. 

For a start, look at the keys. Have you ever seen ones like this? Nope. No point learning how to pick this lock, as you'll never see another. 

Worse, when I unlocked it, the whole thing jammed solid and wouldn't lock again. Pocking and prodding resulted in the thing falling to bits - and it was still jammed!

3 comments:

Mark said...

That's a disk detainer style lock, and I agree I don't think I've ever actually seen one, plus you can't pick those with a simple lock pick (at least as far as I know) and need special tools.

Strangely one of the best Christmas presents I got this year was a lock picking set from my wife. It contained a set of picks and three transparent locks. Not sure exactly which set she bought but it looks identical to this one on Amazon. Some of the locks are more tricky to open than others; the padlock will open with a wave rake but can also be single pin picked. I found it really fun to just sit and pick while watching television etc. Still haven't managed to open much but the practice locks but at least I now have a better understanding of how it all works.

Phil Parker said...

Oh, that's a nice looking set. Just what I'm looking for!

Anonymous said...

Some of the more secure 'disc' padlocks have this style of lock, which are generally more secure because you do need a special picking tool and skill to use it.

Most of the cheap & cheerful "Master" padlock series are fairly easy to learn picking techniques on and feature as a starter across YouTube.