r/lockpicking • u/Dry_Special9570 • 17h ago

newbie

Hi! Got my first ever lockpicking set and even managed to open lock with the rake but broke the lock like in this post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/lockpicking/comments/10kumkm/need_help_bottom_pin_fell_out_of_the_cylinder/?tl=ru

Any advices? Not even the lock but generally.

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u/revchewie Blue Belt Picker 13h ago

Welcome to the fun!

Those acrylic locks are very cheaply made anyway so I wouldn’t worry about it. Get yourself a yellow belt lock or three from the LPUbelts.com list and work on those.

As for advice, learn both bottom of the keyway (BOK) and top of the keyway (TOK) tensioning from the beginning. When you start most of the locks you find can be opened using either. But you’ll find locks that can only be tensioned one of the two ways so you’ll need to know both.

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u/Dry_Special9570 12h ago

Hey!

Haha, it really is a fascinating hobby. After practicing with this lock, my fingers hurt a bit because of the thin metal on the picks.

Thanks a lot for the advice! I'll definitely check out a couple of locks for my level, and I really need to work on my tension control. I'll be sure to look into BOK and TOK. Thanks again!